Return of the Native
“To be loved to madness – such was her great desire.”
The characters are perhaps not as ‘flat’ as they initially appear. Hardy takes stereotypes (the virtuous woman, the fallen woman, the hero, the rake etc.), then holds them up to the light. Like jewels (sorry to be pretentious here) each facet suggests a different aspect of the character(s). Is Eustacia selfish, vain, a witch, just a naïve young girl, a vibrant youngster stuck in a dull backwater, a fallen woman, a simple victim of the romances that she reads? Yes. No. Maybe. Possibly all. It is as if the situations themselves suggest roles for the characters (one in which the villagers are happy to believe). They are, in a sense, victims of circumstance and appearance – or are they? Hardy provides no easy answers.
