In The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy, the Moor is essentially treated as a character, albeit an extremely powerful one. Like the other characters, he loves possessively and without regard for the feelings of others. He competes with Mrs. Yeobright and Eustacia for Clym's affections, ultimately destroying all three of their lives. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Thomas Hardy presents the moor as a character who lives, loves, and feels the same as the other characters. He opens the novel by introducing and describing the moor, giving the reader a first taste of its rugged grandeur and its raw, sometimes cruel power: At the time it was a place perfectly in accord with the nature of man - neither hideous, hateful, nor bad; neither trivial, insignificant, nor trivial; but, like man, despised and tolerable; and at the same time singularly colossal and mysterious in its dark monotony. As is the case with some people who have lived apart for a long time, loneliness seemed to look out of his face. He had a lonely face, suggesting tragic possibilities. (p. 7) The moor is an illusory character, full of dark strength and mystery. Although it is habitable, it is fundamentally an untameable, wild place and "civilization [is] its enemy". (p. 7) Despite his temper and sensitivity to human emotion, the moor possesses supernatural strength and an unbridled capacity for violence. He exerts his physical power over the humans who live upon it, shaping their lives as he wishes. With the exception of Diggory Venn and Thomasin, "love" for the characters is more synonymous with possession than romance. Wildeve exploits Thomasin, marrying her primarily to punish Eustacia. When Eustacia "loves" Wildeve, she thinks of him only in monetary terms, and her love fades when she perceives his social inferiority: . . What was the man worth that a woman inferior to her did not appreciate? . . . Her social superiority over him, which until then had almost never affected her, became unpleasantly insistent and for the first time she felt that she had stooped to love him. (p. 83) Heather is a jealous lover and, like the other characters in the novel, desires not only to fall in love with her objects of affection, but to possess them, both in body and mind. No one in the novel manages to leave the land alive: they either remain without free will like Thomasin, victims of circumstance like Clym, or, like Eustacia and Wildeve, die trying to escape it. The moor has a special love for Clym. As evidenced by the novel's title, Clym is a native of the area, in many ways a child of the moor and an object of fascination for it and its more ordinary inhabitants. “. . . I admit we were talking about "ee". We were wondering what could possibly keep you at home here nagging when you've made such a worldwide name for yourself. . . .” (p. 143-4) Clym decided that the life he was examining was empty, and so he returned to his homeland, proudly announcing, “I have come home.” (p. 144) Takes pleasure in the moor's unchanging glory: For many people this Egdon was a place that had slipped out of its century generations ago, to intrude like a crude object into this one. It was an obsolete thing, and few cared to study it... But as for Yeobright, when he looked down on his path he could not help indulging in a barbaric satisfaction in observing that, in some of the attempts at recovery from desolation, the tillage, after holding out for a year or two, had retreated again desperately, the ferns and tufts of broom stubbornly reasserted themselves. (p. 146-7) Clym's long excursions and the decisionto become a part-time gorse cutter indicate a need to be in and with the moor. His compulsion is answered: the moor, overjoyed at his return, welcomes Clym warmly, a reunion akin to that of long-lost lovers: The bees buzzed intimately around his ears, and tugged at the heather and gorse flowers at his side in such numbers that they weigh down to the ground. The strange amber butterflies produced by Egdon, and which were never seen elsewhere, trembled in the breath of his lips, alighted on his bent back, and sported with the glittering tip of his hook as he waved it up and down. (pg. 209) Moor's relationship with Eustacia Vye is not that intimate. Eustacia is not originally from the moors: she was born outside it, in the local town of Budmouth, but when her father died, she was moved to Egdon to be looked after by her grandfather. She feels trapped on the moor, in exile since “. . . what is called life: music, poetry, passion, war and all the beating and throbbing that goes on in the world" (p. 233) and resents Fate for imprisoning her there, "'...You hate the moor more than never ; I know this." "Yes," she murmured deeply. ' 'It is my cross, my shame, and it will be my death!'" (p. 71) Eustacia sees Clym as a way to get to Paris, and it is mainly this illusion that draws her to him. Even as he attempts to propose to Eustacia, his mind is absent in Paris: "There is only one cure for this anxiety, my dear: you must be my wife." He began: Then he tried to say calmly, “Cynics say this cures anxiety by curing love.''But you have to answer me. I'll have to claim you someday... don't I mean right away?” "I have to think about it," Eustacia murmured. «For now tell me about Paris. Is there such a place on earth?” (p. 165) Mr. Yeobright is a proud woman, and although she accepts a life on the moor for herself, she is not a friend to it. His conversations with Clym suggest that he sees life on the moor as inferior to life elsewhere. Even before Eustacia, he wants Clym to have a better life than he has his eyes on. When Mrs. Yeobright realizes her connection to Clym, she mostly blames Eustacia for her desire to stay: “It bothers me, Clym. You are wasting your life here; and it is exclusively because of him. If it weren't for that woman you would never have considered this teaching project." (p. 161) From the beginning of their interactions, Mrs. Yeobright and Eustacia are at odds with each other. Mrs. Yeobright, no stranger to listening to town gossip, not only warns Clym that Eustacia is not only inferior in her social standing, but questions her moral substance: "I never hear it said that she is of any use for herself or for other people." . Good girls aren't treated like witches even on Egdon. (pg. 150) Mrs. Yeobright is also worried that Eustacia is the reason Clym wants to stay on the moor. He thinks Eustacia ties him up and resents her for it. For Eustacia, it is above all arrogance and an exaggerated sense of dignity that drives her to argue with Mrs. Yeobright: I am indignant; and so would any woman. Being Clym's wife was a condescension in me, and not a ploy, let me remind you; and therefore I will not be treated as an intriguer who must be put up with because she has insinuated herself into the family. (p. 203) The resulting competition and struggle between the two women creates what appears to be an irreconcilable division between them. Heath, who wishes to possess Clym for himself, competes with Mrs. Yeobright and Eustacia for Clym's affections. The moor seeks to satisfy all of Clym's desires, even those of human companionship. Not only does it provide Clym fromlive by cutting gorse, but tries to satisfy his need for intimacy. While Eustacia tries to turn Clym's head with her physical charms, heather dresses Clym in an aura of organic finery, wooing him with "litters of young rabbits" (p. 209) and "tribes of emerald grasshoppers." . (p. 209). In a sense they are putting on a show for Clym, trying to lure him in to ensure his loyalty. He is also presented as a mother figure to Clym: one could say that [Clym] is his product. His eyes had opened for the first time there; with his Apparently all the first images of his memory were mixed; his estimate of life had been affected; his toys had been the flint knives and arrowheads he had found there, wondering why the stones had to "grow" into such strange shapes; its flowers, the purple bells and the yellow brooms; his animal kingdom, the serpents and the reapers; his society, his human frequenters. (p. 146) Moor is an extraordinarily narcissistic character. He tries to replace his mother and his wife, not to benefit Clym, but because he wants her to be completely dependent on him. Because he cannot express emotion like a human would, Heath often expresses his feelings over time, which is a key indicator of the mood of a scene in the novel. When agitated or angry, the moor becomes wild and tumultuous. The storm that follows Clym and Eustacia's decision to marry expresses the moor's anger at their union and what it implies for Clym's future: The weather was very different from that of the evening before. . . The young wet beech trees suffered amputations, bruises, cripples and harsh lacerations, from which visible scars would remain until the day of their fire. Each stem was torn at the root, where it moved like a bone in its socket, and at every onset of the storm convulsive sounds came from the branches, as if pain were felt. (pg. 175) The moor demonstrates its destructive power in the storm, a dark omen of things to come. Although Eustacia and Mrs. Yeobright compete with each other for Clym's attention, they share a common hope for his future. Both women want Clym to return to Paris: Mrs Yeobright because it is best for him, and Eustacia because she hopes Clym will take her away from her stifled existence on the moors. Mrs Yeobright tells Clym: "I fully expected that in the course of a month or two you would see the folly of such a sacrifice, and by this time you would return to Paris on some business or other." (p. 144) She expects a lot from Clym and is troubled by his decision to "return to the world." Eustacia, by far the more self-centered of the two, is primarily concerned with what she hopes to gain from marriage to Clym: a life in Paris. Despite their different motivations, the women agree with each other on this topic. For most of the novel, Eustacia and Mrs. Yeobright live very separate lives, each trying to maintain as much distance from each other as possible. However, Mrs. Yeobright, wracked with despair and loneliness, ultimately decides to put aside her pride and visit Clym and Eustacia. She hopes to reconcile with Eustacia, but above all to reunite with Clym, whom she misses dearly. As Mrs Yeobright sets off towards Clym's house, the moor, trying to keep the two apart, unleashes an oppressive heat wave: the dry flames of the previous days... In cool, crisp weather, Mrs Yeobright does not would have found no inconvenience in walking to Alderworth, but the present torrid attack has made the journey a burdensome undertaking for a woman past middle age... (p. 228) Determined..