Chances and coincidences play a vital role in
all the novels of Hardy. In the work of no other novelist do chances and
coincidences exercise such a conspicuous influence on the course of events. The
unexpected often happens and always it is the undesirable and unwanted. Such
chance events are heavy blows aimed at the head of Hardy's protagonists and
they send them to their doom.
While
a character is certainly responsible to a large extent, chances and
coincidences often operate as the deciding factor. Hardy believed that there is some malignant power that controls
the universe, and which is out to thwart and defeat men in their plans. It is
especially hostile to them who try to assert themselves and have their own way.
He couldn’t believe in a benevolent Providence; events were too plainly
ironical so they must have been contrived by a supernatural power. He found it difficult, if not impossible, to
reconcile the idea of a beneficent and benevolent, omnipotent, and omniscient
deity with the fact of omnipresent evil and the persistent tendency of
circumstances toward unhappiness.
Hardy shows a persistent and bitter preoccupation
with the sorrow of life. We certainly cannot deny the littleness and sordidness
of human life. He attributes the tragedy to an “Unsympathetic First Cause”. The
Return of the Native shows man as the helpless plaything of invisible powers,
ruthless and indifferent. The characters have no such thing as free will.
The whole plot of The Return of the Native
is tinged with fateful incidents and accidents.
1- Johnny Nunsuch has overheard the
conversation between Eustacia and Wildeve. Johnny then meets the reddleman
Diggory Venn purely by chance. The reddleman learns from the boy the emotional
attachment of Eustacia with Wildeve. The reddleman decides to serve Thomasin’s
interests by dissuading Eustacia from Wildeve. But he is scolded by her and
feeling dejected and failed, goes to Mrs. Yeobright to renew his offer of
marriage to Thomasin. Mrs. Yeobright uses this offer to threaten Wildeve to
marry Thomasin. This whole series of events are caused by chance and fate only
started by Johnny, the boy.
2- Just as Eustacia’s affection for Wildeve
begins to wane, an exciting prospect, Clym Yeobright, diamond merchant in
Paris, returns to Egdon. His visit prompts Eustacia to facilitate a meeting
between them, which eventually results in a mutual attraction. Eustacia makes
her disinterest known to Wildeve who finally marries Thomasin. Eustacia is
disappointed to discover that Clym has rejected his cosmopolitan lifestyle,
however, hopeful that she can change his mind, agrees to marry him. Mrs.
Yeobright disapproves both these marriages.
3- By a sheer accident, Christian Cantle who is
carrying Mrs. Yeobright’s money meets a group of village folk who take him to a
raffle where, by a sheer stroke of luck, he wins a prize and encouraged by his
good fortune plays a game of dice with Wildeve. Cantle first loses his own
money and later stakes Mrs. Yeobright’s and loses the entire amount. The
reddleman appears and invites Wildeve for another bout. This time luck favors
the reddleman and he wins all the money from Wildeve. He delivers the whole
money to Thomasin, not aware of the fact, that half the money was to be handed
to Clym. Mrs. Yeobright fails to receive any acknowledgement from Clym and
becomes dejected.
4- That Clym becomes semi-blind when he was
hoping to launch his educational project, is a sheer accident which leads to
disastrous results. Clym is compelled to become a furze-cutter. The humble
occupation chosen by Clym is regarded by Eustacia as humiliating. When Wildeve
asks her if her marriage has proved a misfortune for her, her reply is “The
marriage is not a misfortune in itself. It is simply the accident which has
happened since that has been the cause of my ruin.”
5- When Eustacia goes to a village festival in order to
relieve the tedium of her life, she meets Wildeve purely by chance and this leads
to their dancing together. She contemptuously describes herself as a furze
cutter’s wife. Later he escorts her on her homeward journey, but slips away at
the sight of Clym.
6- Again it is purely by chance that Wildeve visits Eustacia
at home exactly at the moment Mrs. Yeobright knocks at the door; she has come
hoping for a reconciliation with the couple. Eustacia, however, in her
confusion and fear at being discovered with Wildeve, does not allow Mrs.
Yeobright to enter the house: heart-broken and feeling rejected by her son, she
succumbs to heat and snakebite on the walk home, and dies.
7-It is by sheer chance that Wildeve becomes
the recipient of a legacy which makes him rich, and this leads to the renewal
of Eustacia’s love for him.
8-It is just a chance that Johnny repeats the
dying words of Mrs. Yeobright, exactly at the moment that Clym reaches the
cottage. Thus he comes to know the role played by Eustacia in Mrs Yeobright’s
death. This leads to the separation of Clym and Eustacia after a violent
quarrel.
9- It is just a chance that Clym's letter of reconciliation
does not reach Eustacia in time.
10- It is by chance the Charley, in order to please the
despondent Eustacia, thinks of lighting a bonfire. She had nothing to do with
bonfire. Wildeve seeing the fire comes to Eustacia and she plans to fly away
from the Heath.
11- Finally, it so happens
that on the night of Eustacia’s escape, the weather assumes a menacing aspect.
The night becomes dreadful because of rain and storm. Eustacia seems to drown herself and Wildeve
dies in the rescue attempt. Thus Eustacia laments over her fortune in the words:
“How I have tried and tried to be a
splendid woman, and how destiny has been against me. I do not deserve my lot…I
have been injured and blighted and crushed by things beyond my control.”
Conclusion: Hardy certainly makes his story implausible by his
excessive use of chance and coincidence. He is intent to show that the stars in
their courses fight against the aspiring. The Return of the Native is certainly
marred by an exorbitant use of this device. Rightly does a critic say, “The
plot of the novel lacks the terrific and terrifying logic of cause and effect
that marks the plots of the greatest tragedies.”