The Return of the Native Isolation Quotes Page 1
Citations follow this format: (Book.Chapter.Paragraph)
| Quote #1 The imagination of the observer clung by preference to that vanished, solitary figure, as to something more interesting, more important, more likely to have a history worth knowing than these new-comers, and unconsciously regarded them as intruders. (1.2.46) |
Diggory thinks this about Eustacia, but the novel as a whole seems to believe it too – the idea that the "solitary figure" has a more interesting story than the community. And this book definitely focuses on a series of solitary figures (though it doesn't ignore the community and human connections). This idea of a "solitary figure" is a very Romantic idea as well; Naturalist thinking is more likely to describe an isolated figure, which has a more negative connotation, or meaning.
| Quote #2 That five minutes of overhearing furnished Eustacia with visions enough to fill the whole blank afternoon. [...] She could never have believed in the morning that her colourless inner world would before night become as animated as water under a microscope, and that without the arrival of a single visitor. (2.9.29) |
We get a very strong sense of how isolated Eustacia is, and of how much she lives inside her own head. The mention of the microscope is also unusual; this book doesn't otherwise use many scientific or technological comparisons. This might just be a random comparison, but it draws attention to how little technology of any sort features in the novel.
| Quote #3 Yeobright reached the empty house about mid-day. It was almost as lonely as that of Eustacia's grandfather, but the fact that it stood near a heath was disguised by a belt of firs which almost encircled the premises. (3.6.6) |
The detail about the trees "disguising" the heath is significant here. When they first arrive at their new home, Clym and Eustacia live in a fantasy land that's practically a bubble, and Eustacia ignores the fact that they still live on the heath in favor of dreaming about Paris.
