The Return of the Native Guilt and Blame Quotes

The idea of having a hard time dealing with another person's bad opinion of you runs throughout the book, and we see it very clearly emphasized with the conflicted relationship between Mrs. Yeobright and Eustacia. It's also interesting that Eustacia blames Mrs. Yeobright here, rather than feel any guilt herself over Mrs. Yeobright's bad opinion of her.

Once again, Hardy uses a short sentence with powerful imagery for emphasis. Instead of writing a whole paragraph about how Mrs. Yeobright was devastated, he opts for a quick description of her face, which tells us all we need to know about her emotional state here. In terms of style, less is often more for Hardy. Except when it comes to those nature descriptions.

Mrs. Yeobright complains about the bad lot of women and mothers in general, rather than get too specific about her own problems here. It's an intriguing avoidance technique, where she blames the world at large rather than deal specifically with her guilt and blame of Clym and his wife.

Leave it to Eustacia to overstate the situation. But she does raise a very interesting point about marriage, and particularly Victorian marriage, in which a woman actually was legally her husband's property. In a very real and even legal sense Eustacia is the "sharer" of her husband's fortune, for good or ill. Eustacia also uses a nice rhetorical question here to get her point across – she would have made a very nice orator.

Eustacia's style of speaking emphasizes how upset she is – she uses a string of clauses, which sets a very fast rhythm to her speech and demonstrates how many swirling thoughts are going on in her head. The contrast between those clauses and her short concluding sentence is notable as well.

The word choice here sets up a fantastic contrast to the overall scene – Clym is singing a happy song earlier in the passage, and we then shift to this detailed description of Eustacia's despair. The idea of a happy song having a "blasting" effect is a great juxtaposition, or an idea with contrasting elements.

This conversation highlights the theme of guilt and blame and how some things can't ever be forgiven or forgotten.

Though Eustacia has the most notable soliloquy in the book, just prior to her death, this one by Mrs. Yeobright is worth mentioning too. Here, Mrs. Yeobright is thinking aloud, and is speaking to the world at large. And given how many connections there are between Eustacia and Mrs. Yeobright, we aren't surprised that they both deliver very theatrical speeches in the novel.

The detail about Eustacia's eyes are really interesting – in a way, her face is something of a mask and her emotions often live beneath the surface. The second sentence also provides really great insight into Eustacia's character and connects with her belief in the power of fate and the universe. She never really behaves as if she herself could actually change anything, but instead she blames the universe at large for her problems and avoids them altogether.

This little exchange sums up Damon and Eustacia's relationship by the end of the novel. They still have a strong connection, but there are undercurrents of guilt and blame and resentment running between them.

Multiply this dialogue by fifty and you get Clym near the end of the novel, after his mother's death. Clym is consumed by guilt and can't seem to stop beating himself up over everything.

The language here is a bit of a shout-out to the Greek plays that this novel often emulates. Eustacia speaks of "curses" and "doom" which often featured heavily in Greek (and Shakespearean, for that matter) tragedies, where fate often meddles in people's lives. But Eustacia has more earthly concerns here as well; it's apparent that she blames Clym for their problems and is angry with the guy.

Diggory here tries to absolve Clym of his guilt, but this probably made Clym feel worse. Guilt and blame in this novel often create feedback loops and people have a hard time escaping either emotion. Sheesh.

Clym introduces another connected theme in one of his final bits of dialogue – the idea of justice. Clym is basically saying that nothing will ever mitigate his guilt, or make it better. But his words are also a bit misleading. Clym might regret not being punished by others or the law, but in a way he's probably glad that he can just keep beating himself up. Like Eustacia's depression, Clym's guilt gets a bit addictive after awhile.