The Return of the Native Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory

Darkness is used a bit like a clock in The Return of the Native – it signals the time of day as well as the time of year, as when we hear about "the dark hue of the winter period, representin...

Birds are strongly linked Thomasin Yeobright in the novel.In her movements, in her gaze, she reminded the beholder of a feathered creature who lived around [Mrs. Yeobright's] home. All similes and...

Say the word "Paris" to someone, and they'll probably conjure up a knee-jerk image of, say, a romantic sidewalk café and people in berets drinking coffee. Eustacia has this reaction, only a hu...

We kick off the novel with a bunch of bonfires, which are not just for dramatic effect – they set up a lot of the novel's themes. Bonfires are tied to the past and to history and give us a se...

Water, and ponds especially, are hot hang-out spots in this book, particularly favored by Eustacia. She often meets Damon by the pond near her grandfather's home.But Eustacia also has one of her ea...

This might be the most significant motif, or a running theme, in the entire novel. Given how huge this theme is, we're going to tackle four separate instances where sight comes into play in order t...

When we meet Eustacia, we learn that she's carrying two rather unusual items with her: an hourglass and a telescope.For the rest, she suffered much from depression of spirits, and took slow walks t...