The Return of the Native

Social class determines the appropriateness of marriage partners in The Return of the Native. Women ought not to marry beneath themselves. The women in the novel share rigid ranks. With mobility only possible through marriage, their primary tools are charm and manipulation. The men’s ranks rise and fall with their pursuits and their ability to gain. The women, whose choices are limited by the available men, play the marriage game.

Eustacia, better educated than any woman in Egdon Heath, captures the only man likely to compare with her as a mate, Clym Yeobright. But until he arrives on the scene, she plays the temptress to Wildeve, an innkeeper who does not use his education as an engineer. Her grandfather, a naval captain, enjoys status for his military service. We know nothing about Wildeve’s background, and only when he inherits a fortune does he rise to Eustacia’s level. Clym’s loss of profession casts a lower status upon her as his wife, all hope of the glamour of a Parisian lifestyle dashed and destroyed.

Thomasin refuses the marriage proposal from Venn. She likes him well enough, but her aunt would not consider him “professional” enough for her. She has two men available to her: Clym, her cousin, presumed equal by the community but remote in Paris, and Wildeve, an innkeeper.