ÇANKAYA UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES ENGLISH LITERATURE AND CULTURAL STUDIES MASTER THESIS THE CONCEPTS OF FATE AND NATURE IN HARDY’S THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE FARAH QASIM AL-DULAIMI January, 2015 ii iii ABSTRACT THE CONCEPTS OF FATE AND NATURE IN HARDY’S THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE AL-DULAIMI QASIM, Farah Master Thesis Graduate School of Social Sciences MA, English Literature and Cultural Studies Supervisor: Assist. Prof. Dr. Mustafa KIRCA January 2015, 65 Pages Thomas Hardy is one of the writers who have a pessimistic outlook of human life; and accordingly, the concepts of “Fate” and “Nature” are to be considered within the frame of his pessimistic outlook. Hardy’s thought was a revolt against the optimism of the 18th century and a refusal of the consolation of the Christian faith. Hardy’s novels brought to England the pessimism of Schopenhauer. The nature of his personal experiences in life, together with his intellectual evaluation, assisted him well in his writing. Moreover, Fate plays a great role in the lives of Hardy’s heroes and heroines as they struggle against their tragic destinies awaiting them. Hardy’s characters do not have any control over their aims, as Fate emerges as a sole controlling force in their actions, which is given through “Coincidences” (chance events) moving from one incident to another reaching the final disaster in his novels. Nature is also an inimical force that has controlling power over Hardy’s characters. iv This point links Nature with Fate, for Nature has a considerable role in leading the character’s destiny. Hardy’s 1878 novel The Return of the Native can be read as a tragedy since by presenting characters crushed by the powers of Fate and a malicious Nature, the novel can be considered as a remodelling of ancient Greek tragedies. The aim of this thesis is to study Thomas Hardy’s novel The Return of the Native in terms of the concepts of Nature, Fate and Coincidence in order to understand how they play a significant role in the tragic view given in the novel. Keywords: The Return of the Native, Fate, Coincidence, Nature, Tragedy. v ÖZ The Return of the Native: Kader ve Doğa Kavramları AL-DULAIMI QASIM, Farah Yüksek Lisans Tezi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü İngiliz Edebiyatı ve Kültür İncelemeleri Tez Yöneticisi: Yrd. Doç. Dr. Mustafa Kırca Ocak 2015, 74 sayfa Thomas Hardy, insan hayatına dair karamsar bir görüşe sahip yazarlardan biridir. Bu nedenle ‘‘kader’’ ve ‘‘doğa’’ kavramları yazarın bu karamsar görüşünün sınırları çerçevesinde değerlendirilmelidir. Hardy’nin düşüncesi 18. yy. iyimserliğine bir başkaldırı ve Hristiyan inancının tesellisini geri çevirmedir. Diyebiliriz ki Hardy’nin romanları İngiltere’ye Schopenhauer’ın karamsarlığını getirmiştir. Hayatındaki kişisel deneyimleri ve entelektüel değerlendirmeleri ona yazılarında yardımcı olmuştur. Bunun yanında; kader, Hardy’nin kendilerini bekleyen trajik sonlara karşı direnen roman kahramanlarının hayatlarında büyük rol oynar. Hardy’nin karakterleri kendi kaderlerini belirleyemezler veya hayat gayelerini kontrol edemezler, çünkü romanlardaki felaket sonuçlarına ortam hazırlayan ‘‘tesadüflerin’’ bir sonucu olarak kendini gosteren kader, kendi eylemlerini kontrol eden mutlak güçtür. Hardy’nin vi 1878’de basılan romanı The Return of the Native, kader ve doğanın kötücül güçleri tarafından ezilen karakterler sunduğu için, bir trajedi romanı olarak okunabilir ve Antik Yunan Trajedileri’nin yeniden yorumlaması olarak düşünülebilir. Bu tezin amacı Thomas Hardy’nin The Return of the Native adlı romanını, verilen trajik görüş kapsamında oynadıkları rollerin önemini anlamak için, doğa, kader ve tesadüf kavramları üzerinden incelemektir. Anahtar Kelimeler: The Return of the Native, kader, tesadüf, doğa, trajedi. vii in cherished memory of my beloved Father and to my dear Mother viii ACKNOWLEDGMENT I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Assist. Prof . Dr. Mustafa Kirca for providing me with the sustaining power to go on, and for his invaluable guidance and support throughout. I would like to extend my thanks to Assist. Prof. Dr. Dürrin Alpakın Martinez Caro and Dr. Bülent Akat for their invaluable suggestions. I reserve my greatest love and indebtedness for my mother for her heroic forbearance and continuous encouragement shown to me throughout writing of the thesis, and all my sisters(Hiba, Noor and Ruya) for their love and prayers. My unreserved thanks is extended to all my friends and especially to my dear Fahd who has stood by me all time. ix TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF NON PLAGIARISM.......................................................................... iii ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................................... iv ÖZ ......................................................................................................................................... vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.................................................................................................. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................... ix CHAPTERS INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................... 1 1. HARDY’S IDEAS ON FATE AND THE BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY...........4 2. FATE AND COINCIDENCE......................................................................................... 13 2.1. The importance of Coincidence in The Return of the Native............................ 14 2.2. Fate and Character in The Return of the Native ................................................ 23 3. NATURE IN HARDY’STHE RETURN OF THE NATIVE........................................ 31 3.2. Man and Nature in The Return of the Native.....................................................38 3.3. Fate and Nature in The Return of the Native................................................... 43 4. TRAGEDY IN THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE....................................................... 47 CONCLUISON................................................................................................................... 55 REFERENCES.....................................................................................................................59 CURRICULUM VITA........................................................................................................ 65 x xi INTRODUCTION The Return of the Native is regarded as one of the remarkable novels by Thomas Hardy, the well- known English prominent novelist and great poet. It was published in 1878 after he returned to the Wessex environment of his youth. Hardy himself classified his novels into three collections: the first collection being the novel of characters and environments including works such as The Return of the Native and other major novels including, The Mayor of Casterbridge and Far from the Madding Crowd. The second collection is defined as “Romance and fantasies”, and the third collection is defined as “Novels of Ingenuity”. The novels under the first collection made Hardy one of the most prominent English novelists. “The first group contains all the major novels though they are given a pleasure of a different kind of unity by the reappearance of environments” (Page, p.32). Hardy tells in his novel The Return of the Native that all actions take place in Egdon Heath apart from Wessex. The first five books of the novel encompass a day and a year which is from the 5th of November of one year to the 6th of November of another year, and the events of the sixth book take approximately two years. The Return of the Native is a straightforward tragic story, and it includes great forces such as Fate, Nature and Coincidence. The novel starts with a detailed description of the dismal place Egdon Heath by which Hardy shows the reader, through the events and the characters of the novel, especially Eustacia Vye and Clym Yeobright, a hard struggle between man and Nature and the conflict between man and his destiny. In The Return of the Native, Eustacia Vye gets stuck in Egdon Heath, the place that she hates too much. Eustacia wishes to be in a bright life out of Egdon Heath. She marries a native Clym Yeobright who is unhappy with his superficial life in Paris that pushes him to go back to Egdon Heath. For Eustacia, Egdon Heath represents Hades that makes the conflict between the two emerge. Besides, they are different in their future 1 plans. Eustacia’s and Clym’s marriage is fated to be a disaster. Clym obviously tells Eustacia that he would not go back to Paris, but Eustacia thinks that she can convince him to alter his mind. Accordingly, she accepts to marry Clym. Gradually, her influence on him starts to vanish since Clym’s insistence on his reason to stay in Egdon Heath eventually destroys Eustacia’s dream of going to Paris. The events turn from bad to worse when Clym studies hard to become a teacher, and almost he loses sight. While Clym recovers, he starts to work at Furze-cutter which is a great frustration to Eustacia. Yet, the unhappy Eustacia starts to meet Damon Wildeve, her first former lover, again in Gipsy’s dance party. Mrs. Yeobright tries to make peace with her son. Mrs. Yeobright comes to visit her son Clym with the hope of a possible reconciliation between Eustacia and Yeobright; at the same time, Wildeve comes to see Eustacia while Clym is asleep. Therefore, Eustacia, for fear of her scandal she can give way, does not open the door to Mrs. Yeobright. Heartbroken