An Ecocritical Study Of Eustacia’s Tragic Fate In The Return Of The Native

The Return of the Native is one of Thomas Hardy’s famous "novels of character and environment." It has aroused the interest of critics both at home and abroad since its publication. Through exposing the reasons for Eustacia’s tragic fate in terms of ecocriticism and analyzing Hardy’s ecological consciousness, this thesis points out the importance of keeping the balance of natural ecology, social ecology and mental ecology.This thesis is divided into three parts:the introduction, the main body and the conclusion. The introduction concerns Hardy, The Return of the Native and the theory of ecocriticism, and finally Hardy’s ecological consciousness implied in his description of nature.The first chapter analyses Eustacia’s dissatisfaction with nature from the perspective of ecological wholeness. Instead of uniting with nature as a whole, Eustacia despises and estranges herself from nature, which results in her tragedy to some extent. Only when people get to know and respect nature can they live harmoniously with it. But all that Eustacia wants is to get rid of nature, so there is no way for her to live happily on the heath.The second chapter explores the cause of Eustacia’s tragedy from the perspective of social ecology, using Bookchin’s theory of free society. Eustacia lives in a disharmonious society, where the sense of hierarchy keeps corrupting people’s mind and causes further disharmony in economic and cultural affairs. Influenced by hierarchical ideas, Eustacia is sure that she is superior to other people, thus she can not get along well with the society or any individual in it. Besides estrangement from the society, her failure to build a harmonious relationship with the heathmen and Clym further leads to her tragedy. The harmonious relationship between human beings is fairly important to the handling of an ecological crisis. Eustacia hardly contacts anyone. Therefore, she can not live in harmony with the small society on the heath.The third chapter interprets Eustacia’s spiritual crisis through analyzing her spiritual world. Her blind adoration to the outside world and her pursuit of material comfort, together with her lack of belief and responsibility, result in her death. By exposing Eustacia’s distorted spirit, Hardy aims to warn people of the unbalanced mental ecology, and express his expecting of harmonious mental ecology.The conclusion sums up the major points of the whole thesis and point out its significance. Through the ecocritical reading of the reasons for Eustacia’s tragic fate, the present author makes a thorough analysis of Hardy’s ecological consciousness: people should adjust the value of life and keep balance with nature and society. Because only in this way can natural environment, social environment and people’s spiritual world achieve harmony and unity. The present author appeals for people to take action together and build a harmonious home on the earth.