| Thomas Hardy is an outstanding trans-century English writer.He has created many classic literary works in his 88 years of life,The Return of the Native being one of them.Since its publication,this work has been well received by readers around the world.The story takes place on the ancient Egdon Heath,with Clym’s return from Paris as the main thread.It depicts people’s different reactions to traditional society and modern metropolis,reveals people’s confusion in facing capitalist large-scale production,and reflects the challenges of primitive and modern.This study will interpret it with the approach of primitivism.Primitivism focuses on ancient myths,legends,religions,rituals,primitive living conditions,attitudes,emotions,beliefs,as well as the confusion of modern people,the repression of civilization,the boredom of urbanism and rational constraints.It advocates that people should trace their roots and return to nature,so as to achieve harmony between man and nature,man and other,man and self,and ultimately to realize that mankind walks out of the wasteland of civilization and move towards the road of rejuvenation.Through close reading of the text,the author finds that Hardy has constructed an ideal utopia for modern people to inhabit through the recurrence of myths in the process of describing the primitive nature and the unsophisticated lifestyle of the people on the Egdon Heath.The thesis consists of five parts.The first chapter is the introduction,which first introduces Hardy and his work The Return of the Native and the approach primitivism respectively,then summarizes the research on The Return of the Native at home and abroad,and finally is the significance of this thesis.Chapter 2 starts from the perspective of the relationship between human and nature,pointing out that in an isolated and untainted primitive settling like the Egdon Heath,people’s lives are comfortable and contented.The picture of the benign interaction between humans and nature in the novel depict the harmonious relationship between the two.From this,Hardy has constructed Wessex as a utopia in modern sense.Chapter 3 explores the proportion of folk rituals and primitive beliefs in the lives of people on the Egdon Heath from the perspective of the relationship between human and other.The same spiritual beliefs have established a solid community,reflecting the harmonious relationship between people.Chapter 4,starting from the perspective of the relationship between human and self,first analyzes the archetypes of ancient Greek and Hebrew culture reflected in The Return of the Native,and then concludes that the modern return of ancient myths has stimulated people’s increasingly depleted imagination and retrieved the spiritual pillars lost in the increasingly chaotic beliefs.Chapter 5 is a conclusion of the thesis.The primitive themes embodied in The Return of the Native criticizes the alienation of modern industrial civilization towards humans,points out the path of human beings walking out of the wasteland of civilization and towards rejuvenation,and has reference value for the construction of a harmonious and beautiful modern society. |
