The Return of the Nativeの学習ガイド
by Thomas Hardy · 1878 · 全編を読むのに9時間17分かかります
The Return of the Native follows Clym's return from Paris to teach near Egdon Heath and his marriage to Eustacia, whose hopes conflict with his own. Their broken marriage and the deaths of Eustacia and Wildeve explore desire, guilt, and failed understanding, while Thomasin's marriage to Venn offers a different ending.
物語のあらすじ
Thomasin's expected wedding fails, and Venn shelters her in his van before she later marries Wildeve privately. Eustacia resents Egdon Heath and longs for passionate love, then meets Clym while disguised for a Christmas performance. Clym returns from Paris intending to teach near the heath.
Mrs. Yeobright leaves Clym's closed door believing he rejects her, and he later finds her stricken by an adder bite. After her death, he blames himself while Eustacia conceals her involvement. Eustacia and Wildeve die during a nighttime river emergency, leaving Clym blaming himself again. Thomasin eventually marries Venn, while Clym begins preaching outdoors. 15分で読める要約を読みます.
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簡潔な回答
What is The Return of the Native about?
The Return of the Native follows Clym, who returns from Paris hoping to teach near Egdon Heath and marries Eustacia. Their different hopes strain their marriage, while the lives of Thomasin, Wildeve, and Venn become tied to their troubles.
Why is Eustacia unhappy in The Return of the Native?
Eustacia resents Egdon Heath and longs for passionate love. She expects Clym to abandon his wish to teach, and her dislike of his later outdoor work reveals their different hopes for married life.
What happens to Clym's mother in The Return of the Native?
Mrs. Yeobright tries to reconcile with Clym but leaves his closed door believing that he has rejected her. He later finds her stricken by an adder bite, and after her death he blames himself while Eustacia conceals her involvement.
Why does Clym's marriage break down in The Return of the Native?
Clym and Eustacia want different futures, with his wish to teach conflicting with her expectation that he will abandon it. His accusation about her involvement in his mother's death breaks their marriage, and Eustacia leaves.
Who does Thomasin marry in The Return of the Native?
Thomasin marries Wildeve privately after her expected wedding fails and Venn shelters her in his van. After Wildeve dies during a nighttime river emergency, she eventually marries Venn, who has persistently tried to help her.
How does The Return of the Native end?
Eustacia and Wildeve die during a nighttime river emergency, leaving Clym blaming himself again. Thomasin eventually marries Venn, while Clym begins preaching outdoors.
What are the main themes of The Return of the Native?
Conflicting hopes, guilt, and unintended consequences shape the lives of the characters. Clym and Eustacia disagree about their future, grief becomes tangled with blame, and efforts by Venn and Charley to help produce unexpected results.
登場人物
Clym
Clym returns from Paris hoping to teach near Egdon Heath, but an eye illness redirects him into outdoor work. His accusation over his mother's death breaks his marriage to Eustacia, and he eventually takes up outdoor preaching.
重要なchapters：20, 29, 38, 48
Eustacia
She leaves after his accusation about his mother's death and later dies during the river emergency.
重要なchapters：7, 23, 38, 44
Thomasin
Thomasin receives Venn's help after her expected wedding fails, then marries Wildeve privately.
重要なchapters：4, 19, 41, 48
Wildeve
Wildeve's attachment to Eustacia mixes affection with jealousy and struggles for power, yet he marries Thomasin. His later discussion of escape with Eustacia renews their connection before he dies during the river emergency.
重要なchapters：6, 19, 40, 44
Venn
Venn shelters Thomasin and intervenes with Eustacia on her behalf, showing a persistent wish to help. His mistaken payment of money intended partly for Clym suggests the limits of helpful intervention, though he eventually marries Thomasin.
重要なchapters：4, 10, 27, 48
Mrs. Yeobright
Mrs. Yeobright is Clym's mother and Thomasin's aunt, and she challenges Clym's choice of Eustacia. Her later attempt at reconciliation ends at a closed door, which she understands as rejection by her son.
重要なchapters：3, 22, 32, 33
Charley
Charley lends Eustacia his costume and role, then later shelters her when she is distressed. His kindness has an unintended consequence when his fire attracts Wildeve, while his response to Eustacia's keepsake shows lasting attachment.
重要なchapters：15, 39, 40, 48
テーマ
Conflicting hopes
Clym's wish to teach and Eustacia's expectation that he will abandon that wish expose different hopes within their marriage. Her dislike of his later outdoor work suggests that attachment does not remove disagreement about what a shared life should become.
登場する箇所：chapters 20, 23, 29
Guilt and responsibility
Clym's self-blame and Eustacia's concealment show how grief becomes tangled with questions of responsibility after his mother's death. His accusation and his later guilt over Eustacia and Wildeve suggest that assigning blame does not bring emotional certainty or peace.
登場する箇所：chapters 36, 38, 44
Unintended consequences
Venn's attempt to repair a loss produces another mistake, and questions about the money lead to open conflict. Charley's cheering fire likewise brings an unexpected visitor, suggesting that helpful intentions cannot control the consequences once other people's desires enter the situation.
登場する箇所：chapters 27, 28, 40
象徴
Bonfire
Fire works as a signal that brings private desire into action when Eustacia summons Wildeve.
Chapters 6, 40
Guineas
The guineas begin as family gifts but become a source of mistakes and suspicion. Their passage through gambling and mistaken payment suggests how intended support can turn into division.
Chapters 26, 27, 28
有名な一節を解説します
The narrator, Chapter 7. The narrator describes Eustacia's longing amid her resentment of isolated life on Egdon Heath. The line suggests that love appeals as an imagined escape, not simply attachment to one person.
Clym Yeobright, Chapter 20. Clym explains his return while setting out his plan to teach near Egdon Heath.
Eustacia, Chapter 38. Eustacia answers Clym's accusation by admitting her initial refusal and explaining her assumption about the second knock. The line shows deliberate exclusion becoming entangled with misunderstanding.
Clym, Chapter 48. Clym acknowledges Thomasin's happiness at her wedding to Venn while remaining apart from the celebration. His words suggest acceptance of another person's renewal without claiming that his own grief has ended.
Literary devices
Dramatic irony
Method: Hardy lets readers know why Eustacia leaves the door unanswered while Mrs. Yeobright believes her son deliberately refuses to admit her. Effect: The gap between what readers know and what characters believe makes the resulting grief more painful and complicates judgments about responsibility.
Where: Chapter 33, Chapter 35
Personification
Method: Hardy describes Egdon Heath as though it wakes, watches, and possesses a lasting character independent of the people living there. Effect: Readers encounter the heath as an enduring presence that makes individual hopes and struggles seem fragile and brief.
Where: Chapter 1
Symbolism
Method: Hardy makes bonfires carry private desires and mistaken messages, while the disputed guineas connect family affection with suspicion and conflict. Effect: These ordinary objects help readers see how attempts to express love or offer help can produce unintended harm.
Where: Chapter 6, Chapter 27
Foil
Method: Hardy contrasts Venn's steady efforts to protect Thomasin with Wildeve's shifting desires and attempts to wound Eustacia through marriage. Effect: The contrast encourages readers to distinguish lasting care from possessive attraction, even when both men claim devotion to Thomasin.
Where: Chapter 9, Chapter 18, Chapter 19
Pathetic fallacy
Method: Hardy places Clym's painful departure from his mother and the final desperate searches within storms that echo the characters' emotional turmoil. Effect: The violent weather intensifies readers' anxiety and makes private conflict feel inseparable from the threatening physical world.
Where: Chapter 25
Classical allusion
Method: Hardy draws on images of ancient goddesses when describing Eustacia, setting her commanding appearance against the narrow circumstances of her life. Effect: The comparison gives Eustacia tragic grandeur and encourages readers to see more than simple vanity in her frustrated longing.
Where: Chapter 7
時代・場所
Egdon Heath forms an ancient, enduring landscape whose twilight appearance suggests a close connection with human sorrow.
Context
The author
Thomas Hardy was an English novelist and poet who grew up in rural Dorset and trained as an architect. He wrote The Return of the Native in England in the late 1870s, drawing on the landscape and village life he knew. His background helps explain the novel’s close attention to local work, speech and customs, alongside characters who want to escape their surroundings.
The times
Christmas mumming, a custom found in rural Dorset and elsewhere in England, involved local performers visiting homes to present a traditional play. Eustacia’s disguise uses this local practice to make an otherwise difficult meeting possible. Clym’s return from Paris also contrasts metropolitan opportunities with rural life.
How it was received
The novel first appeared in serial form in 1878 and received mixed responses. Some early readers and critics objected to its treatment of sexual desire and its bleak view of human happiness. It is now widely studied as one of Hardy’s major novels, especially for its powerful landscape, its frustrated ambitions and its uncertain balance between personal responsibility, social pressure and chance.
Use the local mumming custom to explain why Hardy gives Eustacia a disguise: it enables her pursuit of Clym while showing her restricted opportunities.
話し合いのための質問
- How does Eustacia's expectation that Clym will change affect your understanding of her marriage promise?
- How should Venn's mistake affect our judgment of his efforts to help?
- How should responsibility for the closed door be divided between deliberate action, assumption, and misunderstanding?
- What does Charley's fire suggest about the limits of kindness when people want different things?
- Does the ending offer renewal, acceptance, or an uneasy mixture of happiness and continuing grief?
論述のテーマ
- Divided ambitions. Examine how Clym's teaching ambition and Eustacia's expectations make their marriage a conflict between incompatible futures.
- Helpful interference. Analyze how Venn's payment and Charley's fire complicate the relationship between good intentions and responsibility.
- Unequal endings. Discuss how Thomasin's marriage and Clym's preaching offer different responses to the losses surrounding Eustacia and Wildeve.
短いクイズ
全10問中の第1問得点 0
What remains clearly visible as the heath’s smaller features disappear into darkness?
Why can the wedding not take place at Anglebury?
Why does Eustacia reject the position in Budmouth?
What payment does Charley accept for lending Eustacia his role and costume?
What does Clym say he must do before carrying out his teaching plan?
What chiefly renews Wildeve’s longing for Eustacia?
Why does Eustacia initially avoid joining the village celebration?
What does Clym apply to his mother’s wound?
Why does Charley remove the pistols?
What does Venn use to keep himself afloat during the rescue?
このページを引用する
“The Return of the Nativeの学習ガイド.” Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/ja/pages/the-return-of-the-native-study-guide.
Library of Alexandria. (2026). The Return of the Nativeの学習ガイド. https://libraryofalexandria.com/ja/pages/the-return-of-the-native-study-guide
“The Return of the Nativeの学習ガイド.” Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/ja/pages/the-return-of-the-native-study-guide.
@misc{the_return_of_the_native_study_guide_2026,
title = {The Return of the Nativeの学習ガイド},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/ja/pages/the-return-of-the-native-study-guide}
}
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