The Return of the Native · Chapter
Cheerfulness Again Asserts Itself at Blooms-End, and Clym Finds His Vocation explained
The chapter opens with the Egdon folk preparing a feather-bed as a wedding gift for Thomasin and Diggory Venn.
What happens
The chapter opens with the Egdon folk preparing a feather-bed as a wedding gift for Thomasin and Diggory Venn. After the wedding, Clym Yeobright, feeling melancholy and burdened by memories of his mother and Eustacia, withdraws from the festivities. He reflects on his failures and later begins his vocation as an itinerant open-air preacher, delivering his first sermon on Rainbarrow. The chapter ends with a quiet encounter between Clym and Charley, who asks for a keepsake of Eustacia.
Themes in this chapter
Social Class and Ambition
Clym abandons his grand educational ambitions due to failing eyesight, settling for a humbler role as a preacher; the fly-driver's condescension toward the Egdon folk highlights class prejudice.
Isolation and Loneliness
Clym feels like 'the skull at the banquet,' withdrawing from the wedding joy; his solitary walk and heavy heart underscore his emotional isolation.
Suffering and Sacrifice
Clym's guilt over his mother's death and his regret for not heeding her advice reflect themes of personal suffering and sacrifice.
Characters to notice
- Clym Yeobright
Withdraws from the wedding festivities, burdened by guilt over his mother's death and his failed marriage; later begins his career as an itinerant preacher.
- Thomasin Yeobright
Marries Diggory Venn; shows warmth and gratitude toward the neighbors who prepared the wedding gift.
- Diggory Venn
Marries Thomasin; receives the feather-bed as a wedding gift and suggests the couple not stop to speak to the neighbors immediately.
- Timothy Fairway
Leads the preparation of the feather-bed wedding gift; drives it to Venn's house.
- Grandfer Cantle
Helps with the feather-bed; boasts about his soldiering and marriage; dances merrily during the wedding send-off.
- Christian Cantle
Clumsily spills feathers during the bed-making; expresses self-doubt and is chided by his father.
Key passages
“But I might be too much like the skull at the banquet.”
Clym feels his presence would be a gloomy reminder of death and sorrow amid the celebration.
Clym declines to join the wedding festivities, expressing his melancholy.
“It was all my fault. O, my mother, my mother! would to God that I could live my life again, and endure for you what you endured for me!”
Clym blames himself for his mother's suffering and wishes he could undo the past.
Clym's deep remorse after the wedding, reflecting on his mother's judgment and care.
“He stated that his discourses to people were to be sometimes secular, and sometimes religious, but never dogmatic; and that his texts would be taken from all kinds of books.”
Clym's sermons would cover both worldly and spiritual topics, avoiding rigid doctrine, and drawing from diverse sources.
Description of Clym's approach to his new vocation as an open-air preacher.