The Return of the Native · Chapter
VI: The Figure Against the Sky explained
After the bonfire crowd disperses, a solitary woman—Eustacia Vye—stands on Rainbarrow, listening to the wind's eerie music through the dead heathbells.
What happens
After the bonfire crowd disperses, a solitary woman—Eustacia Vye—stands on Rainbarrow, listening to the wind's eerie music through the dead heathbells. She uses a telescope to spy on the inn, then discovers her hourglass has run out. She meets Damon Wildeve by a pool; they exchange bitter, passionate words about their relationship and his broken wedding to Thomasin. Eustacia asserts her power by summoning him, but Wildeve sees through her pretense. They part coldly, and Eustacia returns home, her love and inner turmoil unresolved.
Themes in this chapter
Nature and Landscape
The heath is personified through the wind's 'wild rhetoric' and the 'mummied heathbells,' creating a landscape that mirrors Eustacia's emotional state and isolation.
Isolation and Loneliness
Eustacia stands 'conspicuously lonely' on the barrow, her figure 'wrapped' and solitary, emphasizing her emotional and physical separation from the community.
Love and Marriage
The chapter revolves around Eustacia's passionate but troubled love for Wildeve, who is entangled with Thomasin, highlighting the conflicts and power struggles in romantic relationships.
Characters to notice
- Eustacia Vye
The solitary figure on Rainbarrow, wrapped in a shawl and kerchief, who watches the inn through a telescope and later confronts Wildeve by the pool. Her sigh and shudder reveal her suppressed passion and inner conflict.
- Damon Wildeve
Summoned by Eustacia's bonfire, he meets her by the pool. He admits his intention to break off the wedding to Thomasin but teases Eustacia about her power over him, showing his own manipulative nature.
- Diggory Venn
Mentioned as the reddleman who might have recognized Eustacia had he been watching; not directly present in the chapter.
- Thomasin Yeobright
Referenced indirectly as the woman Wildeve has not yet married; her broken wedding is the subject of Eustacia's jealousy and Wildeve's evasion.
Key passages
“Had the reddleman been watching he might have recognized her as the woman who had first stood there so singularly, and vanished at the approach of strangers.”
If the reddleman had been observing, he would have identified her as the same woman who had earlier stood on the barrow and disappeared when strangers came near.
Connects Eustacia's current appearance to her earlier mysterious presence on Rainbarrow.
“What she uttered was a lengthened sighing, apparently at something in her mind which had led to her presence here.”
She let out a long sigh, seemingly prompted by the thoughts that had brought her to this place.
Reveals Eustacia's inner turmoil and the emotional weight of her vigil.
“I merely lit that fire because I was dull, and thought I would get a little excitement by calling you up and triumphing over you as the Witch of Endor called up Samuel.”
I only started the bonfire out of boredom, wanting to summon you and feel victorious, like the Witch of Endor raising the prophet Samuel.
Eustacia compares herself to the biblical witch, asserting her power over Wildeve while masking her true feelings.