# VII: Queen of Night explained — The Return of the Native

> Chapter companion for The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy.

## What happens

This chapter introduces Eustacia Vye as a passionate, rebellious, and isolated figure on Egdon Heath. Her beauty is described in mythological terms, and her inner turmoil—longing for love and escape from her dreary surroundings—is explored. She idealizes Wildeve for lack of a better object, but her pride and desire for a grand passion make her disdainful of ordinary life. Her loneliness and unconventionality drive her to reckless yearnings for intense, if brief, love.

## Themes in this chapter

### Isolation and Loneliness

Eustacia's profound loneliness on Egdon Heath is central; she prays for deliverance from 'fearful gloom and loneliness' and feels cut off from love and society.

### Love and Marriage

Eustacia's view of love as a 'doleful joy' and her desire for a 'blaze of love, and extinction' over a lasting but dim affection highlight her conflicted attitude toward romantic union.

### Modernity vs. Tradition

Eustacia's hatred of Sundays and her preference for weekday Bible reading reflect her rebellion against traditional religious and social customs.

## Character check-ins

### Eustacia Vye

Portrayed as a 'Queen of Night' with a divine, rebellious nature; she is isolated on Egdon, longing for passionate love and despising the heath's monotony.

### Damon Wildeve

Mentioned as the object of Eustacia's idealization for want of a better alternative; his ascendency over her is acknowledged as temporary.

### Captain Vye

Eustacia's grandfather; his old charts are among the items she examines to relieve Sunday tedium.

## Key lines

> Her loneliness deepened her desire. On Egdon, coldest and meanest kisses were at famine prices; and where was a mouth matching hers to be found?

Her isolation intensified her longing for love, but on Egdon, even the most minimal affection was scarce, and she could find no one worthy of her.

_Illustrates Eustacia's desperate romantic yearning in a barren environment._

> A blaze of love, and extinction, was better than a lantern glimmer of the same which should last long years.

She preferred a brief, intense passion that would end quickly over a faint, enduring love.

_Captures Eustacia's preference for dramatic, consuming love over steady affection._

> Thus she was a girl of some forwardness of mind, indeed, weighed in relation to her situation among the very rearward of thinkers, very original.

Compared to the unthinking people around her, she was intellectually advanced and unconventional.

_Highlights Eustacia's intellectual and social nonconformity._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_return_of_the_native_se/chapters/vii-queen-of-night
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_return_of_the_native_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_return_of_the_native_se/chapters