| Thomas Hardy, an English novelist and poet spanning the second half of the nineteenth century and the early decades of the twentieth century, played a vital role in the history of English literature. The Return of the Native(1878) as a representative of his masterpieces always attracts scholar’s attention. This thesis interprets it from the perspective of ecocriticism to discover its ecological significance and to enrich its academic value.This thesis analyzes the original harmony between human and nature in Egdon wilderness; the negative influence that industrialization brought to wilderness of its ecological environment and the native culture; and then seeks for the way to the recovery of the original harmony by the exploration of the return of Clym. It is divided into three parts. The first chapter presents the harmonious relationship between heathmen and wilderness. Heathmen possessed the consciousness of ecological self who goes beyond the narrow self to identify other living beings including nonhuman world as “Self”, and recognized that they had equal intrinsic worth. They coexisted with wilderness peacefully. The second chapter shows the damage of industrialization to not only the ecological environment but also the native culture of wilderness, and the alienation of some heathmen under the pressure of industrial culture. The third part looks for the way to the recovery of the original harmony between heathmen andwilderness, which is also the method for human to return to the original harmony with nature.The author rereads The Return of the Native, and tries to find a way for human to recover the harmonious relationship with nature. Human beings should have the consciousness of ecological self to identify others as “Self” and to get the final phase of biocentric equality. Meanwhile, human should get rid of the hierarchical thought in mind and abandon the domination over human and nature. Thus, men can reintegrate into nature and live with it peacefully. |
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