The Return of the Native belongs to several literary genres, as do most works by Thomas Hardy. Firstly, the novel is a canonical example of psychological realism. In this type of novel, an author delves into the inner thoughts, feelings, and motivations of their characters. They also pay close attention to the events of everyday life and the structures of interpersonal interactions. Hardy’s novels are famously full of local color, idioms, and the use of West Country English. These details bring the reader closer to the experiences people living at the time would have had.
Secondly, The Return of the Native belongs to the genre of Naturalism. This kind of novel emphasizes how heredity shapes human behavior. These novels often revolve around the idea that characters’ fates are determined for them, a recurrent theme in Hardy’s writing. Books from this genre also have an interest in depicting how people are affected by their environments, and to what extent their actions are a product of their circumstances.
Relatedly, The Return of the Native is also a tragedy. In this book, Hardy explores the role of fate and the cruelty of destiny; things go from bad to worse in the most dramatic way possible. Mostly noble characters like Thomasin and Clym Yeobright struggle against seemingly insurmountable odds, and not everyone gets the ending they seem to deserve. Tragedies like The Return of the Native emphasize the futility of human effort, and the impossibility of avoiding one’s destiny.
Finally, this novel is also an example of the Gothic genre. The dark, foreboding atmosphere of Egdon Heath, the visual imagery of darkness and the supernatural, and the obvious villainy of several characters are all tropes of this 19th century genre. Like many Gothic novels, The Return of the Native is often frightening and macabre, seeking to unsettle its readers.
