In Book 1, Chapter 1, Hardy begins to outline the novel’s intense preoccupation with the geography and aura of Egdon Heath. This grassland is an area so powerful and affecting it’s almost a character in itself. In the following passage, the narrator personifies the heath, uses hyperbolic language, and employs vivid imagery to bring it to life for the reader:
The face of the heath by its mere complexion added half-an-hour to eve; it could in like manner retard the dawn, sadden noon, anticipate the frowning of storms scarcely generated, and intensify the opacity of a moonless midnight to a cause of shaking and dread.
The heath is personified as having a “face,” as if it is a person that can make expressions and express emotions. The word “face” here also refers to the flat expanse of its grassland, combining the natural with the supernatural aspect of its “character.” The heath is so powerful, Hardy implies, that it can alter one's perception of time, seasons, daylight, and even weather patterns. This is hyperbolic language , as no area of land can actually “intensify the opacity of a moonless midnight.” However, if anywhere could do this, it seems the heath actually might be able to, at least in the world of the novel. The visual imagery of this passage creates a stark contrast between day and night and between transparency and opacity; the heath is a place of juxtaposition and extremes.
In the following passage from Book 5, Chapter 1, Hardy employs hyperbolic language, tactile imagery, and a simile of disease to convey Eustacia's profound guilt and shame at keeping secrets from Clym:
There escaped from Eustacia one of those shivering sighs which used to shake her like a pestilent blast. She had not yet told.
In the aftermath of Mrs. Yeobright's death, Eustacia grapples with overwhelming guilt and the weight of untold truths. The tactile imagery of the "shivering sigh" that Hardy uses here evokes a chilly breeze for the reader. This sensory language highlights the emotional impact that keeping secrets has had on Eustacia. Instead of telling Clym the truth, she can only "shiver" and "sigh." The “pestilence” in the sigh also signifies the deep-rooted remorse that Eustacia lives with. Using a simile to compare the sigh to a "pestilent blast" invokes the idea of disease (since the word "pestilence" refers to fatal and widespread diseases like the bubonic plague), suggesting that Eustacia's guilt has infected her and can't be cured until she has "told."
The exaggerated imagery and similes emphasize the magnitude of her emotional burden: guilt is not actually a disease, but to her it feels like one. Hardy employs this hyperbolic language to underline the depth of Eustacia's guilt and shame. In this passage, she feels a sense of overwhelming remorse that weighs heavily upon her and “shivers” through her.
In Book 5, Chapter 7 of The Return of the Native, Thomas Hardy explores Eustacia's inner turmoil about being unable to flee from Egdon. This turmoil is dramatized in the novel using a self-pitying monologue that employs hyperbolic language and metaphors of crushing weight to portray her sense of frustration and despair:
"I must drag on next year as I have dragged on this year, and the year after that as before. How I have tried and tried to be a splendid woman, and how destiny has been against me!… I do not deserve my lot!’ she cried in a frenzy of bitter revolt. ‘O the cruelty of putting me into this imperfect, ill-conceived world! [...] I have been injured and blighted and crushed by things beyond my control! O how hard it is of Heaven to devise such tortures for me, who have done no harm to Heaven at all!’"
The metaphors in Eustacia's outburst—being "injured," "blighted," and "crushed"—make her internal struggles to be a “splendid woman” feel more tangible. They are like physical weights she must carry. It's as if her disappointments and thwarted ambitions are concrete burdens, dragging her down and holding her back. Fate seems to be dragging her backward rather than pushing her forward: “destiny” is “against her.”
Eustacia's dissatisfaction with her life in Egdon Heath, her distrust of Damon Wildeve’s real intentions, and her thwarted aspirations all highlight the tension between her desires and the reality of her situation. Although some aspects of her plight are made to seem sympathetic to the reader, the hyperbolic language in this speech also reflects her penchant for dramatics. Eustacia sees herself as a tragic and “torture[d]” figure, and she cannot fathom that her situation has anything to do with her own moral choices. Hardy’s use of hyperbole here reinforces Eustacia’s short-sightedness and her sense of self-importance.
