The Return of the Native is set in Wessex, Thomas Hardy's fictional region of southwest England. Wessex was originally one of the ancient kingdoms of England and was brought back to life and reimagined by the author in his 19th century novels. This imaginary place serves as the backdrop for most of Hardy's books. All the action in The Return of the Native unfolds on (and in the vicinity of) Egdon Heath, a bleak and desolate moor.
The novel is set in the late 1800s, a time of significant change and modernization. Hardy’s novel makes many references to England being a country on the brink of transformation. Aspects of almost everyone's professional and private lives were undergoing enormous social and technological changes in this period. The book’s events also occur at the same time as the Napoleonic Wars, a series of conflicts between France and other European countries between 1803 and 1815. The broader atmosphere of war, insecurity, and political upheaval echoes the situations that unfold on Egdon Heath. Hardy’s characters find themselves entangled in their own personal battles amidst the wider aura of unrest.
The Return of the Native contains many social gatherings and intimate conversations. Parties and community events provide exposition for Hardy’s characters and allow for some comic relief in this otherwise tragic book. However, these warm social moments are juxtaposed with the dangerous and clandestine meetings that the author sets on the eerie heath. Egdon Heath is signaled repeatedly by the author as being a place of danger, darkness, immorality and secrecy. This location is so important to the novel's plot that Hardy spends the entire first chapter of the book describing it.
