Thomas Hardy's literary style in The Return of the Native takes a deliberate and measured approach to its storytelling. Hardy does this through the narrator’s highly detached voice, the novel’s slow pace and the intense use of doubt and ambiguity as plot devices. These all immerse the reader in the uncertain world of Egdon Heath. Hardy’s formal and carefully constructed sentences flow smoothly, often taking on a philosophical or poetic air. Furthermore, the formal (and sometimes exaggeratedly elevated) diction makes the reader feel the weight and importance of even small events to the larger workings of fate.
Hardy's diction is rich and academic. This makes the narrator seem highly intelligent and reliable and invests the story with a sense of caution and restraint. The syntax of the book is often quite dense and complicated. This—like the pacing—reflects the subject of the novel: the reader has to take time to work things out. Indeed, the diction is sometimes so formal that it distances the reader from the novel’s action. This sense of removal imbues the novel with a mythic quality and a sense of grandeur.
Figurative language plays a significant role in this novel, too, as it’s packed with imagery, allusion and metaphor. These moments are often accompanied by moral and philosophical pronouncements or musings. These links make the appearance of this part of Wessex seem tied to its problems. The world of Egdon Heath is vividly evoked for the reader using language that appeals to all the senses. The dense use of dialogue and the variation in depicting how different characters speak also builds the novel's realism. Each character has a distinct identity that appears in their language as well as their actions. Hardy develops a unique “voice” for each of his complex characters, which helps the reader understand their actions in a nuanced and intricate way.
