Eustacia’s hourglass represents the time she spends on Egdon Heath, as a well as a countdown to when she might escape to somewhere else. Eustacia often carries around her hourglass when walking around the heath. She likes watching the hourglass; there is something meaningful to her about watching time slip away. Eustacia resents life on Egdon Heath and longs to live somewhere more exciting and refined; when she watches the hourglass, thus, she’s also reflecting on how much time she has spent in a place she hates—and how much longer she must wait until she can leave this place behind. The hourglass also symbolizes Eustacia’s tendency to fantasize, and she uses it while waiting for Clym to return from Paris. Additionally, the hourglass can be seen as a memento mori (a reminder of death). Although Eustacia doesn’t know it while she is using it, the hourglass is counting down the moments to her death, which occurs at the end of the novel.
Eustacia’s Hourglass Symbol Timeline in The Return of the Native
