In the following sample essay about the character Eustacia Vye from Homecoming, Thomas Hardy. Read the introduction, body and conclusion of the essay, scroll down.
In my opinion Eustacia Vye lives in a dream world, she’s basically waiting for her tall dark stranger to come and sweep her off her feet, in the meantime she has chosen to pass her days on Egdon. This is the place she so often claims to hate, ” The Heath is a cruel taskmaster to me” She thought with the arrival of Clym life on the heath would become more bearable, the fact that she saw him as an escape helped this, before she even met him she had already concocted her plan being, Clym was going to fall in love with her, and then they together would leave the Heath behind for the bright lights of Paris.
Having won by he own unaided self a man who was her perfect complement in attainment appearance an age- just how she imagined it only they didn’t live happily ever after She never for one minute thought that Clym would change his mind, this is because she underestimated his love for the heath.
” she had undoubtedly begun to love him. She loved him pertly because he was exceptional in this scene, partly as she had from the first instinctively determined to love him chiefly because she was in desperate need of loving somebody.
It wasn’t really him who she loved rather the aura that surrounded him ” in his new pursuit, he could not but perceive at moments that she loved him rather as a visitant from a gay world to which she rightly belonged.
She holds him in a light that Paris and abroad had given him instead of real. Though I should like Paris I love you for yourself alone. To be your wife and live in Paris would be heaven to me but I would rather live in a hermitage here than not be yours at all.
Eustacia’s first priority is leaving the Heath I believe if Wildeve had proposed they leave the Heath for Paris instead of America she would have jumped at the chance. When Clym asks her to be his wife she says “I must think” it’s what she has always wanted, but even at this point she doesn’t give him a straight answer, and whilst she’s “thinking” she asks Clym to “Speak of Paris” this is what she was concerned about. Even after she has said yes she follows it up by “Now tell me of the Louvre”
I don’t think Eustacia actually ever thought that Clym would adhere to his teaching dream ” You will never adhere to your teaching plan, I am quite sure and then it will be alright for me; and so I promise to be yours forever and ever” this was the one condition she promised to be his. She cares a lot about her social standing- this is why she was so appalled when Clym decided to take up furze cutting and switch his occupation to teacher, when he was accustomed to such things like Paris. “There had been nonchalance in his tone, showing that he felt no absolute grief at a consummation which to her was a positive horror”
Eustacia was a bandmaster’s daughter- highlights her class “she is Captain Drew’s granddaughter. And she is a lady by instinct. This is one thing that Eustacia and Mrs Yeobright have in common “How extraordinary that you and my mother should be of one mind about this” “I have vowed not to go back, Eustacia it is not the place I dislike it is the occupation. Eustacia had always been an outsider even until her dying day, the main reason for this was because she believed she was better than all of them on the Heath and that she didn’t deserve to be there.
She was able to use her superiority to get her things, for example she was able to take Charley’s role fro him by promising to hold his hand There were so many people that were in love with Eustacia, or at least thought they were in love with her. No matter how bad she treated them, it was as thought she held a spell over them, in fact Susan Nunsuick took this quite literally, which is one of the reasons as to why she took to pricking Eustacia in the middle of church, causing her to faint.
It was as though Wildeve never got over her, one of the main reasons he married Tamzin was in an effort to try to make Eustacia jealous, but good old Eustacia wasn’t bothered in the slightest, she simply looked at the situation and thought up what she could do in order to better herself, this is why she chose to e one of the witnesses, this was in an effort to cut herself off from Wildeve so she could advance towards Clym without anything standing in her way.
Eustacia is very much a person who wants what she can’t have, this is shown when it seems as though Thomasin is going of Wildeve she automatically becomes less interested “What was the man worth whom a woman inferior to herself did not value” “Fancy Thomasin anxious to get rid of you, I will not forget it” she became very obsessed with this fact as she believes Thomasin is beneath her, and for her not to want Wildeve there was no way she wanted him. “You can no longer get her” He even asks her to go with him to America, even though at that moment he was supposed to be engaged to Thomasin.
When it loos as though he’s marrying Thomasin, she really wants him, so when he comes back and isn’t married she’s looking really pleased with herself thinking she’s the reason as to why he never married Thomasin, but he tells her the real reason, which I’m not sure I believe. It’s all about her having power over people if Wildeve is in love with her she believes he will do anything, she even says when he comes after seeing her signal “I have shown my power” When Wildeve does come she acts as though she doesn’t want him anymore.
This power does pay off though, this is how she convinces Charley to play his part in their play. “Eustacia Vye was the raw material of divinity” she had the passions and instincts, which makes a model goddess. Eustacia’s soul is described, as being flame like- this is a symbol of passion, and the fact that she has a lot of energy. The fact that Wildeve and Eustcia had this everlasting bond is shown in the fact that they couldn’t keep away from each other even though they both got married, and the fact that thy even died together, Wildeve risked his life in order t save Eustacia.
Clym did the same, this shows the power she held over these three men In particular. Eustacia is a very confident person, she knows what she wants life, and she is going to achieve no matter whom she has to use to get it. She’s the total opposite from Thomasin in the sense that she’s independent and isn’t really scared of anything not even death, which basically means she’s unstoppable, when Clym confronts her about his mother’s death, she doesn’t deny anything and she even encourages him to hit her if it will make him feel better, but not for once does she seem bothered in the slightest.
Eustacia Vye Character From Homecoming. (2019, Dec 07). Retrieved from https://paperap.com/paper-on-what-is-your-opinion-on-eustacia-vye/