The Return of the Native · Chapter
Perplexity Among Honest People explained
Thomasin returns home unmarried due to a license irregularity, causing distress and tension with Mrs.
What happens
Thomasin returns home unmarried due to a license irregularity, causing distress and tension with Mrs. Yeobright. They confront Wildeve at the Quiet Woman inn, where a group of heathfolk arrives to serenade the couple, forcing them to maintain appearances. Wildeve later sees a signal fire on the heath and decides to go to Eustacia.
Free preview opens on this chapter — companions, themes, and character notes appear beside the text.
Narrative arc
Story tension across the book.
- Setup
- Escalation
- Breaking point
- Aftermath
- Closing
In this scene, the narrative climax occurs because Clym’s psychological recovery and newfound taciturnity are…
Full beat labels and climax notes unlock in the reader.
Follow the arc while readingThemes in this chapter
- Love and Marriage
The failed wedding and forced engagement highlight the tension between romantic love and social obligation.
- Pride and Reputation
Mrs. Yeobright's concern for family respectability drives her anger and insistence on the marriage.
- Social Class and Ambition
Wildeve's failed engineering career and the heathfolk's communal singing reflect class dynamics and social expectations.
Characters to notice
- Thomasin Yeobright
Returns home unmarried, tearfully explains the failed wedding to her aunt, and later pleads with Wildeve to go through with the marriage.
- Mrs. Yeobright
Angry and humiliated by the failed wedding, she confronts Wildeve and insists on maintaining family respectability.
- Damon Wildeve
Explains the license irregularity, shows reluctance but agrees to marry Thomasin, and is later drawn to Eustacia's signal fire.
- Diggory Venn
Brings Thomasin home after the failed wedding.
- Timothy Fairway
Leads the heathfolk in singing a welcome song outside the Quiet Woman.
- Grandfer Cantle
Joins the singing with a wheezy thin piping voice.
Key passages
“It means just what it seems to mean: I am—not married.”
Thomasin confesses that the wedding did not take place.
Thomasin's admission of the failed marriage.
“I could almost say that it serves you right—if I did not feel that you don't deserve it.”
Mrs. Yeobright is torn between anger and sympathy for Thomasin.
Mrs. Yeobright's conflicted emotions.
“He told her that she was the joy of his life, And if she'd consent he would make her his wife; She could not refuse him; to church so they went, Young Will was forgot, and young Sue was content; And then was she kissed and set down on his knee, No man in the world was so loving as he!”
The heathfolk sing a traditional ballad about a successful courtship and wedding.
The serenade outside the Quiet Woman.
