The Return of the Native opens with a chapter describing sundown on Egdon Heath, the stage upon which the drama of the novel unfolds. The heath is a "vast tract of unenclosed wild," a somber, windswept stretch of brown hills and valleys, virtually treeless, covered in briars and thorn-bushes: "the storm was its lover, and the wind was its friend." It is characterized by a "chastened sublimity"--impressive but not showy grandeur--rather than any obvious …showed first 75 words of 1148 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1148 total…tempetuous suddeness. The fickle, unforgiving setting of Egdon Heath influences the characters and indeed the book itself more than any other factor. This wild terrain acts directly upon the plot, narrative and characterization through it's harsh conditions and seemingly supernatural way of pushing the characters in the right direction at the right time. It personifies so many human characteristics that it functions almost like a character in many ways, albeit an all encompasing, silent one.