In his novel The Return of the Native, Thomas Hardy creates an unreliable world of misconceptions and coincidences by paralleling the context of Egdon Heath with reality, as perceived through human nature, to convey its theme. Throughout the novel, the characters struggle against the darkness of life on the moor and, ultimately, against their own natural flaws, which govern the events around them. Hardy uses kinesthetic and visual imagery, connotative diction, and parallel syntax to support the theme that, due to the inconsistent and fallible nature of human perception, no conclusive conception of reality exists. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The author highlights the ambiguity of reality through kinesthetic and visual images. The novel works on the individual perceptions of the characters, which bring together several interpretations of reality. Thus, the weather conditions and aspects of the heather correspond to the characters' ambiguous motives, impure natures, and erratic perceptions. Hardy writes: "...it was impossible to discover the standing moral expression of each face, for while the nimble flames rose, nodded, and plunged into the surrounding air, the patches of shadow and flakes of light on the faces of the group constantly changed shape and position. Everything was unstable like leaves, evanescent like lightning” (I.iii.). Kinesthetic imagery creates dashing movements, and therefore unpredictability through words such as "plunged", "flakes", "quivering", "evanescent", "imposing" and "agile". This reinforces the complexity of perception: ambiguity permeates the reality of the moor and therefore the nature of its inhabitants, as Hardy says, impossibly obscuring each person's true character. Therefore, due to the overall darkness of human perception, symbolized by the flames of the bonfire, one cannot decisively classify the reality demonstrated by the heather. Human experience, Hardy asserts, remains an experience of inescapable subjectivity. Moreover, he writes, "the thorny bushes which appeared from time to time in his path were less satisfactory, for they hissed darkly and had the horrible habit after dark of taking on the appearance of jumping madmen, of tentacled giants and hideous cripples. » (I.viii.). Hardy develops the inconsistent reality of health. By day, the bushes become horrible specters at night in this example of visual imagery. The author's gruesome descriptions evoke images of evil beings creeping through the night and imply a sense of peril brought on by the darkness of individual perception. Perception allows humans to define their individual reality, but prevents them from agreeing on a consensual definition of reality, like the night blinds a traveler. Lost in the dark, his perception of the truth becomes blurred. Both example images evoke a feeling of non-uniformity, in both cases worrying, proving that human perception remains complex, obscure, erratic and incapable of reliably concluding on an interpretation of reality. In another successful attempt to reinforce his theme, Hardy uses diction that promotes confusion and subjectivity. The author describes the heath as "...a place perfectly conformable to the nature of man" (II). To elaborate, Hardy states: “The indomitable, Ishmaelite thing that Egdon was now, he always was” (ii). The word "Ishmaelite" literally means "of Arab origin", but evokes a feeling.