A centralizing theme throughout The Return of the Native is the celebration of Guy Fawkes Day, or Bonfire Night. The novel itself takes place over the course of a year and quite tellingly begins and ends on Guy Fawkes Day itself.  The holiday’s predominance in the thematic structure of the novel demonstrates its significance in the lives of the people in the Dorset/Wessex region during the Victorian Era as well as the author's fascination with Old World pagan rituals. While essentially the same holiday, "Bonfire Night" and "Guy Fawkes Day" have different historical contexts--the former being a Pre-Christian seasonal holiday and the latter being a celebration of English Nationalism.

The function of Bonfire Night in the text is to mark the "death" of summer and defy the gradual darkening of the season. As Thomas Hardy observes, the holiday “indicates a spontaneous, Promethean rebelliousness against the fiat that this recurrent season shall bring foul times, cold darkness, misery and death” (Hardy 45).   Indeed, Hardy illustrates how “Bonfire Night” took on a somewhat spiritual significance in the rural communities of England.  By exploring the development of this unique holiday, one can why Hardy gives it so much weight in The Return of the Native.

Although Bonfire Night is an ancient ritual, Guy Fawkes Day emerged as a nationalistic reaction to “The Gunpowder Plot” of 1605.  The leader of the conspiracy, Guy Fawkes, was an ardent Catholic who attempted to blow up King James I and the Houses of Parliament with the hopes of challenging the Protestant control of the country.  The failure of Fawkes’s plot brought about an immediate surge in English Nationalism; Parliament quickly declared November 5th a national holiday that would be celebrated with “the pealing of bells and firing of cannon, with communal rejoicings, and a special service to be held in all the churches” (Hole 218).  Evidently the English government’s original intention was to make “Guy Fawkes Day” a celebration of the strength of the Church of England.

This Anti-Catholic sentiment fueled much of the fervor and inherent violence of the Guy Fawkes Day celebration of the 17th and 18th centuries.  The bonfire tradition originated from burning the effigy of Guy Fawkes, a ritual that became popular immediately after the Gun Powder Plot itself.  Additionally, the English-people took to burning an effigy of Pope Paul IV whom was thought to have been connected to the Guy Fawkes conspiracy.  This violent action demonstrates how feelings of Nationalism were primarily perpetuated by Anti-Catholic sentiment.  This sense of xenophobia transformed “Guy Fawkes Day” from a religious holiday into a predominantly nationalistic one.

This transition lead to a more generalized nationalistic celebration of English identity in later centuries.  Over the years, the effigy of Guy Fawkes was still burnt and was soon referred to as simply a “Guy.”  However, over the course of the last 400 years of English history, many alternative Anti-English figures have been burnt in effigy on Guy Fawkes Day, including Napoleon Bonaparte, the Kaiser, and Hitler (219).  Throughout the course of history, Guy Fawkes Day has evolved to attack any “Anti-Englishness.”  This somewhat xenophobic notion perpetuates the violence of the holiday itself—its celebration of national identity and cultural supremacy makes Guy Fawkes Day a chaotic, somewhat violent holiday.

However, despite the strong nationalistic influences of the 17th century, Bonfire Night is first and foremost a pagan holiday to rebel against the darking of the season. Indeed, most of the rituals associated with Guy Fawkes Day are taken from various Pagan traditions. As Charlotte S. Burne observes, “[Guy Fawkes Day] superseded the older festival of Hallowmas, taking over the bonfires, the bell-ringing, and the general liberty which characterized the older festival.” (Burne 426)  The influence of Hallowmas on the national holiday gave it, in Hardy’s words, “a spontaneous, Promethean rebelliousness.” Indeed, the proximity of the pagan festival Hallowmas to the national celebration Guy Fawkes Day encouraged the English people to combine the two holidays, creating a bizarre hybrid of an, at times, militant nationalism and liberated paganism.  It is the combination of these two distinct concepts that made Guy Fawkes Day an essential English national tradition for over 400 years.

Thomas Hardy uses the celebration of Guy Fawkes day in Return of the Native to illustrates Eustacia Vye’s status as a sort of “femme fatale” figure.  The fact that Eustacia lights her own bonfire on the heath in order to tempt Damon Wildeve to come to her demonstrates the holiday’s more sinister elements.  Eustacia is attempting to “bewitch” Wildeve and drive him away form the comfortable life he has come to know.  Eustacia’s bonfire does not represent the traditional Guy Fawkes Day symbol of nationalism and liberation—it instead represents a paganistic dismissal of societal structure and familial obligation.  Eustacia’s status as a woman isolated from polite society makes her celebration of Guy Fawkes Day uncanny and perhaps a little unnatural; she does not embrace any of the holiday’s ideals concerning community and national identity.  The reader sees Eustacia’s “liberation” on Bonfire Day to be more of a sexual nature than a nationalistic one; through her shunning of the community at large, Eustacia returns Guy Fawkes Day to its pagan roots.

By setting up Eustacia Vye as a sort of “social pariah,” Thomas Hardy rearticulates the traditional representation of Guy Fawkes Day.  Rejecting its mostly nationalistic roots, Hardy reexamines the holiday’s role within a broader societal structure.  Indeed, the author illustrates the sort of “Promethean” defiance and societal liberation that such a tumultuous holiday can bring about.  Indeed, Hardy strips Guy Fawkes Day down to illuminate “man’s inherent fascination with fire” in order to demonstrate the disorder and recklessness of such a holiday. On a rudimentary level, Bonfire Night illustrates the survival instinct that drives man to light a fire; this simple action can be seen as a rebellion against the harshness of the elements. The author uses this "Promethean rebellion" to universalize the celebration of this autumnal holiday. This “paganization” of Guy Fawkes Day enables Hardy to rearticulate its symbolic meaning within a wider sociological context.

© Copyright Clare Keating & Katie Hickey 2007