Syuzhet Map

In terms of the telling of the tale, the novel starts by introducing the environment and its characters: Egdon Heath and the highway cutting through it. The now almost clichéd suggestion that Egdon is a character in its own right is nonetheless reinforced by its position at the centre of the syuhzet map (and therefore the action of the plot); every other key node is connected to the Heath. Where the nodes represent centres of action, the edges (or lines) represent movement (physical or narratorial) between them. The Heath’s centripetal force is such that, although The Return of the Native is, unsurprisingly, a narrative of return, such returns are confined to that native region of Egdon. The resulting loops visualise restless to-and-fro, or out and back, movements driven by characters’ changing motives and desires. The massing of direct edges (shown here in the solid purple lines) is a symptom both of the multi-plot narrative typical of the realist novel, and the condensed temporal range within which this plot unfolds.