In his novel The Return of the Native, Thomas Hardy creates an unreliable world of misconceptions and coincidences by paralleling the setting of Egdon Heath with reality, as perceived through nature human, to convey its theme. Throughout the novel, the characters struggle with the darkness of life on the moor and, ultimately, with 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, there is no conclusive conception of reality. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't 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 allow different interpretations of reality to coexist. Thus, the weather patterns and appearance of the moorland correspond to the characters' ambiguous motives, imperfect nature, and erratic perceptions. Hardy writes: "...it was impossible to discover the permanent moral expression of each face, for as the nimble flames towered, nodded, and swooped in the surrounding air, the patches of shadow and flakes of light on the faces of the group changed shape and position to infinity. Everything was unstable; trembling like leaves, evanescent like lightning" (I.iii.). Kinesthetic imagery creates bold movement and, therefore, unpredictability through words like “swooping,” “flakes,” “trembling,” “evanescent,” “tower,” and “agile.” This reinforces the complexity of perception: ambiguity pervades the reality of the moor and therefore the nature of its inhabitants, as Hardy states, impossibly obscuring the true character of each person. Therefore, due to the total darkness of human perception, symbolized by the flames of the bonfire, it is not possible to decisively classify the reality, demonstrated by the moor. Human experience, Hardy argues, remains characterized by an unavoidable subjectivity. Furthermore, he writes: "The thorn bushes which occasionally sprang up in his path were less satisfactory, for they whistled darkly, and had the horrible habit after dark of assuming the forms of mad leapers, sprawling giants, and hideous cripples" (I. viii.). Hardy elaborates the inconsistent reality of the moor. Bushes by day become hideous ghosts by night in this example of visual imagery. The author's frightening descriptions evoke images of evil beings crawling in the night and imply a sense of danger 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, as night blinds a traveler. Lost in the darkness, his perception of the truth becomes clouded. Both examples of images evoke a sense of non-uniformity, in both cases threatening, demonstrating that human perception remains complex, obscure, irregular and incapable of reliably concluding an interpretation of reality. In another successful attempt to strengthen his theme, Hardy uses diction that promotes confusion and subjectivity. The author describes the moor as "...a place perfectly in accord with the nature of man" (Ii). To elaborate, Hardy states, “The indomitable, Ishmaelite thing that Egdon was now has always been” (Ii). The word "Ishmaelite" literally means "of Arab origin", but connotes a sense of isolation: Abraham drove out Ishmael and his mother Hagar in favor of Isaac and Sarah, but Ishmael survived and later founded the Arab race. Also, during the late 1800s, when Hardy wrote.