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Egdon heath in The Return of the Native is Thomas Hardy's immortal creation. It is a fictitious area which was included in his famous Wessex. Beyond its literal role as the novel's setting, it has a profound symbolic significance. It may be called the central character in the novel, and all other characters evolve out of it. It is an embodiment of what may be called Fate. It dominates all through the novel and ordains the course of the lives of characters. Like Fate, it is changeless, watchful, sinister, commanding, vengeful, retaliative, inscrutable, mysterious, and so on. Egdon stands for the blind force. Here Fate in the form of Egdon always wants to engulf all the men into its holes and caves. That is why the good (including Clym) as well as bad characters are victims of its caprice and wrath. And due to the merciless operation of Fate, the novel becomes a grim tragedy in spite of the Happy ending by means of the marriage of Thomasin and Venn.