Clym, the native who returns to his birthplace on Egdon Heath, is an instance of a precocious, highly regarded child and boy who, when a man, leaves his provincial background to make his way in the world. He then gives up worldly success for what he thinks of as a more important calling on his native ground. In short, Hardy's protagonist is a character who, though still admired locally, is bound to be misunderstood when he chooses to forgo conventional ideas of vocation and success.
It might even be said that he anticipates a kind of martyr's role. Both the heath folk and his mother are doubtful of his plan to be a "schoolmaster to the poor and ignorant"; they view it as impractical as well as less desirable than his commercial career in Paris. Eustacia can't understand why a man who has lived in Paris, the center, to her, of all that is desirable, should choose to return to Egdon. His mother further objects to his desire to marry Eustacia, whom she considers an idle young woman. In short, from the very first Clym finds opposition to his plan. But he will persist; in fact, Hardy may be indicating that he is more persistent even as he is more strongly opposed.
At the basis of Clym's desire to serve his native Egdon lies a general and idealistic view of his fellow human beings: "Yeobright loved his kind. He had a conviction that the want of most men was knowledge of a sort which brings wisdom rather than affluence. He wished to raise the class at the expense of individuals rather than individuals at the expense of the class. What was more, he was ready at once to be the first unit sacrificed." At the end of the novel, his eyesight still subnormal, his mother and his wife dead, Clym still persists in the same view of mankind, will not complain of the injustice of his lot in life. Though his original plan is considerably reduced in scope, he mounts the summit of Rainbarrow in his role of "itinerant openair preacher" with as much optimism, Hardy indicates, as he would have shown had his dream of a school actually come true.
