Is Clym responsible for his mother and wife deaths?

Clym thinks himself responsible for the deaths of his mother and wife though
according to Hardy, it is not the man but unseen agencies, which are responsible for
man’s misery. But for Clym it can be said that human misunderstandings and
shortcomings, when coincide with fate and chances, bring about the tragedy. Clym
at some places seems to be responsible for the deaths of Mrs. Yeobright and
Eustacia. At first, he decides to marry Eustacia in spite of his mother’s opposition.
According to Mrs.Yeobright, Eustacia is

“An idle voluptuous women.”

But Clym even knowing that his mother gives accurate opinion marries Eustacia. On
the other hand his marriage does not make even Eustacia happy because it was
based on Clym’s misunderstandings of Eustacia’s intentions, as the writer himself
comments:

“Take all the varying hates felt by Eustacia Vye towards the heath and
translate them into loves and you have the heart of Clym”

So clym in this way not only teases his mother but also his wife, by not
understanding the fundamental difference that was there between him and
Eustacia. This difference is evident at many places in the novel as clym loves the
heath and is

“a mere parasite of heath”

Writer says about Clym:

“If anyone knew the heath well it was Clym….he might be said to be its
product”

On the contrary Eustacia hates the heath and its people.

“I cannot endure the heath…”

This is what she says about heath and whenever she met Clym, she asked him to
talk about Paris to which he replied:
“I hate talking of Paris!”
Clym never thought on these grounds and married Eustacia though he married her
chiefly to fulfill his purpose of opening a school but he had no ground for thinking
that Eustacia would agree to it. She herself said to Clym:

“I think there is not that in Eustacia Vye which will make a good
homespun wife.”

So Clym can be said responsible for the calamity because he never thought on
these aspects.
Clym can be stated responsible for the catastrophe also because of his being too
practical at times. For example when he decides to marry Eustacia and his mother
Is Clym responsible for his mother and wife deaths?
opposes to it, he leaves his house at once. Clym leaves the house without letting
himself blow in the emotions of a son, and goes in spite of his love for his mother
.Writer tells us about Clym’s reason for leaving the house:

“To stay at home a minute longer than necessary after having once come
to his determination would be, he felt, only to give new pain to his
mother.”

If Clym would not be too practical and stayed at Blooms End after marriage, the
chances of reconciliation could have been better and the tragedy could have been
avoided.

This trait of his character also makes him responsible for the tragedy of Eustacia.
When he writes the letter to Eustacia for reconciliation, he becomes too thoughtful
and too practical that he does not delivers the letter to her at once rather he waits
for her to come first and then delivers the letter till it gets too late. Clym himself
admits this:

“I spoke cruel words to her and she left my house. I didn’t invite her back
till it was too late.”

Clym’s delay made Eustacia to suffer and not only in her case but the delay on
Clym’s part made Mrs.Yeobright to suffer as well. Clym kept on asking Eustacia for
going to mother and he didn’t go to her by himself until “it was too late.” When
his mother was dead, he said:

“I never went to her! When I set out to visit her it was too late.”

Keeping in view this fact Clym seems to be responsible for bringing about the
tragedy in the novel.
Clym inability in maintaining human relationships makes him responsible for the
death of two ladies. Clym wasn’t able to maintaining his relation with his mother
and this lacking in his personality also caused his break up with Eustacia.
Mrs.Yeobright herself pointed to this deficiency in her son’s character. She said to
Eustacia:

“You will find that though he is as gentle as a child with you now, he can
be as hard as steel.”

So Clym seems to be responsible because reconciliation between mother and wife

was his responsibility which he didn’t fulfill and he remained indifferent towards
their relation to each other. Clym says at the death of Eustacia:

“She is the second women I have killed this year. I was a great cause of
my mother’s death; and I am the chief cause of her’s”
Is Clym responsible for his mother and wife deaths?
But in all this tragedy the vital role played by fate and chances cannot be avoided.
Though because of some actions of his, Clym seems to be responsible for bringing
about the tragedy but actually it was fate that made him do so.
It was Clym’s fate that he didn’t get up when Mrs.Yeobright came to his house. It
was fate than an adder bitted Mrs.Yeobright. It was chance that Eustacia didn’t
received Clym’s letter that night. It was fate that Eustacia wasn’t rescued by Clym
or wildeve, rather wildeve himself died during his effort to save her. As Hardy says:

“….to be born is a palpable dilemma….”

So we can conclude that tragedy in the novel is the result of human shortcomings
which were planned by fate. Clym rightly thinks himself responsible for the deaths
of his mother and wife because of a series of events over which he had very little
control.