THE RON - THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE OPENING CHAPTER 'Remind yourself of the opening chapter. Assess its significance in terms of how Hardy creates mood, tone and atmosphere in terms of the continued progress of the novel'. The fact that Hardy devotes the entire opening chapter to a lengthy description of Egdon Heath speaks for itself. The opening chapter must be significant in terms of the continued progress of the novel. The atmosphere and tone of the opening chapter is in one word, negative, and this permeates the rest of the novel. RON is not the only novel in which Hardy demonstrates his ability to immerse us in a localit