Missed connection: Failed communication in Return of the Native

Tragedy in literature (and life?) is very often about communication, or mis-communication. Today, our problem is often too much communication - people get into deep trouble for what they text, e-mail, post, or tweet. But the much of the scope of literature, and civilization,  (written) communication for the most part meant: letters! Would Romeo & Juliet have come to their tragic demise if the letter from the priest hadn't been waylaid? In Luhrmann's re-imagining of R&J he shrewdly made a pretty big deal of the botched communication, which if I remember was sent or not sent via Fedex. Today, even that looks quaint. Now, reading The Return of the Native, there's another classic missed connection: Eustacia is making plans to leave Egdon (?) heath and embark for Paris; she decides to leave at midnight, date uncertain, and makes plans to notify her former lover, Damon, by lighting a flare signal (how quaint that is, by the way). Meanwhile, her estranged husband, Clym, is having second thoughts about banishing her from his life and wants to reconcile. He decides to waiting another two days to hear from her and determines to send a letter at that time. Another stupid mistake! Send it now! But, no, not in literature, or at least not in Hardy. So the ever-hapless Clem waits, then hires someone to hand-deliver the letter, and Eustacia's grandfather, with whom she's staying, puts the letter aside and she never gets it - as she heads off for the coast with the absolute wrong man. Why she would agree to sneak off at night with Damon of all people is impossible to figure out (she could easily have hired someone to bring her to the coastal town of Budmouth), except that she has a strong streak of self-destruction and maybe leaving with Damon is what she truly wants - both on a romantic/sexual level, also to bid a bitter and in-your-face farewell to the constricting society in which she was raised, and also perhaps to exact some revenge on Clym as well.