Abstract

The following research paper is an attempt to discuss Thomas Hardy a novelist of the Victorian era as a social reformer Many critics and researchers of his novels consider him a pessimist who paints a darker picture of life In this picture man is portrayed as a tragic figure clutched in the cruel grips of fate as well as society The present paper gives arguments of critics and interprets Hardy s novels in the way so that we may present him as a social reformer It throws light on two of the major novels of Hardy TESS OF THE DURBERVILLES and THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE