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Abstract
To Hardy life is a ceaseless moral and social struggle in which each new experience bestows upon man new knowledge and awakening. Growth of individual self in terms of sentience and broad awareness constitutes the basic theme of almost all of Hardy’s novels. That is why Baker evaluates Hardy’s novels as “histories of men and women in the act of living and achieving themselves or becoming.” In his works the egocentric individual lives in an illusionary world and therefore, thinks wrongly and acts fallibly. But later on when the gates of self knowledge open because of his traumatic experiences and he starts interrogating his own conduct and this “questioning” proves to be “in the exploration of reality, the first step towards soul’s betterment”