This thesis is a study of social mobility in Thomas Hardy's novels based on The Return of the Native, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, and Jude the Obscure. Using the influence of family background, education and social injustice, it discusses the identity crisis that arises from an individual's rapid social mobility. The study also shows how the obstacles and the inner conflicts that the novelist himself encounters in his own process of moving upward socially, are transformed into parts or fragments of his novels, imbuing them with highly autobiographical elements. The introduction discusses the roles that the Industrial Revolution and other occurrences in history played in creating social mobility at the time and the roles that family background, education, personal temperament, and social injustice played in inhibiting it. Particular attention is paid to how the individuals, particularly those from the lower classes, are stopped from moving upward completely and what conflicts in self-identity are created in their struggles. Chapter one discusses The Return of the Native, focusing on the dilemma arising from the discrepancy between the expectations of oneself and others in social mobility. Chapter two discusses Tess of the d'Urbervilles, focusing on the idea that family background and education can lead to social displacement and alienation in a mobile society. Chapter three discusses Jude the Obscure, focusing on how disillusion with one's own life and goals caused by one's own family background and negative temperament as well as social injustice can sabotage one'