Proposing that Thomas Hardy's fiction exhibits strong Gothic sensibilities which offer insight into his artistic vision and add to the power of his fiction, creating a new form of the Gothic, a Victorian Gothic, this dissertation reassesses the Gothic strains in Hardy's fiction. The dissertation is in eight chapters: (1) Introduction to Hardy's Gothic Sensibility and His Unique Achievement; (2) The Gothic Tradition; (3) Hardy's Direct Connection with Things Gothic: Sources for His Gothic Sensibility; (4) Hardy's Minor Fiction: His Short Stories; (5) Hardy's Minor Novels: Beginning His Victorian Gothic; (6) Hardy's Major Fiction: Development of His Gothic Aesthetic; (7) Hardy's Major Fiction: Gothic Tones of "Tess" and "Jude"; and (8) Conclusion--Hardy's Victorian Gothic, and the Modern Tradition. One hundred and fifty-two footnotes are attached, and a 75-item bibliography concludes the work. (SR)