For one who has read Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas ardy,1 the atmosphere created by Virginia Woolf in the opening scene of Mrs Dalloway brings back to his mind the atmosphere prevailing in the "second beginning" in the novel by Hardy. Even though the phrase "second beginning' may sound puzzling, it seems to be an appropriate expression, because we can feel that Chapter XVI was conceived by Hardy himself as another beginning in the life of his female protagonist; the previous chapters being the germ of the tragedy that, were the ideology of the author a different one, could have been avoided. For one who has read Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas ardy,1 the atmosphere created by Virginia Woolf in the opening scene of Mrs Dalloway brings back to his mind the atmosphere prevailing in the "second beginning" in the novel by Hardy. Even though the phrase "second beginning' may sound puzzling, it seems to be an appropriate expression, because we can feel that Chapter XVI was conceived by Hardy himself as another beginning in the life of his female protagonist; the previous chapters being the germ of the tragedy that, were the ideology of the author a different one, could have been avoided.