This paper examines how the influence of the arts on the development of the
mid-Victorian population was a powerful due to
the nation's move out of recession and into a capitalist frame of mind where wealth was celebrated as a sign of worth. Through an examination of literature and art of this time such as George Hicks triptych "Women's Mission" and Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles, it looks at how the culture of the
mid-Victorian era proved to advocate a step back for woman from the public realm into the safety of an idealised, supposed domestic bliss.