1. A system for characterizing biomechanical properties of tissue within an eye, comprising: a perturbation component, comprising a deforming lens that contacts the eye as to apply a stress to the eye tissue; an imaging component operative to obtain images of the eye tissue such that a first image of the tissue can be obtained prior to the introduction of the stress and a second image of the tissue can be obtained after the introduction of the stress; and an image analysis component that compares the first image and the second image as to determine at least one of a stress-strain curve representing the eye tissue, a non-linear elastic modulus value, a stress relaxation time constant, a value representing hysteresis, and a poroelastic parameter.