Category: Hard Times

“Hard Times” is a novel written by Charles Dickens in 1854, taking place in a small town called Coketown. In this novel, we learn about many characters, but two stick out to the readers the uttermost, Thomas Gradgrind and Louisa. Gradgrind is brought into the novel as a schoolteacher. “Mr. Gradgrind is a successful ‘businessman’”. He makes a full turnaround in the novel as his view on life and how he does things turn around. Even in the beginning, he is presented as a strict and straight-to-the-point kind of person. In the first chapter, even in the first couple of sentences, it starts with, “Now, what I want is Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts”. All he wants are facts and that is how he thinks school and educating children is for. Facts were written with a capital F to assert and influence the importance of facts.

Gradgrind believes very strongly in Utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is the “doctrine that an action is right insofar as it promotes happiness and that the greatest happiness of the greatest number should be the guiding principle of conduct”. As readers learn more about Gradgrind, he deeply regrets his view of Utilitarianism he defined it as a way of life and an overburdened work ethic at the beginning of the novel. He made this his philosophy for life and wanted everyone else to adapt to it thinking it was reasonable. Gradgrind is “a man of facts and calculations”, that statement really shows how his style of ability backs up his belief that everything can be ordered, recorded, and measured. Gradgrind is so consistent that everything is categorized for how useful it is throughout the novel. Chapter one really shows the reader how in the dark ages, the man really does have a soul and a kind loving heart.

In Gradgrinds’ classroom, it is very evident that he is consumed by science. The desks were arranged being, “boys and girls sat on the face of the inclined plane.” His classroom being compared to a dark, gloomy, and sluggish imagery that reflects who he really is as a character. His classroom has an absence of color and character. Sissy Jube, one of Gradgrinds’ students, stands out in the first chapter as “irradiated” by light and color as one similar to an angel with a bright spirit among her peers. Bitzer, another one of his students, is one of his brightest students as he turns dark in the novel under Gradgrinds’ influence. Bitzer turns into a darker character as a boy with no imagination or emotion, being described that “he would bleed white.” Blitzer has very detailed definitions correlated to Sissy Jube who seems depleted after answering Gradgrind’s question about horses which was logically a lot harder than what she could endure. Blitzer answers the same question about horses correctly with facts, which is what Gradgrind was initially looking for after being disappointed by Sissy’s bland answer that did not meet his expectations.

Dickens emphasizes Gradgrind’s philosophy of self-interest, categorizing, and calculating in the first few chapters of the novel. It is believed that it is in human nature that all together can be concluded and balanced by rules, guidelines, and order. It is said that Gradgrind is “ready to weigh and measure any parcel of human nature and tell you what it comes to”. Gradgrind believes he has brought a lot of success from this philosophy to others, such as his students and children. He believes that he has gained a great deal of success in his little town in the novel, gaining a very good prosperity reputation from using this philosophy in his classroom and home, passing his knowledge of facts and grasp of life to his students and peers. Gradgrind genuinely believed that the philosophy of utilitarianism is how children should be brought up being taught at a young age; until he ran into a blockade with Louisa and the life choice she endures at around age 15.

Louisa has a very significant role in the novel, being Gradgrind’s daughter. It is understood that she may be a protagonist. Louisa is similar to her father in the novel, she seems to be very cold, she is silent, and not sympathetic. Dickens may not mean for Louisa to come off so cold, as she may just not know how to show and express her emotions thoroughly. For instance, Gradgrind tries to convince Louisa that it would be wise for her to marry Bounderby for multiple reasons and that it would be in her best interest. As he tries to sway her into marrying Bounderby, she gazes out her window at the factory and detects, “there seems to be nothing there but languid and monotonous smoke. Yet when the night comes, Fire bursts out” (Dickens). She is not able to convey her own feelings she is only able to state what is around her and the atmosphere she is neighboring. This particular statement shows that she is suppressing the feelings that are within her.

Louisa later announces to her father that she is going to accept Bounderby’s proposal. Gradgrind takes this thrilling news with excitement very well, averse to what the readers might predict from Gradgrind this late in the novel from what is already studied from Gradgrind’s profile built up thus far. At this point in the novel, Gradgrind gives a speech showing the change in his overall character for the better. His speech shows a more personal way of life, growth, and behavior in the way he views life as a whole Gradgrind changes his outlook about his philosophy, giving Louisa his best wishes and condolences towards her marriage with Bounderby.

Throughout the course of the novel, it is apparent to the readers that Gradgrind experiences a major, large-scale change in his aspect of life and philosophy. This life change catches the compassion and sympathy of the narrator and readers. Throughout the novel, the narrator’s inflection towards Gradgrind was originally arrogant, and incongruous. Louisa later acknowledges and states that she feels as if something significant is missing from her life. She evaluates that it is love that she is missing from her marriage and that she feels miserable. This is the point in the novel that Gradgrind finally starts to grasp that the philosophy he so strongly believed in, and his structure of education may not have been as effective as he had once believed in. This theory is really proved to be true when Tom, Gradgrind’s eldest son, was guilty of robbing Bounderby’s bank.

Gradgrind learned on multiple occasions and apprehensions that his education system was inefficient and had failed. Gradgrind later stated, “the ground on which I stand has ceased to be solid under my feet”. That statement alone demonstrates that he does gain a sense of remorse and that life as a whole is not only based on factual evidence but also emotion. Gradgrinds problems that he endured with his children helped him gain a perspective of emotion. All the problems that he ended up facing through the course of the novel, changes Gradgrind into a compassionate, more abiding father and citizen of his town. Gradgrind ultimately changed into a more joyous, goodwill man at peace better at peace with his mind and life.

‘Hard Times’ by Charles Dickens is a novel written in 1854 during the Industrialization upset. The story delineates Thomas Gradgrind’s thoughts on learning and how he actualizes it onto his kids, prompting unfavorable impacts. Gradgrind accepted that the main method for learning was to take in hard realities and not let emotions or inventiveness, the ‘extravagant’, disrupt everything. Dickens depicts Gradgrind’s convictions through the topic, setting, and portrayal. The topic that Dickens used to pass on his thought was certainty versus ‘extravagant’.

Moreover, Dickens utilizes the setting as an approach to show imagery. The story happens in Coketown, a mechanical city loaded up with dull processing plants. It is an exhausting city that gives the residents a sentiment of receptivity, ruling out ‘extravagant’. Everybody has confidence in Mr. Gradgrind’s thoughts and adore ‘industry’. As this is the sum total of what they have been thought. Leaving them to live in a discouraging city. Portrayal additionally had a tremendous impact in this novel by making life into the characters. The fundamental characters, Tom and Louisa can be deciphered as round characters. As they have changed all through the story drastically. Tom and Louisa both grew up with just certainties and endured their results. Tom lamented looting the bank while Louisa lamented wedding her significant other that she didn’t cherish. The two characters had the option to defeat their past so as to change for the great.

From the beginning of the novel, Mr. Gradrgrind demands that the best way to have an effective life was to put together it with respect to unadulterated certainties and no innovativeness yet as the novel goes on, we get the opportunity to perceive how ruinous this philosophy was for his children. For example, the oldest of his youngsters, Tom, is a narcissist who feels no regret for his activities as he loots his very own father for cash. Tom’s sister, Louisa, experiences issues indicating feeling in spite of needing to. She weds a man twice her age who she doesn’t cherish on the grounds that she couldn’t have cared less. This shows how being raised on just certainties brings about a sad public activity. Then again, Sissy, the most youthful youngster, was raised on the two certainties and ‘extravagant’. She figured out how to be innovative and show feeling from the bazaar yet, in addition, had direction from the realities educated to her by Gradgrind, bringing about an ideal marriage and profession. This exhibits how adjusting both certainty and ‘extravagant’ can prompt a cheerful life.

Along these lines, Dickens made an uncommon showing by exhibiting that it is so essential to not just concentrate on realities. He did this by utilizing the setting and characters for instance of what could be of not utilizing inventiveness or a creative mind. The epic was an extraordinary book that helped me as a peruser comprehend the time of industrialization.

Charles Dickens’ presentation of characters throughout the novel Hard Times is significant to the perception of the story and the individual characters. Often, the voice of the author can easily sway one’s opinions on the novel they have written, as can be seen in Hard Times. Dickens’ presentation of Louisa Gradgrind in Hard Times allows readers to see the emotional and moral value that those in the lower classes may experience, and the emotional emptiness that often resulted from upper-class societies in the Victorian Era.

Louisa first began to understand the value in lower-class life through experiences with Sissy that allowed her to understand the deeper sense of humanity that can often be found in lower-class life. Towards the end of the novel, Dickens reflects on the knowledge that Louisa has gained through Sissy. He writes, “ But, happy Sissy’s happy children loving her… she holding this course as part of no fantastic vow, or bond, or brotherhood, or sisterhood, or pledge, or covenant, or fancy dress, of fancy hair, but simply as a duty to be done- did Louisa see these things of herself? These things were to be.” This passage demonstrates how the life that Sissy has had direct impacts and shapes the life that Louisa is in the process of leading. From Sissy, Louisa was able to begin to comprehend how life shouldn’t just be of the mind, but should instead be an active and more free-spirited existence, something that Sissy was able to pass on to Louisa because of her upbringing. Although Louisa is not able to see these things of herself at this point in time, she is able to value Sissy and the lower-class’ humanity and strive for a fuller existence.

At a young age, Louisa and her brother quickly realized that they were not to engage in the activities of the lower classes, but she decides to break the mold by reaching out to them. This portrayal makes her look like more of a struggling hero than a monotonous member of upper-class society. Through her representation, we see that Louisa has a special gift of understanding and empathizing with members of a more impoverished society. In order to help Mr. Blackpool with his many burdens, Louisa decides to give him some money. Dickens writes, “Louisa colored, and a purse appeared in her hand. The rustling of a banknote was audible, as she unfolded one and laid it on the table. ‘Rachael, will you tell him- for you know-how, without offense- that this is freely his, to help him on his way? Will, you entreat him to take it?’. This presentation of Louisa as someone who is in support of the message and desires of the lower class society so much that she is willing to sponsor them financially. She connects with their humanity and vulnerability, which creates in her a feeling of envy on some level but also allows her to value them and their way of a pure, honest, and well-rounded life. Throughout Hard Times, Louisa struggles with how to abide by social norms, yet still be her own individual person. Louisa desired to please her family, so she married Mr. Bounderby because it was socially acceptable. However, she soon realized that she had made a huge mistake. She was now trapped in a loveless and unsatisfactory marriage. Her entire family knew that she wasn’t particularly fond of Bounderby, as Tom says, “‘ My sister Loo?’ said Tom. ‘She never cared for old Bounderby… Why won’t you tell me, Mr. Harthouse, that you really suppose my sister does care for old Bounderby,’” (138). Louisa had a desperate need to be accepted by her family, but in acting on that need she was left feeling hollow and numb to herself and her surroundings. Dickens’ presentation of Louisa shows a girl who makes choices based on others, instead of herself, which allows the reader to enter into her emotional pain as they can understand the frustration and dissatisfaction she is dealing with. Later on in the novel, we find Louisa having a very important conversation with her father in which she explains why she wishes that her marriage would have been based on love and not on social standing, as can be seen by those in the lower classes and how jealous she is of those who got to make such decisions out of something deeper than simple practicality. This presentation of the reader shows her emotional anxiety and emptiness that leads to her appreciation of a simpler life. Louisa always had a dream of what her life would be like had she not had to hold herself up to the impossible intellectual standards of the upper-class society. Through the imagination of her ideal life, Dickens was able to represent the feeling of emptiness and dissatisfaction that can result from the wealthier and more rigid social classes. He writes, “Neither, as she approached her old home now, did any of the best influences of old home descend upon her. The dreams of childhood- its airy fables, its graceful, beautiful, humane, impossible adornments of the world beyond… what had she to do with these?” (197). Dickens is able to show through this passage the sharp contrast between Louisa’s desired childhood, and the reality of her childhood, which she has yet to fully recover from. He presents her return to home as a very sad and empty experience, unlike one would expect from a child returning home after being away. This small sentiment beautifully presents the numbness and dissatisfaction that Louisa experienced as a result of living the upper-class life that she never truly wanted, and presents her as a character weakened by the emptiness of money and knowledge.

In addition to her desire for a more emotionally charged life, Louisa has a sense of family that couldn’t be seen in most upper-class families, including her own. The small sense of family that the Gradgrinds did have was so clearly in contrast with the behaviors of most upper classes, that they painted those classes as more emotionless societies. As Tom stood angry before Louisa after he learned of her sharing the fact that he was the bank robber, Dickens writes, “They all confusedly went out- Louisa crying to him that she forgave him, and loved him still and that he would one day be sorry to have left her so, and glad to think of these her last words, far away- when someone ran against them. Mr. Gradgrind and Sissy, who were both before him while his sister yet clung to his shoulder, stopped, and reconciled”. Dickens presents Louisa as a girl desiring to connect deeply with her emotions and moral standards through her family, yet is constantly being discouraged to do so. Because of this, she is left feeling discontent and empty. She tries to leave behind her emotional disconnectedness by supporting her brother and is crushed when he fails to do the same. The conflict between Tom and Louisa that Dickens presents shows Louisa as a numb and confused character trying to go against the grain of the overly structured and factual citizens of upper-class Victorian England.

Lastly, Louisa makes it clear from the beginning of Hard Times that she feels burned by her upper-class upbringing and wishes her life had been more wholesome and balanced, and less factually based. Gradgrind soon realizes this, allowing Dickens to express the inevitable fall that will come from those in the upper-class society in the Victorian Era who have grown up without a true sense of themselves. As Gradgrind is speaking to Louisa, he comes to know her true feelings inside and says, “The only support on which I leaned, and the strength of which it seemed, and still does seem, impossible to question, has given way in an instant. I am stunned by these discoveries. I have no selfish meaning in what I say, but I find the shock of what broke upon me last night to be very heavy indeed”. Finally, Louisa is able to share with her father all of the emotional emptiness that she has been feeling so that he can understand her struggles and begin to adjust his own opinions based upon her experiences. This presentation of these two characters coming together as one force shows how a life based on information instead of action and enriching experience is a life that will eventually crumble, which is exactly what Louisa was experiencing. Dicken’s portrayal of Louisa in this circumstance can completely sway the reader towards the point of wanting to stand in the fight against facts because ultimately we have so much more to learn from the lower class than anyone could ever learn from the shallow upper-class society.

Dickens’ presentation of Louisa Gradgrind in Hard Times allows the readers to understand the emotional and moral value that those in the lower classes may experience, as well as the emotional emptiness that often resulted from the upper-class societies in Victorian England. Through Louisa’s conversations with Sissy, personal experience, and an abnormal sense of moral and emotional justice that she feels, Dickens is able to accomplish his goal of demonstrating how upper-class systems do not play out as intended and often people can gain so much more from leading a simpler, more well-rounded life as can be seen in lower-class societies at the time.

Charles Dickens’s Hard Times allows one to analyze and take a greater look into the nineteenth century during the Industrial Revolution. The times of unrest within social classes. Lack of education; “Girl number twenty unable to define a horse!” said Mr. Gradgrind…. Dickens writes this in concern of no imagination and the use of the utilitarian theory.

The novel begins with an emphasis on facts; Facts are what everyone needs and desires to prosper. “In this life, we want nothing but Facts, sir; nothing but Facts!”. This is preached to everyone in the way of utilitarianism. Dickens attacks this theory because he believed it contravened the rights of the people and took away their imaginations. In chapter two of the book, Thomas Gradgrind, a middle-class man who operates the education system. He drilled into the heads of his children and students the idea of utilitarianism and said the theory of it was the only way to live your life; with cold hard facts. Dickens wants the audience to know that facts will not give people satisfaction. One needs a sense of fantasy and imagination to keep life interesting. While lecturing a group of students, Gradgrind suggests that if you lay carpet, it does not need to have flowers on it, people do not walk on flowers; Instead, it needs to be laid out in “mathematical figures”. He goes on to say that this represents, facts or taste.

One may assume that Dickens admires the working class. The working class is the only one who worked and earn a “true living”. He had sympathy for the poor. In many of his other books, he always showed commiseration for the poverty-stricken characters in his stories. One might believe his main objective is to bring awareness of the poor to one’s perspective. His character Stephen Blackpool is a good representation of an honest man, with rectitude and understanding. He strives to maintain his sense of compassion. Blackpool refuses to go on strikes because he wants to earn a true living.

Contradictory is a factor between Louisa Gradgrind and her father Thomas. Louisa begrudged her father’s beliefs. Thomas Gradgrind finds her looking at the circus when it comes to town. He does not realize the children are his own and automatically starts thinking up a punishment until his realization of who the kids are. Louisa was a girl full of imagination. “There was an air of jaded sullenness in them both, and particularly in the girl: yet, struggling through the dissatisfaction of her face, there was a light with nothing to rest upon, a fire with nothing to burn, a starved imagination keeping life in itself somehow, which brightened its expression”. Louisa has to marry a man that she does not love. She marries Bounderby because she believes it will give back to her brother; the only one she loves. Louisa is unhappy and longs for the use of her imagination that her father once “destroyed” and forbids. Louisa is seduced by a man of the same political party as her father, James Harthouse.

One might argue that Dickens attacks the idea of romanticism with James Harthouse’s character. Harthouse and Thomas Gradgrind are very similar characters and some may realize from early in the story. Both of their characters portray the idea of utilitarianism which in the novel may be considered “dangerous” for some of the other characters, including Louisa. Although utilitarians, along with James Harthouse are not dangerous they give off a sense of being superficial.

One could learn a lot from this novel. Valuable lessons and much more. Societal problems from then to now have not progressed very much. Higher class individuals in this world get things handed to them on a silver platter and take it for granted while others are still living in poverty or working their hardest to keep their families fed, have a place to live, and living lives of worry.

In conclusion, this novel delineates the problems of education, work, and utilitarianism. Dickens wants to show that education shapes the growth of individuals and their characters. One would say he wanted to show that education with just facts damages the understanding and compassion of children. Dickens was living in the “hard times” and wanted to show his rebellion against societal problems and show that having an imagination opens up new ideas.

The characters created by Charles Dickens in Hard Times are a collection of victims and victimizers, some pitiable, others damnable. Dickens juxtaposes the errors of rationalism against the established values that individuals hold within a circus group. Through the characterisation of Thomas Gradgrind and his children Tom and Louisa, Dickens examines the impoverishment of life through the metaphor of the circus and its people, and the mistakes of a man whose love for his children comes to serve as a commentary on his problematic values. Paul Schlicke argues ‘Gradgrind is a crusading theorist, whose ill-conceived idealism blinds him to the essential humanity of those around him, with calamitous results.’

Louisa is the central female figure in Hard Times, who serves as a powerful critique of the Industrial Revolution. Her de-humanization, a result of her father’s ‘unbending, utilitarian, matter-of-fact choice of parenting, has led her to a life of suppressed passions and curiosities. Indoctrinated since childhood with her father’s principles of ‘Facts and calculations… and nothing over…, she struggles to please him beneath his guidance of a life led by Fact. She acquiesces into a loveless marriage, a result of her father’s rationalism, a rationalism that made no allowance for noble human qualities; and finds in Sissy’s presence the human values missing from her life. Similarly, Tom, under the same influence, becomes a degenerate gambler and criminal, soon finding his affairs too much to manage when he robs a bank. The cold, fact-based exterior their father represents repeatedly reminds the reader that there is no room for idle fantasizing or wonder and entices Louisa to realise from a young age that something is missing from her life.

This is evident early in the novel when Gradgrind finds his children Tom and Louisa peeping into the loophole of a circus. The circus represents an escape from the hardships and cares of daily life. For Louisa, it represents possibilities of fulfilment missing under her father’s system. Gradgrind is astonished by this act of disobedience because it challenges his principles. Tom’s de-humanization is established in his mechanized, monotone attitude when he ‘gave himself up to be taken home as a machine, but Louisa who ‘looked at her father with more boldness than Thomas’ foreshadows the transformation her character will go through. Paul Click says, ‘The scene involves three of the principal actors of the story, and points forward not only to the central crisis of Hard Times, in which the repressed longings of Tom and Louisa at last burst out, but also the resolution of the book, in which shattered lives and hopes are salvaged by the active agency of the circus proprietor, Mr. Leary, and the clown’s daughter, Sissy Jupe.’

The reader is presented with a messy, chaotic description of the circus. ‘He had reached the neutral ground upon the outskirts of the town, which was neither town nor country, and yet was either spoiled, when his ears were invaded by the sound of music. The clashing and banging band attached to the horse-riding establishment… was in full bray… a piece of stunted grass and dry rubbish.’

Dickens uses the circus to counter the orderly, efficient world that Thomas Gradgrind represents. It is used as a commentary on Gradgrind’s compulsion for ‘Facts and calculations’. Robert Higbie says Dickens ‘probably makes this scene ugly partly because this is how the circus appears to Gradgrind, the observer here. It is he, presumably, who feels the music is an invasion of his world and therefore ugly. His attitude represents society’s attitude toward the circus, reflecting societies attitude toward the imagination.’

Gradgrind cannot mathematically calculate the value of the circus people. Those who ‘dance upon rolling caskets, stand upon bottles, catch knives and balls, twirl hand-basins, ride upon anything, jump over everything, and stick at nothing. He, therefore, sees them and their disposition in society as valueless because their behavior fails to cohere into any sort of intelligible pattern. For Gradgrind, the circus produces nothing useful and so he assumes it does not work within industrial society.

Dickens specifically rejects Gradgrind’s negative view of ‘wonder, idleness, and folly’ and makes use of the compassion of the circus people to consistently drive the plot forward. The omniscient narrator states they have ‘a remarkable gentleness and childishness’ about them, traits clearly missing from characters such as Gradgrind and Bounderby. They are described as ‘deserving, often of as much respect, always of as much generous construction, as the everyday virtues of any class of people in the world’.’

Dickens believes they have ‘an untiring readiness to help and pity one another’ despite having a lifestyle that is not the established model of a good life. Dickens is aware the circus will not survive the industrial revolution, and he presents this through the fading of the circus in the plot and through the deterioration of Mr Sleary’s health. Salary is described as having a voice that is fading, ‘one fixed eye and one loose eye, a voice (if it can be called so) like the efforts of a broken old pair of bellows, a flabby surface, and a muddled head that was never sober and never drunk. He is never quite all there, always on the edge of fading away. Dickens also presents the harsh nature of the circus through Mr Sleary’s words to his daughter Sissy who leaves the circus for a life with Gradgrind. ‘You’ll make your fortune, I hope, and none of our poor forth will ever trouble you, I’ll pound it.’ This emphasizes the goodness within the circus people. Mr Sleary would send his own daughter away if it meant for her to live a better life.

The traditional values of the circus are once again constructed within the narrative toward the end of the novel. The character of Bounderby and his position as a successful capitalist owning a factory and a bank introduces the theme of industrial relations in the novel. It also provides an opportunity for the robbery Tom commits within the bank. The industrial world has little mercy for those who interfere with the law, and because Dickens clearly values the circus people, he brings them to the forefront of the plot to rescue Tom. It is ironic that a modern man such as Gradgrind, with the views he has, has no choice but to rely on the circus at the end of the novel to save his son.

Sissy is an allegory of the way in which values are transferred from one to the other. Sissy’s love and compassion for Louisa in the second half of the novel represent the ‘remarkable gentleness’ of the circus people. The gentle compassion Dickens transfers to the reader through the omniscient narrator represents his view that the traits of the circus should be carried over into the industrial world. He understands that the pre-industrial labour is not an ideal form of labour, but even so, believes it should be allowed to exist separately in the past, with values and qualities of the old labour transferred into the industrialized city. Barry Stiltner says ‘Sissy’s resistance to this draconian taxonomy is successful due to her refusal to forget her history in the circus and replace it with the codes of governmental “tabular statements” that classify people as if they were so many statistical figures to be processed and manipulated.’

The circus fading from the narrative is apparent once more in Dickens’s final description, as it disappears entirely from the lives of the central characters emphasising how there is no place for it in Dickens’s world.

Compassion, not ‘Fact’, in the form of Mr. Sleary, Sissy, and the circus people who represent the old community and labor force, was what was needed to emphasize Dickens’s social values within a narrative. Dickens relishes the role of being the omniscient narrator in order to establish his role as a social commentator. Dickens deals with the metaphor of the circus to establish his points. Dickens supports the industrial society, so long as it does not lose its humanity to errors of rationalism.

Charles Dickens’s novel Hard Times demonstrates numerous social issues which were present in the 1840s and which would be of universal and timeless concern to the audience if they were of today’s modern society. Different elements of the social issues which are presented in the novel Hard times contribute to the overall structure of novel 1. The issues which Dickens presents throughout this novel.

The social issue of a fact-based educational system, which is of universal and timeless concern, is presented by Charles Dickens in the novel Hard Times. In chapter 1 of book 1 Sowing, Dickens states In this life we want nothing but facts.2 Dicken’s use of alliteration demonstrates that fact is the only permitted subject or topic of discussion in Bounderby`s and Gradgrind`s school, emphasizing the lack of exhilaration provided to their students. Furthermore, again in chapter one of the book one Sowing, Dickens states Teach the girls and boys nothing but fact 3. Dicken’s use of consonance exemplifies that imagination of the students is prohibited by Bounderby and Gradgrind, highlighting that their school is a monotonous experience for the students. The lack of excitement provided to the students would be of universal concern to the audience, due to the lack of freedom of the mind that this subsequently provides. In addition to this, in chapter three of book one, Dickens states A starved imagination 4. Dicken’s use of personification reinforces the tedious educational experience that students have at Bounderby’s and Gradgrinds schools due to only being taught facts. In Charles Dicken’s novel Hard Times, facts are the only thing recognized as worthy of study 5 further reinforcing the educational ideology of Mr. Bounderby and Mr. Gradgrind. As well as this, Dickens believed that education had the potential to rescue working-class children from the ravages of industrialization 6. However, this belief is contrasted in the novel because lack of freedom is incapable of being the experience a child needs to be rescued. Dicken’s representation of this issue gives the reader an insight into the fundamental questions of the educational system.

The social issue of the Mechanization of factory workers is illustrated by Charles Dickens in his novel Hard Times. In chapter five of the book one Sowing, Dickens states Inhabited by people equally like one another who all went in and out at the same time 7. Dicken’s use of pessimistic imagery illustrates that all the workers of the factory complete the same work, highlighting that the work completed in the factory is repetitive. The idea shows that Bounderby is turning his workers into machines, exemplifying the lack of compassion he provides his factory workers with. In addition to this, in chapter 5 of book 1 Sowing, Dickens states Every day is the same as yesterday and tomorrow 8. Dicken’s use of the simile reinforces the idea that the workers’ work is repetitive, suggesting that they are becoming robotic and mechanized. Moreover, Charles Dickens was critical of the industrial revolution which took place between 1760 and 1840. He expressed his critical views by presenting the issue of the mechanization of factory workers in the novel Hard Times. Furthermore, the repetition of the pronoun Same exemplifies the extreme extent to which the factory workers are being transformed into machines by Mr. Bounderby, the owner of the factory. This novel has achieved value as it represents issues that are active today .9 The way that Mr. Bounderby treats his factory workers defines his lack of compassion that he has towards them.

“Dicken’s Hard Times begins in a classroom of facts and concludes in the circus of fancy. In a well-organized and coherent essay, discuss the significance of this shift of the setting to the theme of the novel. “

The theme of Fact and Fancy features prominently within Hard Times, reflecting a debate of major concern for Dickens and his peers during their era in Victorian England. Fact and Fancy can be seen as antagonistic concepts that compete by means of Dickens’ characters who personify them, most notably the Gradgrinds for “Team Fact” and the Jupes for “Team Fancy”. As fathers, Gradgrind and Mr. Jupe could hardly be more different, and the same can be said of their respective daughters, Louisa and Sissy. The Gradgrinds are all business and formality; the Jupes are free spirits. So why the controversy?

Dickens feared that the facts of Utilitarianism could be destructive without the help of fancy. The novel reveals that these concepts can lead to the delusion of people. The main characters of the novel realize that their education of facts only deepens their misery and dejection; some of them become emotionally starved, and the conclusion is that they meet a different fate because of their futile efforts to acquire the education of Utilitarianism. When the characters of the novel are represented in this way it is obvious that Dickens is emphasizing the destruction of this theory of teaching. Dickens represents the philosophy of facts and fancy in his novel, and it is the main theme of Hard Times.

Gradgrind’s school attempts to turn children into little machines that behave according to such rules. Dicken is interested in illustrating that fiction cannot be excluded from a fact-filled, mechanical society. Dicken try to explain the dangers of allowing human to become like machines suggesting that without compassion and imagination, life would be unbearable.

Gradgrind’s children, however, grow up in an environment where all flights of fancy are depressed and they end up with serious social malfunction as a result. Lousia feels precisely this suffering when she returns to her father’s house and tells him that something has been missing in her life, so much so that she finds herself in an unhappy marriage and maybe in love with someone else and unable to connect with others even though she has to desire to do so.on other hand, Tom becomes a hedonist who has little regard for others.

‘People must be amused, Thquire, somehow,’ continued Sleary, rendered more pursy than ever, by so much talking; ‘they can’t be always a working, nor yet they can’t be always a learning.’ (1.6.103)

Sleary here summarizes another key point of the novel – everyone needs an escape from everyday drudgery. human beings cannot just spend his life working which means that we should strike a balance between work and enjoying life.

The industrial revolution was a pivotal point in time during the Victorian age, perhaps even one of the most compelling chapters in English history. The writers of the day drew increasingly urgent attention to the condition of England and the working-class Charles Dickens introduced Hard Times and the idea of the industrial revolution as the mechanization of human beings. Although the nation gloried in unrivaled prosperity as a result of the industrial revolution, several key writers: Charles Dickens, and outside sources such as Richard D. Altick, viewed this prosperity in a different light: as the mechanization of human beings when it came to the lives of workers themselves.

The Industrial Revolution brought about an organic system where the rich stayed rich, and the poor remained poor. The industrial revolution should have brought about progress and prosperity to improve people’s life but unfortunately, humans’ lives were affected in many strenuous ways. Men were a part of the organic system in that they would go to work in the factories and produce power in mills and were expected to commit themselves under harsh conditions for long hours, for very little pay. The exploitation of workers was evident by the wealthy, and the wealthy were only interested in becoming wealthier whilst disregarding human morals and principles. Industrialism leads to the mechanization of workers through practical beliefs and misguided Utilitarianism. Workers during this era were oppressed and treated more like objects rather than people. This is shown in Dicken’s Hard Times through several characters. In Hard Times, Charles Dickens explores the dark underside of Victorian prosperity when he depicts the devastating effects of utilitarian philosophy on the lives of the characters, both in the workplace and in the schools.

Charles Dicken’s Hard Times is a novel depicting the harsh realities of nineteenth-century England. Through several characters, Dickens exemplifies the heartache caused by the dehumanization of factory workers or “White Slaves” – as Annie Besant referenced – with the adoption of industrialization. Dehumanization seemed to be a reoccurring theme throughout the Victorian era, this was demonstrated in Hard Times through Gradgrind who argues that everything must be rational and rely on the facts. Portrayed through the Gradgrind children there was no room for dreams and creativity they were somewhat uniform and untouched by pleasure according to their father. This theme is also portrayed through Stephen Blackpool, a character in Hard Times who remained relentless during labor disputes and maintained his morality and wholeness until his death.

According to Warrington Winters, it seems obvious that Dickens’ sole purpose in his novel was to expose the Gradgrinds school of utilitarianism, which advocated, facts over fancy, determination, and a head-over-heart attitude to life. The process of the mechanization of society in Dicken’s Hard Times started with the educational system and Thomas Gradgrind’s system of facts being the only way to learn. Gradgrind is portrayed as “a man of facts and calculations.” Mr. Gradgrind perceives his identity as “an eminently practical” man which shows that nothing is more important to him than facts which shows how individuals were dehumanized during the industrial age and showed no imagination or reason in their thinking. This further demonstrates the educational philosophy in Britain during this time as children are taught only facts and discouraged to use imagination. This philosophy shows that the system is very particular and is a means to influence children and further change society. Gradgrind is essentially indoctrinating society and making sure workers do not challenge the system. Gradgrind said “Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else and root out everything else” this shows that when you implement the facts during childhood, they become rooted and engraved in a child’s thinking and therefore they do not proceed to challenge the system in the future. The idea of mechanization is portrayed through Gradgrinds attitudes and the way he educates his school. Louisa Gradgrind was one of the major victims to the school’s fact-orientated system and oppressive instructions. Louisa’s father demands she doesn’t use her imagination and scolds her for peeping in on a circus as it isn’t based on facts but rather the fancy he is so against. Here, Dickens shows issues of the system of prevailing education in the industrial revolution during the nineteenth century. This was the foundation of making humans more like machines, by containing their emotions and concealing their imagination.

Progressing from education into the workforce individuals continue to be mechanized and this was shown in Hard Times. Workers must stay in their daily motion, not complain and remain under the control off the capitalist society. Dickens referenced English economist Adam Smith, who promoted the idea of a “laissez-faire” policy, which meant that the economy and society would naturally produce solutions to problems and therefore the working class shouldn’t seek to unionize or challenge businesses because they would be replaced and out of a job. Dickens was showing not only industrial society but the mechanization of society and the lack of a utilitarian approach, disregarding an individual’s morals, which is essentially what makes a person human. Through the character of Bounderby Dickens portrays the treatment of factory workers as Bounderby refers to them as “replaceable objects” among the factory equipment designed for exploitation. By calling the factory workers objects’ Bounderby further objectifies them and gives them less of human identity and individuality. K.J. Fielding said “Bounderby view that the factories might as well be thrown into the Atlantic if their owners have to bear the expense of protecting their own workers” which interprets another way industrial workers were oppressed and not cared for by their employer.

Factory workers were very mistreated and, in most cases, not treated like humans. Annie Besant notes the factory workers in the eye of their masters as “white wage slaves,” this is similar to Dicken’s Hard Times where the factory workers were referred to as “hands.” Annie Besant, like Dickens, was a British social reformer. Besant discusses how workers were treated with injustice and this is a reoccurring factor in the industrialization era. She was passionate about women’s rights and the working conditions of women during the industrial revolution. In an article she gives a clear image of how workers were treated quoting; One girl was fined 1s. for letting the web twist around a machine in the endeavor to save her fingers from being cut, and was sharply told to take care of the machine, “never mind your fingers” (Raw 2012). The company the girl is working for Bryant & May paid workers very little for their services whilst handing out a considerable amount to shareholders. This story from Besant further portrays the ideas of how masters are controlling over their workers and demand they take care of the machine above anything else, including their health. Richard D. Altick further supports the claim of ‘injustice towards factory workers’ and infact states that “The worker or “hand,” became no more than a name on a wage sheet” (254) suggesting the further disregard for workers. Altick then argued, “The machine’s omnipresence and man’s physical subjection to it had a psychic effect on people” (245) suggesting that individuals have machine like qualities throughout the Victoria age, so much so that man and machine tended to go hand in hand with each other.

The industrial revolution brought about harsh conditions in England in not only the factories but also the home, which in turn prevented the work class to challenge the system as everyone had the same routine and valued their job – if they were lucky enough to have a job – and therefore prevented anyone from unionizing. Patricia Johnson said that “Dickens metonymically reproduces the system in its harnessing and control of energy, rather than the free release of it.” The working class were in a system that wasn’t easy to escape or change. The poor were expected to go to “ragged schools” as referred to by Altick where they received basic elementary schooling and industrial training which didn’t create equality between the poor and the upper class. The industrial revolution brought about the apparent problem of overpopulation, pollution and the spread of multiple diseases which eliminated the working class. In Hard Times Dickens criticizes the harsh living conditions of the working class in Coketown. Individuals were oppressed, exploited and living in desperation. Utilitarianism during the nineteenth century applies mechanization of both society’s and individuals’ minds. Henry Mayhew gave a voice to London’s poor and portrayed their restrictive lifestyle through “From London Labour and the London Poor.” Mayhew gives further evidence to the harsh living conditions of England from a young boy who explains ‘I often have suffered from cold and hunger. I never made more than 3d. a-day in money… but I am a poor boy out of work and starving.’ Besides Dicken’s Hard Times, Mayhew interviewed workers and street folk and depicted the life of the poor which showed how the working class were expected to live life the same and not challenge the system – laissez-faire – and therefore become dehumanized within society as they show no personal identity.

In Hard Times the aristocracy profited, and the laboring class was exploited. The Victorian era was very complicated, to say the least, and whilst it did bring a progressive age for Britain it also came with plenty of evil, especially for the working-class British society. Hard Times portrayed the idea that relationships between the characters are not humanitarian at all and masters exploited their works “the end justifies the means” idea comes into play here. From reading this paper it is evident that the changes that stemmed from the industrial revolution were predominantly human and social programs rather than economic. In Hard Times, factory workers are treated like machines themselves and were shown no respect, the children in the education system were regarded as ‘calculating machines,’ and taught how to present themselves in society providing no room for originality and personality which was further shown in the home through several writers.