Mentality And Morality In Dickens Hard Times

Dickens’ Hard Times conveys the detached culture present at the time of England’s industrialization, a period was a time of unwavering focus on industry and a neglect of the human soul. The character of Thomas Gradgrind best exemplifies the defining fabric of the time. As an educator involved in molding the minds of the youth, Gradgrind helps to uphold the utilitarian ideas of England. Dickens disproves the prevailing utilitarian mentality avowing life as simply about the hard facts. Through the eventual failure of Gradgrind’s philosophies, Dickens conveys that the mind cannot simply function on logic, it must also have emotion lest it become dispirited.

Thomas Gradgrind best exemplifies the utilitarian trait of practicality, which renders his world colorless and mundane. The first words of the novel set a precedent for Gradgrind’s character and the utilitarian world he helps to create. While addressing the impressionable children of Mr. M’choakumchild’s school he says, “Now, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts” (1.2.9). Here, the word “Facts” is capitalized. It is isolated by a comma in the first sentence a and by direct object in the second. This isolating action consequently capitalizes the importance of Facts in the sentence and obviously in Gradgrind’s life. Gradgrind initially has a pragmatic outlook on life; he prefers all things reduced to provable facts and simple computations. Dickens writes, “With a ruler and a pair of scales, and the multiplication table always in his pocket, sir, ready to measure human nature” (1.2.10). He makes the mistake of applying this algorithm to human relationships; in chapter two, he refers to Sissy as “Girl number 20.” Gradgrind is incapable of truly perceivi...

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...st” (3.8.277). Bitzer stands as the perfect example when children and the society at large are taught to separate his or her being completely from the human nature of emotions.

Thomas Gradgrind is the character through which Dickens communicates his commentary on the destructiveness of industrial England. Dickens communicates his disappointment through his representation of the philosophy of utilitarianism. Gradgrind himself, a product of such a system, is incapable of imagination and only thinks practically never emotionally. The fates of Tom and Louisa Gradgrind and Bitzer provide a second generational evidence of the destructive nature of this system. All three of them, products of the Gradgrind School, have unfulfilled lives devoid of emotion. Dickens employs the character of Thomas Gradgrind to communicate the disparaging nature of a utilitarian society.