Analysis of Why Fact and Fancy Are Both Necessary in Charles Dickens' Hard Times
Fact and Fancy in Hard Times
Coketown is a monotonous town of machinery and tall chimneys. There is a sense of sameness in the town: “It contained several large streets all very like one another, and many small streets still more like one another, inhabited by people equally like one another.” A town so sacred to fact should progress smoothly, yet residents of Coketown “never knew what they wanted” and were “eternally dissatisfied” (33). One of the main characters in Charles Dickens’ Hard Times, Mr. Gradgrind, enthusiastically teaches facts to his students: “Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else.” His philosophy of fact and rationale makes his pupils and children machine-like. Hard Times demonstrates, through Mr. Gradgrind’s dynamic characterization, that a fulfilling life cannot be lived by fact alone.
Mr. Gradgrind is a man of “realities, facts, and calculations” (12). At his school, which he intends to be an educational model, he only teaches facts: “You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them. This is the principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these children. Stick to Facts, sir!” Described as a “galvanizing apparatus” who is “charged with a grim mechanical substitute for the tender young imagination that were to be stormed away,” Mr. Gradgrind pours gallons of facts into “the little pitchers before him” (13) until they are full to the brim.
Mr. Gradgrind’s own children are, indeed, raised on facts. The five young Gradgrinds are “lectured at from their tenderest ...
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... Bitzer’s actions are the result of “the nicest and coldest calculation” (120). Devastated, Mr. Gradgrind asks Bitzer if he has a heart. Bitzer merely replies that “No man, sir, acquainted with the facts established by Harvey relating to the circulation of the blood can doubt that I have a heart.” Ironically, Bitzer acts just as Mr. Gradgrind has taught him to and cannot feel any emotion towards the situation.
Numerous clues throughout Hard Times lead to the realization that the supposition of the head being all-sufficient is wrong. Even Mr. Gradgrind’s wife tries to tell Louisa that there is something her father missed or forgot, and not an “ology” at all. Louisa finds reason as being grim, cruel, and cold. A life without feeling and compassion is unbearable. As Mr. Gradgrind finally says, there is a “wisdom of the head and a wisdom of the heart” (222).
Tommy is bored by his small town with its “ordinary lesson, complete with vocabulary and drills,” at school (p. 46, l. 137), and his mom not listening about his day, “Did you hear me?...You have chores to do.” (p. 58, l. 477-479) Everyone knows everyone else in Five Oaks. In comes Mrs. Ferenczi talking about things he and his classmates had never heard of before. Things like a half bird-half lion called a Sryphon, Saturn and its mysterious clouds, and sick dogs not drinking from rivers but waiting for rain all in one lesson (p. 55-56, l. 393-403). Ideas never stop coming and they branch out from each other before they are properly explained. Most of the kids feel she lies, but Tommy joins her in …. (Write here about how Tommy begins to make up stories like Mrs. F.) Think of the progression: looks-up “Gryphon” in the dictionary….makes-up “Humpster “ story….”sees” unusual trees on the bus ride home….yells at & fights
In “Gryphon” by Charles Baxter, a class of fourth grade students gets a substitute teacher. She is very eccentric but knowledgeable and tells the whole class a lot of myths and facts. It is up to the class to decide what is true or not.
Explore how Dickens makes his readers aware of poverty in A Christmas Carol One of the major themes in "A Christmas Carol" was Dickens' observations of the plight of the children of London's poor and the poverty that the poor had to endure. Dickens causes the reader to be aware of poverty by the use and type of language he uses. He uses similes and metaphors to establish clear and vivid images of the characters who are used to portray his message. Dickens describes his characters like caricatures. Dickens exaggerates characters characteristics in order to make his point and provide the reader with a long living memory.
Louise, the unfortunate spouse of Brently Mallard dies of a supposed “heart disease.” Upon the doctor’s diagnosis, it is the death of a “joy that kills.” This is a paradox of happiness resulting into a dreadful ending. Nevertheless, in reality it is actually the other way around. Of which, is the irony of Louise dying due to her suffering from a massive amount of depression knowing her husband is not dead, but alive. This is the prime example to show how women are unfairly treated. If it is logical enough for a wife to be this jovial about her husband’s mournful state of life then she must be in a marriage of never-ending nightmares. This shows how terribly the wife is being exploited due her gender in the relationship. As a result of a female being treated or perceived in such a manner, she will often times lose herself like the “girl
Another man - we are not told who the man is or why he is present, are
First and most importantly Mike Rose writes the book in the first person. This provides an invaluable view to the actual thoughts and perceptions of a student who considered himself to be underprepared. Mike Rose begins his accounts in grammar school when he felt lost in the material. The teacher did not hold his attention and therefore he began to “daydream to avoid inadequacy” (Rose 19).
In this essay, I will argue that one of the underlying motives in Charles Dickens' novel A Tale of Two Cities (1859) is the reinforcement of Christian values in 18th century Victorian England. Dickens was very concerned with the accepted social norms of industrialized England, many of which he felt were very inhumane. Christian values were challenged, largely due to the recent publication of Darwin's Origins of a Species, and philosophy along with literature was greatly affected. In 1859, the industrial age was booming, making many entrepreneurs rich. However, the majority of the lower economic class remained impoverished, working in unsafe and horrific environments as underpaid factory workers. Additionally, child labor was an accepted practice in Victorian England's factories. Dickens, who worked, as a child in a shoe polish factory, detested this social convention with such strength that only one with experience in such exploitation could.
...and walked home.” Collins contrasts the students’ misbehavior with the teacher’s ignorance, thus implying a relationship between the history teacher’s inability to teach his students and their ensuing misbehavior.
Understanding the experiences of one’s past may inspire the decisions that will lead the course of one’s life. Charles Dickens’s childhood was overwhelming and had many difficult phases. It is truly impressive for a young boy to support his family, mostly on his own, and be able to maintain a suitable education. These hardship episodes may have been difficult for him, but it made him who he had always wanted to be. Eventually, he had been known as one of the most significant writers since Shakespeare.
12. Oldham, R. (2000) Charles Dickens’ Hard Times: Romantic Tragedy of Proletariat Propaganda [Online]. Available: http://www.pillowrock.com [Accessed: 25th April 2005].
Hard times is set in the 1840’s in the North of England. It’s set at a
Social Classes of Industrial England in Charles Dickens' Hard Times In his novel, Hard Times, Charles Dickens used his characters to describe the caste system that had been shaped by industrial England. By looking at three main characters, Stephen Blackpool, Mr. Josiah Bounderby, and Mr. Thomas Gradgrind, one can see the different classes that were industrial England. Stephen Blackpool represented the most abundant and least represented caste in industrial England, the lower class (also called the hands) in Charles Dickens' novel. Stephen was an honest, hard-working man who came to much trouble in the novel, often because of his class.
This paper is to explain the use of irony of a phrase from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. The story is set during the time of the French Revolution and the phrase was the slogan of the revolutionaries: “The Republic One and the Indivisible of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, or Death.” Each term of this phrase will be defined and once defined one will be able to see the extreme irony of it.
In the 1830s, as the capitalist system had established and consolidated in Europe, the drawbacks of the capitalist society appeared, and the class contradictions also sharpened day by day. The capitalist mode of production "has left no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest, than calloused `cash payment'. It has drowned out the most heavenly ecstasies of religious fervor, of chivalrous enthusiasm, of philistine sentimentalism, in the icy water of egotistical calculation. It has resolved personal worth into exchange value, and in place of the numberless indefeasible chartered freedoms, has set up that single, unconscionable freedom --- Free Trade. In one word, for exploitation, veiled by religious and political illusions, it has substituted naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation."(Marx, Engels 1972: 253). Additionally, the development of natural science and the victory in objecting to the religion and idealism struggle of materialism impelled the writers to break the traditional concept and illusion, and to watch the world and research the social realistic problems with the relatively objective even scientific eyes, so that Realism replaced Romanism to become the principal school of European literary circles. Since at that time the realistic literature was good at ferreting out to capitalist society and criticism, Maxim Gorky called it as "the criticized realism"(Gorky 1978: 110-111).
In this novel Dickens Shows how Thomas Gradgrind uses a utilitarian mindset to force facts in the minds of young children. “Stick to Facts” (1) Thomas Gradgrind says. Dickens use Thomas Gradgrind Teachings to show how facts alone are not enough. Dickens connives that you need other factors to consider when creating the perfect human. You need imagination, life adventure and facts alone are not enough.