Dickens' Attitude Toward Education in Hard Times
Dickens wrote Hard Times in 1854, when the industrial revolution was
active. This influenced the way the book was written. In the first two
chapters of Hard Times, Dickens' attitudes to education are presented.
He uses two characters, Gradgrind and M'Choakumchild to show the bad
views of education and the opposition to Dickens' views. There is an
immediate tension between Dickens' way of thinking and Gradgrind's and
M'Choakumchild's. Gradgrind and M'Choakumchild call the children
vessels and do not use names but numbers. The children are allowed no
independent thought. While Bitzer is how he is "supposed" to be, Sissy
Jupe is free spirited and rebellious and exposes the contrast between
the two characters. Dickens' wrote Hard Times when society was
changing and opinion was frowned on and fact only was needed.
Gradgrind and M'Choakumchild are both introduced in the first two
chapters and are alike in some ways, e.g. they both believe facts are
all the children need, although the descriptions of the men are very
different. The second paragraph of the first chapter is the
introduction to Gradgrind and where he is described thoroughly and it
is detailed. He is first introduced and described as 'the speaker'.
Dickens' builds up the picture of Gradgrind by using repetition, he
keeps repeating "the emphasis". Dickens' way of building up the
picture is like using building blocks which are very square and plain
and Gradgrind is described as very square and plain. It could be
recognized as a simile. Dickens adds a climax and builds tension to
the portraying of Gradgrind. However there is a ba...
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... by and by, dost thou think that thou
wilt always kill outright the robber Fancy lurking within - or
sometimes only maim him and distort him!" this means you can fill the
children with knowledge but it will not matter.
On looking at the first two chapters of Hard Times, the ways of
education Dickens displayed is very different to school life today and
would not be acceptable in today's society. Children should be able to
show their capability and their imagination freely and to continue to
express this throughout not only their education but also their life.
Dickens uses Hard Times to criticise how the education system was and
how it could be made better. Dickens puts forth his real feelings.
Luckily, the education system has changed since the book was written
and children can have freedom, individuality and opinion.
Dickens used his great talent by describing the city London were he mostly spent his time. By doing this Dickens permits readers to experience the sights, sounds, and smells of the aged city, London. This ability to show the readers how it was then, how ...
Another man - we are not told who the man is or why he is present, are
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].
After being very ill Pip realises that being a gentleman means more than having money and an education. Many of Dickens books are about childhood difficulties. Perhaps this is because he was drawing on the experience of his own difficult childhood and his own desire, like Pips to become a gentleman. Dickens books are also about the class struggle, cruelty, inequality and injustice. Punishment was harsh such as deportation to do hard labour in Australia for small crimes or public hanging.
"Now what I want is facts… Facts alone are wanted in life… This is the
What comes to mind first when dealing with the lively imagination of Dickens is the creative and detailed picture he gives. In describing Dr. Manette, for instance, Dickens exaggerates his characterization by saying Manette’s voice was like “the last feeble echo of a sound made long, long ago.” From this alone you can hear the faintness of his voice and feel the suppressed dreadfulness of his past. In this way, the sentimentality of it all gets the reader involved emotionally and makes the character come alive.
When considering representation, the ways in which the authors choose to portray their characters can have a great impact on their accessibility. A firm character basis is the foundation for any believable novel. It is arguable that for an allegorical novel - in which Hard Times takes its structure, Dickens uses an unusually complex character basis. The characters in Hard Times combine both the simplistic characteristics of a character developed for allegorical purposes, as well as the concise qualities of ‘real’ people (McLucas, 1995). These characters are portrayed to think and feel like we as readers do and react to their situations in the same way that most of us would. Such attributes are what give the characters life and allow us to relate to their decisions.
along with the rest of his family to work in a factory to help repay
Charles Dickens' Exploration of the Victorian Society's Awful Treatment Of The Children Of The Poor
Charles Dickens' Picture Of Childhood in Victorian Times Great Expectations is set in early Victorian England, a time when great social changes were sweeping the nation. The Industrial Revolution of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries had transformed the social landscape, enabling capitalists and manufacturers to amass huge fortunes. Although social class was no longer entirely dependent on the circumstances of one's birth, the divisions between rich and poor remained nearly as wide as ever. London, a teeming mass of humanity, lit by gas lamps at night and darkened by black clouds from smokestacks during the day, formed a sharp contrast with the nation's sparsely populated rural areas. More and more people moved from the country to the city in search of greater economic opportunity.
Dickens saw it as his role to write about the plight of the poor and
Charles Dickens is well known for his distinctive writing style. Few authors before or since are as adept at bringing a character to life for the reader as he was. His novels are populated with characters who seem real to his readers, perhaps even reminding them of someone they know. What readers may not know, however, is that Dickens often based some of his most famous characters, those both beloved or reviled, on people in his own life. It is possible to see the important people, places, and events of Dickens' life thinly disguised in his fiction. Stylistically, evidence of this can be seen in Great Expectations. For instance, semblances of his mother, father, past loves, and even Dickens himself are visible in the novel. However, Dickens' past influenced not only character and plot devices in Great Expectations, but also the very syntax he used to create his fiction. Parallels can be seen between his musings on his personal life and his portrayal of people and places in Great Expectations.
can be seen in Oliver Twist, a novel about an orphan, brought up in a workhouse and poverty to demonstrate the hypocrisy of the upper class people. Oliver Twist shows Dickens' perspective of society in a realistic, original manner, which hope to change society's views by "combining a survey of the actual social scene with a metaphoric fiction designed to reveal the nature of such a society when exposed to a moral overview" (Gold 26). Dickens uses satire, humorous and biting, through pathos, and stock characters in Oliver Twist to pr...
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.