The idea that technology will rob us of our humanity has become a tenet of our modern culture. Every year a new film appears that exploits this point. The idea however is nothing new it has been around since the times of Charles Dickens and is evident in his work Hard Times. Hard Times is the shortest novel by Charles Dickens, yet it explores a variety of complex notions from: how the industrial revolution has deprived people of all classes the ability to retain their humanity, to proper Victorian femininity, the importance of fancy, the fault of utilitarianism, the vice of pride, and a criticism of social inequality. When a proper analysis of Hard Times is conducted these points will be found as central to understanding the telos of the work.
Among the strongest points that can be interpreted from the novel is the way the industrial revolution threated to make people no more than machines. In a certain way the ash, which was spewed from the factories contaminated everything. Anything remarkable, anything identifiable about the town was covered in the dark by product of the industrial revolution. As the anonymous narrator notes of the town, “it was a town of red brick, or of brick that would have been red if the smoke and ashes had allowed it…it was a town of unnatural red and black like the painted face of a savage” (Dickens 25). The colors that are used to describe the town, often associated with death, are interpreted to represent the death of the inhabitants’ humanity; a perverse mask that hides all shameful emotions of a town obsessed with facts. The fact that black ash covers the red brick, a color indicative of life, emotion, and passion, displays the remarkable ability of the new era to cover and suffocate all human sens...
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...e one support themselves and bears everything without asking anything in return. Racheal goes as far as to tend Stephen’s wife for the only purpose to help the one she loves. Both the care they impart and the way in which they behave both inside and outside the home are remarkable. Sissy goes as far as to confront Mr. Harthouse, who plays the role of the temper and seduction. This action may infer that a proper Victorian woman must be above the earthly temptations of the flesh.
When analyzing Hard Times a number of different points will be found. Although, short in page length the story is elaborate and can be interpreted in an endless number of way. It is however doubtless that the story is mean to be a work that bring the explores the major issued of its time and which shines a light on the darkness that accompanied the industrial revolution and utilitarianism.
On February 7, 1812, a popular author named Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth, England during the Victorian Era and the French Revolution. He had a father named John Dickens and a mother named Elizabeth Dickens; they had a total of eight children. In Charles’s childhood, he lived a nomadic lifestyle due to his father 's debt and multiple changes of jobs. Despite these obstacles, Charles continued to have big dreams of becoming rich and famous in the future. His father continued to be in and out of prison, which forced him, and his siblings to live in lodging houses with other unwanted children. During this period of depression, Charles went to numerous schools and worked for a boot cleaning company. This caused him
Originating in the Victorian Era, Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations continues to be a huge success. So much of a success, in fact, that it is being re-released as it originally was (in installments), but now in a digital format for reading on electronic devices.
Another man - we are not told who the man is or why he is present, are
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.
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.
10. Allingham, P. (2000) Charles Dickens’ Hard Times for These Times as an Industrial Novel [Online]. Available: http://www.victoriaweb.com [Accessed: 25th April 2005].
Hard times is set in the 1840’s in the North of England. It’s set at a
Dickens is often held to be among the greatest writers of the Victorian Age. Nonetheless, why are his works still relevant nearly two centuries later? One reason for this is clearly shown in Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities. In the novel, he uses imagery to sway the readers’ sympathies. He may kindle empathy for the revolutionary peasants one moment and inspire feeling for the imprisoned aristocrats the next, making the book a more multi-sided work. Dickens uses imagery throughout the novel to manipulate the reader’s compassion in the peasants’ favor, in the nobles defense, and even for the book’s main villainess, Madame Defarge.
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.
Dickens, Charles. Hard Times. Ed. Fred Kaplan and Sylvere Monod. A Norton Critical Edition. 3rd ed. New York: Norton, 2001. 5-222
This novel was written in the Victorian Era, a time when society faces many social difficulties such as industrialization, prostitu...
The role of the circus is both complex and simple it is in itself a
''A town of red brick, or of brick that would have been red if the
The death of God for many in the Victorian era due to scientific discoveries carried with it the implication that life is nothing more than a kind of utilitarian existence that should be lived according to logic and facts, not intuition or feeling – that without God to impose meaning on life, life is meaningless. Charles Dickens, in Hard Times, parodies this way of thought by pushing its ideologies and implications to the extreme in his depiction of the McChoakumchild School.
In the novel Hard Times, Charles Dickens connives a theme of utilitarianism, along with education and industrialization. Utilitarianism is the belief that something is morally right if it helps a majority of people. It is a principle involving nothing but facts and leaves no room for creativity or imagination. Dickens provides symbolic examples of this utilitarianism in Hard Times by using Mr. Thomas Gradgrind, one of the main characters in the book, who has a hard belief in utilitarianism. Thomas Gradgrind is so into his philosophy of rationality and facts that he has forced this belief into his children’s and as well as his young students. Mr. Josiah Bounderby, Thomas Gradgrind’s best friend, also studies utilitarianism, but he was more interested in power and money than in facts. Dickens uses Cecelia Jupe, daughter of a circus clown, who is the complete opposite of Thomas Gradgrind to provide a great contrast of a utilitarian belief.