How does Dickens present his views on education in hard times?

How does Dickens present his views on education in hard times?

Hard times is set in the 1840’s in the North of England. It’s set at a

time when Britain is changing dramatically because of the Industrial

Revolution, which is mainly affecting this part of Britain. This

revolution moved much of the work from the country into towns and

cities, and small cramped villages were built around the factories and

mills to house the workers. Dickens novel ‘hard times’ was set during

this time.

Dickens uses many techniques throughout the novel to show his views on

education to his readers, the first of which is to create different

characters, some of which contrast each other in different ways . Two

of such Characters are Sissy Jupe and Bitzer. They differ in the ways

they have been taught and the ways they see the education system.

Bitzer is a model student, he has always strictly followed the system

and been taught exactly how the system requires him to be taught. He

is shown as lifeless and colourless, ‘the boy was so light-eyed and

light-haired that the self-same rays appeared to draw out of him what

little colour he ever possessed.’ This gives the effect that he has

been drained of life and everything else but facts. When asked, Bitzer

describes a Horse as a ‘Quadruped’ and ‘graminivorous’ and gives

endless facts about the animal. Although this description is very

factual and impressive, the use of long complex words and the amount

of facts show that he has simply been taught these facts, and probably

has never even seen a Horse. Sissy on the other hand does not

understand how to factually define a Horse when asked, this is because

she has been brought up with Horses all her life and they are too

familiar and important to her just to be described in facts. This is

one way that Dickens tries to show to his audience that this type of

education is wrong, the teaching of bare facts limits the imagination

of the student and a more practical way of teaching, like Sissy has

had, would help the children understand the facts that they are being

taught, instead of just learning them.

Dickens also shows the characters of some of the staff at the school

to make his views known. Mr Gradgrind is the first to be introduced,

from the onset Dickens portrays him as ‘squared’ , both in his

appearance and character, he reveals little about him apart from the

fact he is rigid, and has little individuality. This is emphasized by

the repletion of ‘square’ and ‘speaker’, and by this he is shown to