The Importance Of Education In Dickens Hard Times By Charles Dickens

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Martina Pucelj
Ljubica Matek, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
Survey of English Literature II
May 26th, 2017
Education in Charles Dickens’ Hard Times
Charles Dickens is one of the most famous writers of the Victorian Age. This period is known for industrialization which brought about many problems. Workers were trying to fight for the rights which were taken from them. Dickens depicts this struggle in many of his works. In Hard Times he focuses on the new way of thinking, a result of the development of technology. The reader is introduced to the new philosophy applied to the upbringing of Victorian children, represented by Thomas Gradgrind and his off spring. This type of education had many negative effects on these young minds. One of them is dehumanization which is noticeable in the acts of Louisa and Tom Gradgrind. This research paper is going to focus on Dickens’ portrait of the Gradgrinds’ education and its …show more content…

She does not know how to react to such a situation so she asks her father about the appropriate and expected behavior: “’The question I have to ask myself is, shall I marry him? That is so, father, is it not? You have told me so, father. Have you not?'” (Dickens 89). She is aware of the fact that she does not love Bounderby and will never be able to do so, but she accepts nonetheless because it is the right thing to do considering Mr. Bounderby’s social status. Not once does the thought that one is supposed to love the person they are going to marry cross her mind. Her acceptance does not indicate any emotions. She is not thrilled or happy that she is going to become someone’s wife. She just does what she thinks should be done, as Barbara Hardy summarized: “She perversely represses her capacity for virtue, and tries to act out the utilitarian disregard for feeling which her education has held up as a model” (Hardy

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