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Social intricacies of hard economy in Charles Dickens Hard Times
Dickens's attitude to education
Analysis of Hard Times by Charles Dickens
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Hard Times, by Charles Dickens, was a representation of his time. Times were hard for children and adults alike. People who questioned what they were taught, often went through struggles and “hard times.” Eventually, the people who were looked down were the ones who really helped those in need. Throughout the book, there are many ironic instances.
Thomas Gradgrind was a man built on the idea that facts and statistics were the only truth in life and all that was needed to have a healthy and productive life. The only truth to him was his very own vision of the truth. Simple put, Thomas Gradgrind strived for perfection. He strived to be perfect, which is what his philosophy was based on, and he strived to make his children perfect and not to wonder. He raised his children never to wonder, never to doubt facts and to never entertain any vice or fancy. As soon as Gradgrind’s children were old enough to absorb, he was feeding giving more lessons than they could hold. His children were brought up only knowing one way to live and that was the idea that if it is not fact, then it is false. He was emotionaless as were his children because they were brought up only knowing what they were taught by him. Eventually, as Gradgrind’s children became older, what they were taught began to turn sour in their minds. Tom, Grandgrind’s son, began to despise his father and all he was taught and thus began to rebel. He took to smoking and gambling, which eventually led to his downfall. Tom had grown up to become a sycophantic, self-absorbed parasite. He had turned out the exact opposite as hoped.
Thomas Gradgrind had raised his children never to wonder, but wondering intrigued them. Gradrgind had observed his children peeking into a circus tent because they were curious as to what was inside. The children were scolded for being curious, but seeds were planted into their minds of how there was more to life than what they had been taught. Futhermore, Tom, a usually well-behaved child, began to rebel after this incident. At first, he was rebelling in his mind, but eventually, after Tom moved out of his father’s house, so began his more visible rebellion. Once more, this is exactly what Mr. Gradgrind had tried to avoid whilst raising his children.
When Tom Gradgrind was in serious trouble because of his gambling debts, he confided in his sister, Louisa.
In the novel Grand Avenue. Greg Sarris uses the theme thread of poison to connect all of his separate stories about the Toms’, a Pomo Indian family. He proves that the roots of a family are the basis which gives the family its structure, even if those roots are bad. In the Toms’ family they’re roots were poisoned from the very founding of the family starting with Sam Toms’. His poison was not the fact that he tried to steal a married woman away, but that he was filled with secrets, deceptions, and self hatred. His family was founded on these poisened roots and passes the poisen down generation after gerneration. The only way to stop the poison, or inner self hatred taken out in other forms, was to let go of past and talk about the secrets and lies. Once a person does this they are able to learn from their mistake , in a sense the break free from the poison. If Sam Toms’ , the founder or root of the family,would have broken free of his poisen by talking about his mistake he made, his whole family per haps would have turned out completely different. As a result of his secrets and lies his family was rasied to make the same immoral desisions as he made throughout his life. His family, like Sam, didn't take responcilblity for their mistakes, which spread the poison onto the next generation. Tracing the poison throughout the Tom’s beginning at the roots, shows just how important the roots indeed are.
From his first introduction early in the first chapter of The Great Gatsby to the end of the second, Tom strives to constantly remind everyone around him of his power through his actions, thoughts, and speech. Like royal subjects loyal to their king, he believes that everyone is under him and should respect and obey his every wish. Through the mastery of Fitzgerald's poetic hand, a character has been created to which wealth has become a religion and god has become a personification of himself.
Charles Dickens born February 7th 1812 – 9th June 1870 is a highly remarkable novelist who had a vision to change wealthy people’s scrutiny on the underprivileged and by fulfilling the dream he writes novels. Furthermore, I think that Dickens wrote about poverty as he had experiences this awful incident in his upbringings.
These instances of Tom, Chambers, and Roxy all confining to the ways in which they were raised while defying their true natures all point to the fact that it is, indeed, our environment that shapes us as a person both inside and out. Even though there were a few instances in which both Tom and Chambers could have forged new habits, the gravity of their pasts were too much to overcome. In light of this discovery, I, too, wonder just how much my upbringing has affected who I am today, and whether or not it could have been changed. It seems that Tom and Chamber’s character could have been reversed, if only Roxy didn’t switch the kids.
“I couldn’t forgive him or like him, but I saw that what he had done was, to him, entirely justified. It was all very careless and confused. They were careless people, Tom and Daisy — they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made… I shook hands with him; it seemed silly not to, for I felt suddenly as though I were talking to a child” (187-188).
...ll wants and desires often results in a future filled with deep sadness. However, children do not degenerate by themselves; rather they are not spoiled till those of influential stature in the eyes of the children sink in to the corruption of favoritism. Even though times have changed, this corruption present in “Why I Live at the P.O” is analogous to what favoritism is today. In the modern world, partiality towards a certain child usually comes from strong feelings of love that bury themselves in an prominent figure’s mind and subconsciously spoil the child. This irony, that amplified love actually causes one to suffer later in life, depicts the broader issue that by getting one used to an imaginary life where all desires are fulfilled, he or she cannot accept the fact of human nature that, outside the household, people are indifferent to another person’s wishes.
Charles Dickens’ novels criticize the injustices of his time, especially the brutal treatment of the poor in a society sharply divided by differences of wealth. He lived through that world at an early age; he saw the bitter side of the social class system and had wanted it to be exposed, so people could see the exploitation that the system rests on. But he presents these criticisms through the lives of characters, Pip and Magwitch.
"I couldn’t forgive him or like him, but I saw that what he had done was, to him, entirely justified. It was all very careless and confused. They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.” (188).
When this story is viewed through Sigmund Freud’s “psychoanalytic lens” the novel reveals itself as much more than just another gory war novel. According to Sigmund Freud psychology there are three parts of the mind that control a person’s actions which are the id, ego, and superego. Psychoanalysis states that there are three parts of the human mind, both conscious and subconscious, that control a person’s actions. The Id, ego, and
Also, the sentimentality, although at times difficult to endure, produced a deeper understanding and emphasis of the harsh conditions that the people of France dealt with. For example, when Dickens describes France as having “its one poor street, with its poor brewery, poor tannery, poor tavern, poor stableyard ...” and says. “It had its poor people, too,” you can relate these horrid conditions to the world in which we now live. For this reason, Dickens use of emotive words aids you in grasping the circumstances that influenced the characters’ actions and thoughts.
... growth where a child is forced to start looking for solutions for everything that is wrong instead of simply being a child. This analysis prove that children have their own way of seeing things and interpreting them. Their defense mechanisms allow them to live through hard and difficult times by creating jokes and games out of the real situation. This enables then to escape the difficulties of the real world.
...a was raised, she was learning life lessons. She learned of violence from inside The Little Store. She never considered Mr. Sessions and the woman in the store to have any kind of relationship because Eudora never saw them sit down together at the table. Then tragedy struck, and this was how she learned of violence. She never knew exactly what had happened, but knew it was not good. The family just disappeared. Every time she came home from the store, she was carrying with her a little of what she had learned along the way. She learned a lot about, ?pride and disgrace, and rumors and early news of people coming to hurt one another, while others practiced for joy?storing up a portion for [her]self of the human mystery? (82).
Houses were constructed in confined areas with no space for ventilation, houses had no system to maneuver waste away from the drinking water or living spaces. The destitute flocked to "poorhouses" set up by the government, however, even those were designed to force the poor back out on the street. The lack of sanitation and overcrowding allowed for widespread disease. "Cholera, tubercluosis, typhus, typhoid, and influenze ravaged through new industial towns, especially in poor working-class neighborhoods." ("Introduction to the Industrial Revolution"). During the time Dickens wrote Hard Times all of these harsh realities he would have seen first hand. Watching the poor workers live in anguish and suffering must have grown his disdain for the Industrial Revolution. Hard Times would have been inspired by real world events that he personally witnessed on a day-to-day
The novel, Hard Times by Charles Dickens revolves around the central idea of English society, including the social, economical, and political issues during the mid 19th century. Fact superior to imagination is one of the main themes of this novel, apparent mainly in book one. Mr. Gradgrind raises his children to ignore their imaginations and anything that is not cold hard fact. For example, Louisa, his daughter, in particular tends to question this rationalism with her curiosity about the circus. There are countless examples in which Mr. Gradgrind bestows his “wisdom” on both his children, and students in the education system located in Coketown. The way Mr. and Mrs. Gradgrind raised their children, described by Dickens, parallels the way in which John Stuart Mill was raised by his own parents in London during the 19th century. John, similarly to Louisa, was educated with the idea that any of his own imagination or creativity was wrong. His parents would burn toys in front of him, emulating the idea that any object or concept that brings happiness is simply wrong. His father, Sir James Stuart Mill, also had a major impact on Mill’s childhood and even manhood. The majority of his infancy was centered on education, and the thought that hard-core knowledge was the solution to any conflict. During this time, his father would make him read Greek and Latin classics to ensure that he were prepared for disciplinary jobs in the future. Through this childhood of fact, and purely fact, along with a lack of moral influences instituted in his life, constituted Mill to become an advocate for utilitarianism. This theory was proposed by Jeremy Bentham who was indeed Mill’s family friend and tutor, emphasizing the idea of maximizing happiness and ...
Dickens, Charles. Hard Times: An Authority Text, Background, Sources, And Contemporary Reactions Criticism. NewYork: W.W. Norton & Company. 2,1990. Ch.1: 1, ch.7: 203, ch.8: 210 & 211, ch.9: 218.