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"HARD TIMES".

How author analyzes social problems through characters & plot & offers solutions.

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Charles Dickens was an observer of industrial Britain and a social critic. He tends to present in his novels a huge panorama of people and events, and in this way he gives a picture of the time and a real sense of what life is like in different parts of England. In Hard Times, Dickens criticizes the kind of society that developed after the Industrial Revolution, and he sees both the bad things about this society and some of the ways that this society might be improved. He presents these ideas in the context of a novel that has a sense of history and of the social movements driving history. The reader can see in this novel the kind of life lived by the people in industrialized Britain at the end of the nineteenth century, the elements of human nature that brought about this society, and the response of people at all levels of that society.

It was his school, and he intended it to be a model. Gratitude was to be abolished, and the virtues springing from it were not to be. New York: Penguin Books, 1969.----------------------- 9 The greed of societyleads to keeping the people ignorant, making sure that they know only whatthey need to know in order to do their work. The attitude is very much in keeping withthe beliefs of the mill owners that the workers should be grateful fortheir jobs and should make no trouble. 53).Louisa Gradgrind once said to her brother, "I wonder. He intended every child in it to be a model-- just as the young Gradgrinds were all models (p. Even whenlaws existed to prevent abuses, factory owners often ignored them. Hard Times. The union leaders fight each other and the bosses, but theydo so to gain advantage for themselves. ." (Dickens: p. The industrialization of the nation alsobrought with it methods of organizing the workers for maximum efficiencythat in addition produced miserable working conditions, including longhours, dangerous machinery, polluted streets, and child labor. The characters live on thepage, and this makes it easier for the reader to relate to them and tounderstand their feelings and their problems. He sees the world in termsof commerce: It was a fundamental principle of the Gradgrind philosophy, that everything was to be paid for. Factoryowners felt they had no responsibility to their workers except to pay themwages based on supply and demand, and the owners believed that their ownlivelihood depended on high output and low wages. .," and her fatherstepped in and said never to wonder: "Herein lay the spring of themechanical art and mystery of educating the reason without stooping to thecultivation of the sentiments and affections. The reader can see in this novel the kind oflife lived by the people in industrialized Britain at the end of thenineteenth century, the elements of human nature that brought about thissociety, and the response of people at all levels of that society. The workers would in timeachieve more political power and get a leadership that better served theirinterests than the leadership shown in this novel. It also would hold that those whoare successful in society deserve to be, while those who are not have onlythemselves to blame. Dickens obviously wants education to besuch a means of changing society, but he also sees that the education inhis own time is designed for very different purposes. 3 4).This type of thinking leaves no room for charity, no room for anycorrective action, and indeed probably leaves no room for admitting thatthere is a problem to be solved. The fact that education is important to Dickens is shown by theattention given to education in the opening chapters of the book. Dickenscriticizes society by having real people represent a certain aspect ofsociety or position in the social order, and what Dickens thinks aboutsociety is revealed in the way these characters interact with one another.Bounderby is the employer in the novel, and he is a man with no awarenessat all of the plight of his workers, the pollution his factory causes, orthe way his factories have contributed to a poor quality of life inCoketown. We can see how he does this in Hard Times, with different charactersrepresenting entire social orders or classes of society. He thinks the lives of the workers are easy and that they arelucky they do not have to work harder. He sees the way they live as a function ofthe degree to which they have been kept in ignorance, and continuing thepresent industrial system means keeping the workers in ignorance. He lacks the power todo anything about it, though. Gradgrind's version of facingreality is not merely realistic, it is harsh. 65). Gradgrind never wonders, and he wants the children of the workersnever to wonder. In this setting, the factory owners exploit the workingclass and create and maintain conditions that Dickens clearly believes needto be changed in the name of humanity. The workershave a union, but it does not represent their interests as we would expecta union to do. The surroundings are grimy and everybuilding is the same. Never wonder" (Dickens: p.89). The lives of the workers in Coketown may be exaggerated somewhat, butit is likely that Dickens was basing his view of Coketown on what he saw inreal industry towns in England. All Gradgrind wants is facts. . It presents adetailed picture of life in the mill towns of England in the nineteenthcentury and shows some of the reasons why those towns had such a harshlife. He tends to present in his novels a huge panorama of people andevents, and in this way he gives a picture of the time and a real sense ofwhat life is like in different parts of England. It is the work and theeconomic support of society that comes first, and the masses are to servethe needs of the upper classes. He in fact tries to squeeze the imagination out ofhis pupils, believing that they are better off living in the hard-headed,real world. The efforts of the workers to form a unionand to pressure for change are considered subversive to the system. Charles Dickens was an observer of industrial Britain and a socialcritic. Stephen Blackpool is the main worker in the novel, and he isalso a critic of the actions of the union leaders. We think of education as a way of moving from class toclass, as a method of improvement. This is an industry that isparticularly damaging to much of society as Charles Dickens sees it. The industrial town created and described by Dickens in this novel isCoketown, and the name shows that the town would not exist if it were notfor the this one particular industry. Theproduction of coke pollutes the atmosphere much as it pollutes the lives ofthe people living there. He thinks that their complainingall the time is based entirely on greed, as if they were paid enough nowand are only asking for more out of a desire to amass money. In Hard Times,the very title of which evokes the plight of the people, Dickens shows thatthe underlying reason for this misery is the fact that society at large isdedicated solely to profit even to the exclusion of concern for the well-being of the people. This book makes the reader think about the issues involved even whileinvolving the reader in the real lives of the characters. Dickens creates a very detailed picture of the life of the people ofthis time and place, and the book provides the reader with a window intothat era. Dickens writes such a strongdescription of Coketown that the reader feels it is a real place and thatthe people working and living there are real people. The description of the town shows how the productnow covers the entire town: "It was a town of red brick, or of brick thatwould have been red if the smoke and ashes had allowed it; but as mattersstood it was a town of unnatural red and black like the painted face of asavage" (Dickens: p. He presents these ideas inthe context of a novel that has a sense of history and of the socialmovements driving history. There is one social problem that Dickens gives more attention to thanany other, and that is the problem of education. They pervert thatunderstanding, though, giving education a prominent role in keeping theworkers in their place. Dickensbegins with his critique of education and shows how the educational systemproduces unthinking children before he shows how oppressive Coketown is andhow the workers have to live. The industrial revolutionhad altered economic conditions for the nation and had increasedmanufacturing throughout Britain. This is true of all thecharacters, those who are admirable and those who are not. The way the characters interact also gives the reader a sense ofthe life of that time and of the conflicts and problems of the era withoutdoing so in a way that seems to be preaching. In Hard Times, Dickenscriticizes the kind of society that developed after the IndustrialRevolution, and he sees both the bad things about this society and some ofthe ways that this society might be improved. The workers are not treated as people but as workers,meaning as cogs in the machinery. The fact that men like Dickens took a critical view of that life andof the reasons for it also shows how a reform spirit developed to addressthese problems and to make changes, eventually overcoming the kind of "lifeas commerce" attitude of men like Gradgrind. The kind of thinking that is expressed by Gradgrind is particularlyinteresting for what it says of the time and of the social problems thatwere being created and ignored by society. Every inch of the existence of mankind, from birth to death, was to be a bargain across a counter (p. 65). They are often the ones who reallyare greedy. BibliographyDickens, Charles. Nobody was ever on any account to give anybody anything, or render help without purchase. The worldpictured by Dickens is very different from our own in a lot of ways.England was (and perhaps still is) a very class-conscious society, andmoving between classes was much more difficult than it is for Americans.Dickens offers a very good analysis of how education is used to keep theclasses separate. The air pollution comes from the smokestacks onthe factories, and the river is polluted by dyes from the same factories.Dickens describes the living conditions and the pollution in the streets:"These attributes of Coketown were in the main inseparable from the work bywhich it was sustained. Thomas Gradgrind is the head of the school, a manwith no imagination. They want thepeople to accept their lot and never to wonder what it would be like ifthings were different. This situation produces conflict betweenthe classes, and it also creates a variety of social problems that arecompletely ignored, including such problems as poor education, pollution,poor housing conditions, dangerous machinery, and miserable workingconditions. He has accomplished this withhis own children, and he is proud of the fact: Mr. Gradgrind walked homeward from the school,in a state of considerable satisfaction. . Dickens apparently sees the IndustrialRevolution as having created the conditions of misery and poverty he seesall around him, affecting the lives of millions of workers. ThomasGradgrind is a tool of the upper class whether he knows it or not. This is aninteresting talent on Dickens's part, since these characters are not onlyreal but are also types, at times almost caricatures of some particularaspect of the social order. These two things might seem to be completelyopposite, but Dickens makes them both work very well. Dickens makes this clear when he says that thechurches could be the jail or the infirmary--all are of red brick and alllook the same. The environment of Coketown is depressing and takes its toll on thepeople who live and work there. Mr.Gradgrind's attitude is the attitude of his society. Dickens emphasizes theimportance of education, and he finds that even the oppressive factoryowners have an understanding of the power of education. It is evident from this novel that Charles Dickens saw education as away for the masses to overcome their plight. This suits the mill owners quite well.

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