Hard Times Essay - 1665 Words

Literary works often portray or allude to the society in which they are written. Characters take upon social statuses, and whose positions and characterizations are determined by those statuses. Social statuses, in any context, are hard to change. It is the American Dream to move from a lower class to the upper class, and the American Dream is hard to obtain, although easy to wish for. These social classes provide easy identification of characters, but also prove to be barriers within the society. The construct of social classes in Hard Times by Charles Dickens provides context for the inability to easily change classes within a structured society. Each character provides detail into the description of their social classes, and also†¦show more content†¦Despite these studies, the â€Å"hands† were still just â€Å"hands.† They were able to master things that were common of the middle class, but yet had rose no more than the laborers they were despite these teac hings. Where they were born, and from what tier of society they were from mattered more than their learning. The look of their houses, which were â€Å"stunted and crooked shapes† gave way to the â€Å"kind of people who might be expected to be born in [them]† (Dickens 70). There is a reason why the general population of Coketown were considered â€Å"Hands,† â€Å"they were a part of the anatomy that has the facility for work,† (Sutherland, Para. 26) but they were not able to move from one place to the next in society. It was as if they should have been made by God to have â€Å"only hands, or like the lower creatures of the seashore, only hands and stomachs† (Dickens 70). The â€Å"Hands† are described often as kind, gentle, and caring. They are friendly to each other. Rachael, who had saved the life of the woman standing in her way of marrying her beloved, and Stephen, who stays true to his drunken wife are examples of the â€Å"perfect integrity† (Dickens 71) that is common in the lower class. Bounderby, â€Å"whose name represents his approach to life; he uses others for personal gain† (Bracket, Para. 3) is contrasted with the loving approach of the â€Å"Hands.† Bounderby hadShow MoreRelatedDickens Hard Times1535 Words   |  7 PagesDickens’ Hard Times â€Å"Now, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life.† (Dickens, 1854, p.1) With these beginning sentences of the novel â€Å"Hard Times†, Charles Dickens has made readers doubt whether it is true that facts alone are wanted in life. This question leads to the main theme of the story, fact against fancy, that author has never been written this kind of plot in his other stories before. In fact, Hard Times is considered as theRead MoreHard Times Bounderby800 Words   |  4 PagesJosiah Bounderby falsely claims his success in life was a result of his hard work and never receiving help from anyone in Charles Dickens’ Hard Times. Claiming to be a self-made man grants Mr. Bounderby wide admiration in Coketown, with the exception of Tom and Louisa Gradgrind and Mrs. Sparsit, who perceive him to be an insolent person. Tom mirrors   Mr. Bounderby’s selfish and hypocritical personality, but blames the old man for his rigid upbringing. Louisa cannot admire Mr. Bounderby while he shamelesslyRead MoreIntroduction to Hard Times2041 Words   |  9 PagesThe shortest of Dickens novels, Hard Times, was also, until quite recently, the least regarded of them. The comedy is savagely and scornfully sardonic, to the virtual exclusion of the humour - that delighted apprehension of and rejoicing in idiosyncrasy and absurdity for their own sakes, which often cuts right across moral considerations and which we normally take for granted in Dickens. Then, too, the novel is curiously skeletal. There are four separate plots, or at least four separate centresRead MoreCharles Dickens Hard Times For These Times1074 Words   |  5 Pagesthe course without straying from it. If you do, you are considered broken. Yet, what exactly is the point of mindlessly walking the same path as everyone else, only to constantly find yourself memorizing empty facts over and over again? In Hard Times for these Times, Charles Dickens embodies the consequences of an absolutely factual world: blindness, imbalance, and nonfulfillment. Through the convoluted storie s of the opposite worlds, Sissy’s journey to becoming a jewel of balance, Louisa’s tragic fightRead MoreCharles Dickens Hard Times971 Words   |  4 PagesIn Hard Times, Dickens presents life philosophies of three men that directly contradict each other. James Harthouse sees one’s actions in life as meaningless since life is so short. Mr. Gradgrind emphasizes the importance of fact and discourages fantasy since life is exactly as it was designed to be. Mr. Slearly exhibits that â€Å"all work and no play† will make very dull people out of all of us. He also proclaims that one should never look back on one’s life and regret past actions. Dickens is certainlyRead MoreCharles Dickens Hard Times1494 Words   |  6 Pages May 1, 2015 Mr. Johnson Literature Dickens Calls for Desperate Measures in Hard Times â€Å"I want to change the world.† How many times is that line heard from small children, aspiring to be someone who achieves their maximum potential? If a child is asked how they might go about doing so they might respond with an answer that involves a superhero or princess who helps people for the greater good. As one grows and adapts to their surrounding society, the art of seeing the big picture includingRead MorePresentation of Conflict in Hard Times1343 Words   |  6 PagesDiscuss the presentation of confict in the texts that you have studied In â€Å"Hard Times† by Charles Dickens, conflict is presented as the outcome of industrialisation, material prosperity and a strict utilitarian way of life. In the 1850’s when the novel was written in instalments in ‘Household Words’, Victorian England was in the age of reform, which was creating new tensions between social classes, and creating a new type of ‘master’ represented by characters such as Mr. Gradgrind and more particularlyRead MoreHard Times By Charles Dickens1502 Words   |  7 Pagesnovel, Hard Times by Charles Dickens, concentrates on the Gradgrind family; of Mr. Thomas Gradgrind, his daughter Louisa, and son Thomas Jr. A major theme of friendship is portrayed in the books through the character of Mr. Gradgrind as he struggles with the idea of friendship between other characters. According to the Nicomachean Ethics, by Aristotle, it explains a detailed account of friendship and what it is to be a friend to others. In compari ng the character Mr. Gradgrind in Hard Times, to theRead MoreUse of Exaggeration in Hard Times1545 Words   |  7 PagesDickens has cleverly used exaggeration in Hard Times, in the form of caricature and farce to criticize the theory of utilitarianism; the popular way of living in the Victorian age. Utilitarianism comes under the theory of consequentialism which dictates that one should always judge an action from its consequences, and follow the course which benefits the majority. By exaggerating his characters he essentially uses them to represent varying views on utilitarianism; ie; what it implies not only asRead MoreDickens Symbolism in Hard Times4703 Words   |  19 PagesHard Times Symbolism, Imagery Allegory Sometimes, there’s more to Lit than meets the eye. Fairy Palaces and Elephants (a.k.a. Factories and the Machinery inside them) This one is from the narrator and runs throughout the novel: the idea that the ugly, square, fact-based, oppressive mills look like fairy palaces with elephants in them when they are lit up at night. The image first pops up as something a person riding by Coketown in a fast-moving train might say – in other words, someone who