Charles Dickens Hard Times

Charles Dickens Hard Times

“Now, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life.”

With these beginning sentences of the novel Hard Times, Charles Dickens has made the readers doubt whether it is true that facts alone are wanted in life. One of the main themes of this book is the mechanization of people.  Training the children to not enjoy anything in life and to never self-indulge. The author specifically has drawn out that the Gradgrind children lead a dull, straight and narrow, and never have enjoyed the finer things in life.  Their daydreams and feelings have been blunted. The mechanizing of people coincides with the real life events of the Industrial Revolution.  During the Industrial Revolution people were replaced with machines, they were no longer needed in the ways they previously were.  Not only were they exchanged they were over worked and under paid.

         Coketown is filled with factories, which represents the growth of mechanics in the Industrial Revolution.  Along with the growth in the economy, there was also a growth in separation between social classes.  In the book you can unquestionably see the difference between the Gradgrind’s life in Stone Lodge and those residing in Coketown.

Stephen Blackwell embodies a typical lower working class individual from

the Victorian age.  Stephen also represents the gap between social classes.  Stephen

is the only Hand to not join the union, and claims communication is better than

striking, relying on his morals.  

Ultimately, at the end of the book, Stephen dies for Tom Gradgrid’s crime,

of robbing Mr. Bonderby’s bank.  This represents wealth and power, being that a man of lower stature could not defend himself, and a man like Tom could. Tom not paying for his crime and fleeing the country, also represents wealth and power.

        Lousia, the Gradgind’s oldest daughter is the novels primary female character. She plays a more prominent role than the other characters, Sissy and Rachel.  She expresses at a young age that she does want to indulge and wonder, however, her father tells her “never wonder!” and her mother, Mrs. Gradgrind, takes his side.  She does not conform to the Victorian Age ideals of femininity, she is cold, cut-off emotionally, and very intelligent. She, however, does her best to be a diligent wife to Mr. Bounderby, a respective daughter, and a loving sister. Although towards the end of the book, Sissy Jupe, helps Liousa connect to her feelings and emotions.