Explain how the theme of education is presented in Hard Times. What comments do you think Dickens might be making about his own times?

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Jordan Wain                21 November 2004

10PMM

GCSE English Coursework: Explain how the theme of education is presented in Hard Times. What comments do you think Dickens might be making about his own times?

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  • The presentation of Gradgrind
  • The presentation of the classroom
  • The presentation of the children
  • The presentation of the teacher, M’Choakumchild and his teaching method

           

            In this piece I intend to explain how Dickens is trying to represent education in the Victorian era and how he feels about the style of teaching that is widely used during his times. I also intend to make references to how the representation of Victorian schools by Dickens compares, historically to the actual conditions in a school from the Victorian era.                

        As soon as the book begins we are introduced to a style of teaching that is dependent only on facts. One of the main characters of the novel is Thomas Gradgrind and he is the enforcer of this utilitarian style of education and is described as a man who is very strict. Dickens introduces us to this character with a description of his most central feature: his monotone appearance and attitude. “Stick to facts, sir!” This exclamation suggests that the character likes to shout and sound firm. The short, punchy sentence suggests an assertive and strong character.

        Dickens also makes Gradgrind seem boring and grating by the gravelly and rough sound of his name and how it is pronounced. “Grind”, in particular suggests the grindstone, and flogging away at work constantly and is associated with the mechanical, repetitive drudgery of the factory system.

        Dickens also employs the outer appearance of Gradgrind to parallel the inner personality of Gradgrind, “Square coat, square shoulders and square legs”. This seems to highlight Gradgrind’s nature of unrelenting rigidity. Dickens also uses tricolons to really exaggerate the impression of this character being dull, boring and old fashioned. As a result, his educational ideas are seen to be dull and boring too.

        We get the overall impression from Dickens that he doesn’t particularly like this factual style of education and the narrator’s tone is mocking and ironic. He is trying to mock the education style through Gradgrind as he has been designed by Dickens to embody this style and give him something material to aim his judgements and abuse at. The way he describes the personality and appearance of Gradgrind suggests traits and looks that most people would find undesirable.

        In Dickens’s caricature of Gradgrind he is representing a society in which emotions and personal feelings don’t matter and all that matters is work and production rate. Gradgrind champions this utilitarian style system, he seems to represent all that Dickens felt was evil because he thought that Gradgrind was a man who as long as he got what he wanted, it didn’t matter how he got it and also that society should strive for the greater good for the greater number.

        Thomas Gradgrind seems to represent the rigor of "hard facts" and statistics and also what his style of teaching does to a person and how they will be as an adult after being subjected to the education style which Gradgrind uses.

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        “With a rule and a pair of scales, and the multiplication table always in his pocket, sir, ready to weigh and measure any parcel of human nature.”

        This extract shows what kind of an adult Gradgrind has turned out to be. He seems to be devoid of any needless emotions and is sCeptical of anything he is not sure about and is ready to deduce what it is using scientific reasoning and logic.

        The teaching style promoted by Gradgrind seems only to involve the forbidding of the pupil’s development of their imaginations and emotions and no real teaching which will ...

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