Hard Times(TM) is a social satire which explores the ills of an Industrial Victorian society. What is Dickens trying to teach his readership?

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 ‘Hard Times’ is a social satire which explores the ills of an Industrial Victorian society. What is Dickens trying to teach his readership?

    Charles Dickens was born in 1812 and wrote ‘Hard Times’ in 1854. Dickens uses his fictitious town in Hard Times to represent the industrialization of England at that time. The industrialisation of Britain was particularly infamous in the Northern area of England, this is where Coketown is situated. In many ways this did great things for Britain and its economy, there was however a darker side the industrial revolution that consisted of slums, poverty and a monotonous and lifeless existence for many people, such as the ‘hands’ who worked at the machines and in the factories. Although Dickens had the privilege of being sent to school at the age of nine, his learning there was short-lived and he presently went to Marshalsea along with their patriarch. He worked for three years in a blacking factory. It was there where he gained an insight into what was the life of the ‘hands’. We can clearly see Dickens sympathising with these types of people in his book in the characters Stephen and Rachael. After three years of work he went back to schooling, from his schooling he would have seen the government start to intervene in the education system, making it compulsory, Dickens shows his dislike for this in the second chapter title, ‘murdering the innocents’. After his schooling was complete he became a journalist and thereafter a writer. Here he would have gained views on people like Bounderby and Thomas Gradgrind. Having had and insight into a high and low class Victorian society Dickens saw the immorality and ignorance of the Industrial revolution and the higher classes. He expressed this throughout his novels, and after releasing ‘Hard Times’, he said that his satire was ‘against those who see figures and averages and nothing else’

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     Dickens takes a critical view on the industrial revolution, this is illustrated when he divides his book into three, calling each one ‘Sowing’, ‘Reaping’ and ‘Garnering’. All of these terms are agricultural, which is ironic in such an industrial setting. There is a gradual learning process in all of the characters, especially Gradgrind. For instance , Gradgrind at one point says to Sissy, ‘you are an affectionate, earnest, good – young woman and – and we must make do with that’. This suggests that Gradgrind isn’t quite satisfied with Sissy, he also takes a view that suggests ...

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