Hard times shows women as powerless and trapped with in a patriarchate society. How far do you agree with this statement? Discuss at least three female characters.

Authors Avatar

Hard times shows women as powerless and trapped with in a patriarchate society. How far do you agree with this statement? Discuss at least three female characters.

Dickens show  women as repressed and powerless, especially through their dependence on men, we see this especially in the character Louisa. On the other hand, Dickens portrays women as havin power within their emotions, such as emphasis and perception, as we see in Sissy. Although women arnt shown to have power, and shown to have power, I

The women in “Hard Times” are shown to have no power. Louisa is forced into marrying Mr Bounderby because he is rich and the main thing is POWER. Dickens shows her reaction: “She closed her hand as if upon a solid object and slowly opened it as if realising dust or ash”. The use of “dust or ash” compares to her life as they are both seen as worthless. “Realising” compares her being released to Bounderby because she has no say in what she wants to do. To summarise this quote she is trying to stay away from Bounderby: “She closed her hand” this shows she’s trying to be realised to him. It could also show that she is refusing to take Bounderby’s hand in marriage but in the end “realising” shows she has given up and can’t handle the pressure given to her feel Dickens has presented women as powerless figures rather then having power, this may be because they are effected by the masculine ruled society at the time which “Hard Times” was wrote.

Join now!

Throughout this novel Dickens shows repression to women, Sissy is trying not to be repressed by Mr Gradgrind however, Sissy is such a strong character Gradgrind tries and tries and tries to do this but Sissy is to Natural and she stand her ground to Mr Gradgrind “Sissy not Cecile” she does this to show he can’t do the same to her as he has done to the other girls. Sissy pays no interest to Gradgrind with the comments he makes, and he tries to make a mockery of Sissy: “Unable to define a horse!” Gradgrind trys to show ...

This is a preview of the whole essay