The use of imagery also helps add to the heightening of the senses and more sensitive evocation of reality. Imagery is especially prevalent in the characterization, and the vividness of imagery is present in the very first pages, such as in this description of the Speaker, “The emphasis was helped by the speaker’s square wall of a forehead, which had his eyebrows for a base, while his eyes found commodious cellarage in two dark caves, overshadowed by the wall”, all of which has an effect of evoking the previously-mentioned factual narrative style and the reality of Dickens’ world of fact and industry. Then the author goes on to describe the speaker’s hair with the images of a windy, bare plantation, “ the speaker’s hair, which bristled on the skirts of his bald head, a plantation of firs to keep the wind from its shining surface, all covered with knobs…” Another example of imagery use can be seen in the description of Bitzer on page 12, who unlike the dark features of Sissy enhanced by the sun’s light, is described with lightness and paleness, an almost complete absence of color, “so light-eyed and light-haired that the selfsame rays appeared to draw out of him what little colour he ever possessed.” Moreover his eyes are described as cold, his skin as, “unwholesomely deficient”. Thus, there is a sense of sickness and deficiency to the boy that perhaps is used to reflect the deficiency of his fact-controlled character and to foreshadow the lack of personality later in the story.
The use of imagery brings life to characters, causing the reader to either emphasize or despise the character based merely upon physical description. Also, through the abovementioned descriptions, there is an example of Dickens’ use of contrast- the color of Sissy to the lack-thereof in Bitzer, which when relating to the themes of the novel can signify the contrast of fancy and cold fact. In Dickens’ descriptions of McChokumchild’s hands, there is again this use of imagery: “…at the ends of his ten chilled fingers” (17). Perhaps most vivid imagery is in the depiction of Bounderby and his, “metallic laugh”, “coarse material”, “a great puffed head”, “swelled veins in his temples”, “strained skin” that seemed to “hold his eyes open, and lift his eyebrows up”, “ready to start” (21).The choice of diction and images here prevail with unnatural, harsh descriptions that could well correspond to a description of a factory machine. Thus, the association to industrialization is unavoidable and appropriate, since Mr. Bounderby is an “industrial man” or a “self-made man” of “coarse material.”
Dickens’s portrayal of Stephen Blackpool is a form of characterization that in many ways links the figure and the scene. Stephen is the personification of his town and the symbol of the oppressed working-class. The name “blackpool” is negative and suggests Stephen’s dim prospects. Both Stephen and Rachel fit into Dickens’ sentimental depiction of the working-class as more moral than their superiors and these depictions are perhaps not as in accordance with Dickens’ general, heightened realism. However, the drunken woman at the end of the chapter 9 is a reminder of reality, that not all poor people are decent and moral. Moreover, the characterization of Sparsit and Bounderby is enhanced with a negative tone. Sparsit is described as a “fallen lady” and her characterization is centered on her facial features. Her “Coriolanian” eyebrows and her dark, all-seeing eyes are reflective of her close watch and scrutiny tendencies. In contrast to the images of Sissy presented in Book III, Chapter One, Sparsit is not a site of refuge but her eyes are “lighthouses on an iron-bound coast.” But the image of a lighthouse is misleading and thus balanced by the choice of diction, “iron-bound”, since her eyes, her powers of watch, are not used to save anybody.
But more importantly, Dickens’ use of characterization is also like a social commentary on class conflict and the difference between the lives of the rich and the poor. There are more intense images of doom and bleakness in the lives of the poor, such as, the serpent, the rising smoke, the references to Lucifer and the grim, black ladders attached to each house. Thus, these images can symbolize how easy it is for the poor to fall farther downwards. And lastly, the image of hell and punishment is reinforced by the very vivid description of the city’s atmosphere and climate as “frying in oil”(116). In relation to characterization, Harthouse, for example, is always described as smoking, adding to a perception of him as a sort of “symbolic devil”, and the source of temptation. Besides the smoke and fire, he is also associated with the hellish “brimstone” of Coketown.
In the depiction of Coketown the imagery adds strongly to the reader’s perceptions of the town as almost hell-like, “It was a town of…unnatural red and black like the painted face of a savage”, “interminable serpents of smoke trailed themselves forever and ever, and never got uncoiled.”(28) Coketown itself, as the setting of the novel, can also be seen as a critique of the social politics, corruption and gloominess of an industrialized society. With Dickens’ use of imagery, the dominant impression is one of hell. The coiled serpents of smoke seem to have a Biblical dimension and can relate to the idea of “fall of man” or more significantly, to man’s loss of humanity and paradise. Moreover, the images of the savage painted faces parallel the image of the dyed water and the elephant is a strange union of mechanics and nature and thus, represents a “melancholy madness”(28). As discussed in class, these images of primitive men(savage) and exotic animal(elephant) perhaps suggest that, “behind the industrial rationalism of Gradgrind, there is a much more primeval disorganization happening.” Lastly, the town factories are clear instances of fact versus fancy and the “titanic shadows,” the serpents and the threatening words of the drunken woman complete the symbolism of looming danger.
The contrast to fancy and imagination comes with the lingering cold, despite the fire that Luisa constantly observes. The fire can be a symbol of the fireside, of familial warmth and love between siblings but as the story progresses it becomes apparent that this warmth is largely hindered. In a metaphorical sense, the Gradgrinds’ family life can be described as very cold and lacking in emotion. The parents neither hate nor dislike their children, but they are emotionally cold, indifferent and distant. In opposition to emotion and “wonder” they prefer science. There is almost a “mechanical” imagery in the way that Louisa and Tom describe their emotions (as a coiled “spring” for example) and in the lack of freedom and repression of emotions. Also, Dickens describes the gardens of the Gradgrind home “like a botanical account-book”(17) and this continues the underlying contrast between the statistical, perfect order and the freedom that nature should represent. The children’s “dissection” of the “Great Bear” constellation can perhaps be seen as a metaphor for the elimination of fancy. And also, the images of vagabonds and circuses can be interpreted as the paths towards idleness, and thus poverty. The focus on money and industry also produces a motif of metals and minerals. Just as Coketown is named for “coke”-the coal-like fuel for the factories, there are also references such as “metallurgical Louisa” and Bounderby’s “metallic laugh.”(21) Mrs. Bounderby is described as not being an “alloy” because she is unintelligent, and Jane had fallen asleep “after manufacturing a good deal of moist pipe-clay on her face with slate-pencil and tears”(27).
Lastly, in the part II, chapter 6, Stephen’s opportunity to leave Coketown and the potential freedom is overwhelmed by strong, more negative images. The law of fate “rose like the sea” much as Bounderby exhibited the early image of the powerful wind. In both cases, images of nature are employed to express the power of the forces who are against Stephen, forces strong as nature, like a fate that he cannot escape from. At the same time, the nature imagery suggests the decay of Coketown along with sadness and overwhelming control of Bounderby. Most symbolic and illustrative is perhaps the deteriorated sunrise, which is very sharp because the sun’s radiance dissolves the darkness of the previous night. Dickens though writes that the “sun made but a pale waste in the sky, like a sad sea”. To this symbol can be added the fact that the town is “in eclipse” and is blinded by this eclipse and the “smoked glass”(167) of the town windows. The sun and sea images have therefore, been distorted as a way of showing how “disorderly and improper the order and propriety of Coketown truly are.”
Ultimately, Dickens wrote Hard Times to be a depiction of where he felt the country was going if it followed the Industrial Revolution to the point that Utilitarianism was the rule of life. His narration and use of vivid imagery and characterization provide both the blunt criticism as well as underlying satire. The reader is continuously involved but also influenced and prompted to, go inward, examine the consciousness and turn outward and recognize the social issues of the time. “The book is an interesting case of a great writer subordinating his art to a moral and social purpose, and it remains an important historical document” simply because it is an important expression of the values Dickens found crucial to human life.
