Imagery in Hard Times

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Choose two scenes from Hard Times and examine Charles Dickens’ use of imagery in establishing characterisation

Dickens uses both descriptive and symbolic imagery when he tries to put something into character. Dickens knows that the use of characters and places is very powerful in bringing out the major themes of the book, and so the characters and the themes are intricately intertwined with each other. In the beginning of chapter four of book one, called “The Key-Note,” Dickens uses vast amounts of imagery to establish the character of Coketown.

“It was a town of red brick, or of brick that would have been red if the smoke and ashes had allowed it; but as matters stood it was a town of unnatural red and black like the painted face of a savage.” His descriptive imagery of the smoke and ashes give you the feeling of a very begrimed and caliginous place where maybe even breathing and seeing become harder. His symbolic imagery compares Coketown with the painted face of a savage, both unnatural and heartless.

        “It was a town of machinery and tall chimneys…and never got uncoiled.” Dickens continues with a theme of unnaturalness, as machinery and tall chimneys are far from being natural objects. When he speaks of interminable serpents, he symbolises the smoke as serpents, evil and malicious creatures. When Dickens speaks about serpents, there is a reference to the creation story in the bible; the serpent corrupts Eve and gets her and Adam sent away from Eden, from paradise, from peace, leaving only a difficult life for us. This can be shown by the difficult life of the inhabitants of Coketown.

“Seen from a distance in such weather, Coketown lay shrouded in a haze of its own, which appeared impervious to the sun’s rays.” This is a quote from the beginning of chapter one in book two, and in some ways it makes it seem as though Coketown is in a world of its own, not bothered by the outside world, and shielded by its own smoke.

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        “It had a black canal in it…like the head of an elephant in a state of melancholy madness.”  The black canal and the purple-running-river with ill-smelling dyes both return back to the images of unnaturalness, and also they give us a feeling of grossness and disgust. It exemplifies the conditions in which ‘Coketowners’ lived and worked in, and it shows that since they can live in conditions such as these, then they too must have  very unnatural personalities. Dickens then speak of the rattling of the windows and the monotonous working of the piston. To us in the twenty-first century, ...

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