For example Dickens tells us that ‘You saw nothing in Coketown but what was severely work full’. The church was described as a ‘workhouse’. Dickens then goes onto say that ‘the jail might have been the infirmary’. Dickens description of Coketown is a damming indictment of a Victorian industrial town where the philosophy of utilitarianism kept the people uneducated, exploited and very poor. Children born into this society would have little change to improve their lot in life. The small amount of education they were given was solely based on fact. They were taught lists of facts, they had no sense of imagination. Gradgrind asks ‘Bitzer’ for the definition of a horse and he replies ‘quadruped graninivorous’. This instantly provides us with the image of learning the facts none stop by heart. By educating children in this way nothing would change in the future. If the children were allowed to see the fancy side of life e.g. the circus they might be able to see the injustice of their lives and want to change things. This might slower the rate of production as they will get different ideas of the life, and not just a pair of hands to work a mill or a piece of machinery. When Gradgrind’s daughter Louisa is caught looking at the circus Dickens describes her as ‘starved imagination keeping life to her self somehow’. This annoys Gradgrind as he has brought his children up based on fact and nothing else.
In chapter 3, ‘A loophole’ Louisa and Tom two of Gradgrinds children are walking back to ‘stone lodge’ their home where nursery rhymes and any kind of stories are banned. They are accompanied by there ‘eminently practical ‘, father. The magical description of the circus is a stark contrast to the bleak description of Coketown. The sound of Bright jolly music ‘the clashing and banging’ could be heard upon the outskirts of the town. There is a ‘flag floating from the summit of the temple’. Instead of utilitarian church in Coketown there is horse riding at the church in Coketown at the circus and a ‘Tyrolean flower act’. And there is also a performing dog-called ‘merrylegs’. This is a place for amusement and relaxation where people’s imagination could run wild. When you contrast this wonderful, fanciful place with Coketown where it has ‘a black canal init and a river that ran purple with ill smelling dye’. This comparison reinforces Dickens’s message that life should not be about fact and capitalism.
Chapter 4 opens with the booming voice of Mr Gradgrind filling a large classroom with his thoughts about facts and the need for a pragmatic view of the world. He sees this as the most important aspect of a sound education. At this stage he is unidentified by name, but carefully described as being threatened and with an unattractive appearance. Dickens’s chapter heading is taking from the story of Martha and Mary in the Gospels. Jesus becomes friendly with these two sisters. In the Bible we can read how when Jesus visits Martha she is always very busy while Mary sits and listens to Jesus. Martha complains that Mary is doing nothing, but Jesus that Mary has chosen ‘the one thing…. needful’. (Luke 10:42) Dickens supported the idea of quick thoughtful life, are free of the pursuit of material things. Gradgrind on the other hand, is insisting the only thing children need in their education is ‘nothing but facts’. Dickens is worried about aggressive adults who rule children with fear and destroy their inquisitiveness ‘the little vessels then and there arranged in order to have imperial gallons of facts poured into them’. The unimaginativeness of Gradgrind is emphasised by use of the word ‘square’ which is used five times and is echoed by the emphasis on straight lines and dark recess. Dickens describes the unimaginativeness of Gradgrind and his boring teaching methods. Gradgrinds repeated use of ‘the emphasis was helped’. This shows how the school and Gradgrind are interlinked as these things are emphasised and that it is repetitive and boring. Dickens description of the schoolroom as a ‘bare monotonous vault of a schoolroom’ is an example of how Dickens uses place to back up his theories on education and utilitarianism. Like the schoolroom, that facts being taught are bland, boring and monotonous. The use of the word ‘vault’ suggests that the children’s minds are being kept locked and are not open to possibilities of the world.
Gradgrind’s house, ‘Stone Lodge’ is described as a ‘matter of fact home’. It is a very practical place just like it’s owner. For example the windows are compared to its ‘Masters heavy brows’. Gradgrind’s children have many educational aids and many cabinets, which are arranged and labelled carefully. He is an affectionate father but there is no place in his mind for doubt that he is right about his children’s education. He is very concerned about keeping up appearances and after the circus incident he could only say to his daughter ‘what would Mr Bounderby say’.
Bounderby is not square but is decidedly round like a balloon. Bounderby is not a ‘refined’ character and prides himself on being a ‘self-made man’.
Bitzer describes himself as the model pupil and fits the mould for utilitarianism. He gives a perfect description of a fact filled horse, Dickens is being ironic here because Bitzer can only give a perfect list of facts about a horse but nothing else. Bitzer is not so much a human being as a machine an automaton, the product of the mechanical age. He answers in the classroom in a robot like manner. He responds to commands much as a computer might to the message put into it. Only in the last act of the novel, where he attempts to arrest tom does he seem to be acting on his own initiative. Sissy is described as ‘dark and obviously full of promise’. Bitzer on his part is colourless, an obvious product of the soulless education to which he has been subjected. His definition of a horse demonstrated how far away he has been removed from real life. He is shown to be at the other end of the light spectrum ‘Sissy…. came in for the beginning of a sunbeam, of which Bitzer…. Caught the end’.
Dickens chooses the character Stephen as an example of the harm industry can do to a man. Ad Stephen dies he sighs ‘pry`n the lawmakers fro Christ’s sake not to let their war be murder to em’. Dickens is critical of workers wrights at the time. This is symbolised by Stephens’s death in the pit. In a world were only profit matters men are expendable as safety costs money. The fact that Louisa spends many quite hours looking into the fire imagining many things, Louisa has the gift of ‘wandering’, of imagination but she is constantly being forced to hide this away. This can be seen in the way that she accepts Bounderby as her husband, She is a victim of her circumstances and her upbringing but she can dream and tells her father ‘when the night comes fire bursts out father’. Gradgrind of course does not understand what his daughter is talking about.
In Dickens’s ‘Hard Times’ the use of place is used very effectively to help the reader understand the themes of the novel and to understand the characters. The description of a grim Coketown symbolises all that was bad in the industrial towns of England In the 19th centaury, including the exploitation of people and the rise of capitalism. The bland boring schoolroom highlights Dickens’s criticism of an education system based on fact alone and where children’s imaginations were squashed and their spirit broken. Descriptions of the circus give a glimpse of the life where people are joyful and take pleasure in their work. Dickens hopes that his novel will help change the evils in the society of his day and new that the answer was buy educating the children to think for themselves
