What Literary techniques does Charles Dickens employ in order to satirise the education system of Victorian England in the opening chapters of

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What Literary techniques does Charles Dickens employ in order to satirise the education system of Victorian England in the opening chapters of

Hard Times

Hard Times reveals Dickens' increased interest in class issues and social observations. Dickens was extremely concerned with the miserable lives of the poor and working classes in the England of his day, and Hard Times is one of several of his novels that address these social problems directly. On hearing the name, Hard times, an imagination of people going through a difficult and hard way of life is revealed. This novel also reminds us of the hard times in the Victorian Times when children did not go to school; when education was varied according to social class- factory like schools for the poor and private tutors for the rich.  Those that were able to have the so-called education suffered in the process. They were forced to learn a lot by heart because everything was formal and mechanical. They were put through a factory-like process, hoping to produce children that were possessed of nothing but facts. Not even a sense of fancy and imagination. They were educated to get the basics of life because they were going to be pushed into the outside world at a very young age of 12 and above or even below

Dickens obviously put a lot of thought into the names of the school room characters. Mr Gradgrind is so named because he is grinding the children down with facts, and Mr M’Choakumchild symbolises the children choking on facts as this is the only thing they are given throughout the day. There are also many metaphors in the school room scene, which add to the extremity of the situation.  The children are described as

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‘… little vessels,… ready to have imperial gallons of facts poured into them until they were full to the brim’.

They are also given no individuality, the teachers refer to them as numbers and not names, for example Mr Gradgrind refers to Sissy as ‘girl number twenty’ Any expression of imagination is quickly suppressed, as this is not useful it is fanciful. For example, when the teacher asked the children if they would paper a room with representations of horses, half of the children cried yes but on seeing his face quickly changed to saying no. This expression ...

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