Character Study of Stephen Blackpool From the Novel Hard Times.
CHARACTER STUDY OF STEPHENBLACKPOOL FROM THE NOVEL HARD TIMES Dear colleges, to sum up Mr Blackpool in two words with all seriousness, is to say that he is a "tragedy" and a "born loser". From the many experiences Stephen Blackpool undergoes, I only make mention of the following: he is stuck in an unfortunate marriage, he is a failure at work, he is bad judge and he dies after falling into a mine. Dickens introduces Blackpool into the novel in the tenth chapter. He is one of those thousands of workers living in Coketown. Though only forty years old he is, as Dickens says, already an old man. He is seen outside waiting outside the works for his friend, Rachael, he likes to walk her home despite the gossiping neighbors, after which he makes his way to his lodgings. When he arrives there, he is surprised by the presence of his wife "a disabled, drunken creature who constantly leaves him and is unfaithful to him. This former latter introduced sub-plot of the relationship between Rachael and Stephen can be a device used by Dickens in order to add interest to the novel. In addition Dickens uses few other techniques pertaining to the language aspects. He offers Blackpool a dialect, which is filled with elongated vowel sounds e.g. "Nay" instead of "No", "doon", "among", "droonken". It definitely can be said that the "oo" morpheme does create distinctiveness to his speech from all
Hard Times" is a novel concerned to shake some people in the terrible mistake of these days" What targets do you think Dickens is attacking in "Hard Times" and how does he achieve this?
"Hard Times" is a novel concerned to shake some people in the terrible mistake of these days" What targets do you think Dickens is attacking in "Hard Times" and how does he achieve this? In "Hard Times" Dickens is attacking various aspects of Victorian society but essentially he is attacking the philosophy of Utilitarianism. The novel opens with an example of the Utilitarian education system with the thundering voice of Mr Gradgrind, a religious follower of the system, proclaiming the importance of "fact, fact, fact". Dickens purposely chooses the name "Gradgrind" to suggest that he is grinding the children down by overloading them with facts. He is described as "square" which fits in with his character and views of life as factual and measured. Like a square there are no irregularities in Gradgrind's life or room for fancy. Dickens satirises the teachers of the time who were over taught and he believes it probable that "if they learnt a little less, how infinitely better they might have taught much more". One of the teachers is known as "Mr M'Choakumchild", another attempt by Dickens to satirise the education system by saying that the children are choked by fact. There is irony in comically referring to the fairy tale Forty Thieves to compare with the regimented education system keen to disregard and destroy fancy. The children are described as "little vessels ready to
Through close analysis of the first two chapters of Hard Times, explore Dickens' attitude towards education
English Coursework Hard Times Through close analysis of the first two chapters of Hard Times, explore Dickens' attitude towards education. In the first chapter, Dickens introduces us with a glimpse of the story, with a descriptive insight into the school and its policies. We are not revealed the names of the characters in the opening chapter, but it introduces the schoolmaster by mere description of character and appearance. This, rather than introducing us by name, gives us a close and detailed description of one of the main characters, the schoolmaster, his views and manifestation of the school itself. This will help us understand the schoolmaster, Mr Gradgrind, and brings us to a clear understanding of his most important policy, a constant motif throughout the chapters, 'Facts'. We are also unaware of the setting but, again introduced by appearance. This is all significant to the story itself, as this is all a factual description, underlining the schools factual education. 'Now what I want is, Facts', this is our first insight into the school's basic principal, Fact. The first indication we get, to the importance of facts is that it is given a capital letter, 'Fact', this gives it emphasis, signifying its value to the school's manifesto. 'Plant nothing else, and root out everything else.....nothing else will ever be of any service to them' this exemplifies the school's
Examine the presentation of Education, chapters 1 to 4 in "Hard Times" by Charles Dickens
Examine the presentation of Education, chapters 1 to 4 in "Hard Times" by Charles Dickens Charles Dickens wanted to attack the failings of education and the wrong-headedness of the prevailing philosophy in education. He believed that many schools discouraged the development of the children's imaginations, training them as "little parrots and small calculating machines" (Dickens used this phrase in a lecture he gave in 1857). Nor did Dickens approve of the recently instituted teacher training colleges. These had been set up in the 1840s, after the British government acknowledged the need to raise the standard of education in schools. The first graduates of these training colleges began teaching in 1853, a year before the publication of Hard Times. M'Choakumchild, the teacher in Gradgrind's school (which was a non fee-paying school that catered to the lower classes), is Dickens's portrait of one of these newly trained teachers. Many educators agreed through time-sharing Dickens's view of what were wrong with the schools. They believed there was too much emphasis on cramming the children full of facts and figures, and not enough attention given to other aspects of their development, for example "'NOW, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds
Do you think that the characters in Hard Times have credibility? Are they fully developed or are they merely ciphers representing philosophical ideas?
Do you think that the characters in Hard Times have credibility? Are they fully developed or are they merely ciphers representing philosophical ideas? Hard times was written in 1854 by Charles Dickens. Dickens was a prominent Victorian novelist who wrote about the society that surrounded him. He was educated and middle-class but had some sympathy with the way poor people were treated. He was critical of utilitarianism and felt that those in power showed little understanding of the poor. His sympathy with the poor stemmed from his childhood and his father's inability to stay out of debt. Hard Times is Dickens' shortest novel and is considered by many to be a satire, the story revolves around the hard-headed disciplinarian Mr Thomas Gradgrind. Through the thinking of this character, Dickens examines the utilitarian philosophy of the time and exposes some of the hypocrisy of those in positions of power. The novel is set in the fictional city of Coketown. The city may be based on Dickens' own experiences of Preston where the industries and factories are similar to those of Coketown. ''A town of red brick, or of brick that would have been red if the smoke and ashes had allowed it.'' In the very first paragraph of the first chapter we are introduced to the principles of Thomas Gradgrind "Now what I want is facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but facts. Facts alone are
'The Children of Dynmouth' by William Trevor
Becky Walls Coketown and Dynmouth Wide Reading Essay 'The Children of Dynmouth' by William Trevor, written in 1970 about a small seaside town, is based upon his own childhood home. The opening introduces a story of murder and intrigue. The novel, which I am comparing it with, is 'Hard Times' be Charles Dickens written in 1854. This introduces us to Coketown, a newly industrialised town based upon a visit to Preston. Both novels although distinctive in style and purpose, are very similar in the portrayal of unfulfilled lives. Coketown is both a fictional and functional town, a newly industrialised place with one sole purpose, to make money through production of luxury threads for the country's wealthiest. The lack of imagination and creativity is due to the political system, which denies the residents the chance to develop individually and does not allow the soul to be expressed. The people seem imprisoned within the town 'like a bell in a birdcage', life is their work and their work is life. On the other hand, Dynmouth is a dull and monotonous town in which nothing of any great relevance or importance happens, seeming as though it is sidelined from history-shaping events. It is only Dynmouth's mysterious past, which brings the story alive. The town, the description of which lacks any kind of modification is a tedious and dying place and it seems only to attract the elderly
In this novel Hard Times Dickens creates a very vivid picture of the Victorian era, a time when industrialisation was sweeping over major cities including 'Coke town' as Dickens would refer to it.
Prose Coursework (Hard Times) John Crudden In this novel Hard Times Dickens creates a very vivid picture of the Victorian era, a time when industrialisation was sweeping over major cities including 'Coke town' as Dickens would refer to it. Industrialisation involved the dominance of the machine over manual labour which led to unfair class divisions which Dickens believed would result in violence. Dickens represented the industrial revolution in some of his other books e.g. in Oliver Twist, The opening scene depicts orphans operating large machines. Dickens believed that industrialisation stifled peoples individuality because there was no way to express one's self in a factory. I think the phrase 'all work and no play' expresses the nature of industrialisation plain and simply. Industrialisation in the Victorian era also affected the schooling system and the way in which children were taught. Children were taught in a very strict manner and taught nothing but facts which would prepare them for the working world and a society very much absorbed in its utilisation outlook. Dickens felt that it was wrong treating children like adults and that children should have an imagination when they are young so they do not grow up to be narrow-minded, and machine like with a head full of facts. The essayist Thomas Carlyle defined the era as "the mechanical age" and stated that " men are
Heightened Representations of Reality in Dickens' Hard Times.
Jelena Lazic Professor Mathews April 9, 2002 Heightened Representations of Reality in Dickens' Hard Times Dickens's novel Hard Times, tells a story of fact versus fancy. Set amid the Industrial smokestacks and factories of Coketown, the novel uses its characters and stories to expose the vast gap between rich and poor and to criticize what Dickens perceived as the "unfeeling rationalism" of the middle and upper classes. Therefore, the author turns towards social issues, criticizes utilitarianism and thus responds to the changing world of 1850s industrial Europe. Lastly, Dickens utilizes the "rhetoric of fiction" in order to structure the representations of reality. He heightens these representations through the use of literary techniques, such as imagery, diction and narration, all strongly related to the representation of imaginative, almost caricature- like characters. Dickens utilizes the third-person point-of-view in and is selectively omniscient. To better bring a point across in the reader's mind, Dickens will on occasion enter the thoughts of a character. This gives him much more direct control over the reader's interpretation of the story and how the reader is to feel about each character. An example of this can be found on p. 21 in reference to Bounderby: "...his windy boastfulness." Dickens' dislike for Bounderby, the "self-made man" who truly wasn't a
Explore how Charles Dickens presents the theme of education in the opening chapters of 'Hard Times'.
Explore how Charles Dickens presents the theme of education in the opening chapters of 'Hard Times' Dickens' life co-in sided with the growing responsibility of the state to educate its citizens. Charles Dickens was a reformer and disagreed with the fact that education varied tremendously, based on location, gender and class. He witnessed this first hand with him been taken out of education at the age of 12 and sent to work in a bottle factory, also what education he had was "infrequent" and "irregular" which could be why Dickens presents education as so negative in "Hard Times". In Hard Times Dickens presents education as forceful and un-relentless in the fact that they are continually told facts and there shall be no break in this cycle of facts, all of this is shown by the fact that Mr Gradgrind is portrayed as very square with his description been "square forefinger" having a "square wall of a forehead, which had his eyebrows for its base", and continues with "The speaker's obstinate carriage, square coat, square legs, square shoulders". The fact that Dickens describes Mr Gradgrind as square makes Gradgrind seem a simple, one dimensional with no differ in character or person. Dickens then continues to describe Mr Gradgrind's "mouth, which was wide, thin and hard set", he then describes his voice as "inflexible, dry and dictatorial". When you take all of this into account
The book
The book "Hard Times" was written in 1854. It was written in weekly instalments in a magazine called Household Words. This is like a normal soap but was weekly. The magazine was owned by Charles Dickens as he was a journalist. The book was written at the time of the Industrial Revolution. This was when factories were being built near major towns and cities such as Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham. The Industrial Revolution was a time when there were big improvements in transport as there was vast expansion in the production of iron. The factories were in the towns so people from the countryside came to the towns for work and a house. They moved because their own mills weren't making enough items of clothing etc whereas the factories could mass produce. However, there weren't enough houses so many were hastily built. This meant they had no fresh water, no sewers and no toilets. This led to a poor quality of living where people got water from communal water pipes and put their waste in a big "pile" which was cleaned by a "waste disposal man". The poor quality of living was added to by the huge smoke clouds which hung over the cities. This "smog" made it hard to breathe and was so bad seeing things became harder. The book starts when Dickens introduces the characters; the first two chapters are short yet are scene-setters. Dickens explains that; Mr Gradgrind - a politician