Hard Times: Stephen Blackpool has been described by Dickens as "A man of great integrity" Discuss this factor with reference to the text.

Stephen has a friend called Rachel she is what keeps him together consider her as a ray of light in to him through the pitch black thick dull clouds, she is what keeps him from flipping out and stops Stephen from harming himself or others around him she but there is no sexual relationship between Stephen and Rachel as it was not very good to have affairs in there times. But if he is considered a man of perfect integrity he would not have an affair as this is not truth full and not what he would want in his heart. Yes you probably would have guessed it by now Stephen is married, Stephen realizes that he is always in a muddle and cant get out of it. He Quotes “I come to the muddle many times and I never get beyond it.” Now Stephen is saying here that he is in a muddle he overcomes the obstacles to get to the muddle but can not seem to get pass it the muddle is his wife he comes to here but he can not get passed it. His wife is an alcoholic it was very common in those day for people to be alcoholics as it they were getting addicted and people liked the taste and wasted all there money on alcohol. She sold all his possessions in order to purchase more alcohol this continued and Stephen would not beat her or he would not shout at her. Dickens did not like her he referred to her as IT, it came back into Stephens life looking for money to refuel her drinking, It is the cause of his miserable life. He took her for better or for worse it is a bad stage she is in and he should choose to accept It or kill himself or her but the ray of light was there to guide him in the right direction Rachel stops him from poisoning and killing his wife and himself but what if the ray of light (Rachel) was vanished what if she was not there I personally think that Stephen would have said to himself lets do it but his conscience would have stopped him and told him is the best way out. But Rachel was there to shine a light on his conscience and help him through this tough time as she has rewind his life sold everything he has just to fuel her addiction. What has he done just sat there watching her get addicted and more addicted. Stephen works at a mill which is owned by Bounderby the rich man in Coketown the person who had nothing and now has everything or at least that is the way he says it, but did he come from rags to riches who is the mysterious old lady that takes a trip from a different town just to get a glimpse of Bounderby, perhaps it could be his mother infact when the word Bounderby is mentioned she cries for help so she can hide and can not be seen. He is lying about the whole story of him being a bum to a rich person now. Just like all rich people do to get attention that they most seek.

Guess who’s the boss of Stephen Blackpool you guessed it Bounderby he is the boss of the mill the owner, Stephen goes to see Bounderby one night and asks for help which makes Bounderby think that Stephen looks up to him idolizes him or thinks highly of Bounderby we shall see later. But there is no help for Stephen as the law he is trying to find is the law that gets rid of his wife Stephen finds that there is a law but it is beyond his grasp as it requires a lot of money which Stephen does not have, this decision was a true showing of his Integrity as it was the truth it was he wants to know and it is the the truth of what he thinks of his wife. Stephen is stuck in a muddle again which he can not get passed who is there to shine a light on his life nobody else but the ray of light Rachel. Stephen and Rachel have a strong relationship but it is the one referred to as a Plutonic relationship. This means that it is a strong relationship between a woman and a man which does not involve sexual needs. She is there to guide him to help him, to make him think his life is not so bad when really it is worse than bad.

Rachel helped him through all the time he said to Rachel the night that IT came back that he would have killed here and himself which is a dreadful measure to a man of great integrity to resort to. His coworkers are starting a rebellion against Bounderby this is trouble so Stephen does not need anymore trouble in his life so when they ask him to join the rebellion he says no this is because of the reason I gave above he has a lot of troubles in his life already so i don’t think this is another thing he wants on his shoulders. But Bounderby thinks this is because Stephen is loyal to him and Stephen never joined the rebellion because he Idolizes Bounderby so Bounderby is in for quite a shock when Stephen is called to Bounderby’s office and told to spill the beans or tell Bounderby about the rebellion he is shocked because Stephen said nothing so Bounderby thought wrong and thinks less of Stephen now, Bounderby does not trust Stephen so he sacks him or fires him after that you must think that this person has had it all never a good moment in his life and who is there in the end the ray of light Rachel on the walk to his house they bump into the old lady or Bounderby’s mother. And after just being fired Stephen the man with the perfect integrity invited her back to his home were they had tea this man has just been fired as no source of income and he had to go buy some bread and tea as well as sugar for the old lady, now that is what I call a gentleman of perfect integrity. After this Stephen leaves to were nobody knows. The puppy Tom Gradgrind framed Stephen Blackpool for the bank robbery that he committed so who comes back to clear his name but it was no use as the stupid pitiful puppy who had his sister marry Bounderby in order to get his fortunate happiness, Stephen was chased out of the city and fell down a mine shaft which broke his neck causing this man of perfect integrity to die a mans life full of unhappiness has a sad ending one not even stylish he could have died on a death bed but he died in a more horrible way. In conclusion I think that Stephen Blackpool a man with perfect integrity as described by Dickens was a total correct description Stephen Blackpool is a man with perfect truth and nothing but honesty in his heart were  he was as great a man as Dickens was this is because all through his life he dealt with his problems head on but there was no success with it in the end which he put up with and this I call him a man of Perfect Integrity.