Charles Dickens' Hard Times
The death of God for many in the Victorian era due to scientific discoveries carried with it the implication that life is nothing more than a kind of utilitarian existence that should be lived according to logic and facts, not intuition or feeling – that without God to impose meaning on life, life is meaningless. Charles Dickens, in Hard Times, parodies this way of thought by pushing its ideologies and implications to the extreme in his depiction of the McChoakumchild School.
The McChoakumchild School is based on the idea that, since life is nothing more than an accumulation of facts, education should be nothing more than their acculturation. This is clear from the opening scene (in a chapter titled "The One Thing Needful") in which the reader is presented with an incredibly enthusiastic speaker addressing the students of the school and articulating its philosophy: "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" (11). It is clear that speaker places all his faith in (scientific) facts. In this exaggerated ideology, they even assume a religious significance, which can be seen by the author's capitalization of the word facts, the sowing (also the title of Book One) / planting metaphor which is reminiscent of the biblical parable about sowing the seeds of faith (in this case fact), and the proselytizing rhetoric. Another example of this rhetoric can be found in chapter 5: "The McChoakumchild school was all fact, and the school of design was all fact, and everything was fact … and what you couldn't state in figures, or show to be purchaseable in the cheapest market and saleable in the dearest,...
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...n of science to the place religion once held. The result of this worship of fact is a "conscious death" (described by Louisa) – not a death of consciousness, but a consciousness in spite of death: an ability to think but not feel, or more literally, to think but not live. Since Dickens is implying that the meaning and enjoyment of life cannot be explained by science, he is then also implying that not everything valuable – including that most valuable – is explainable by science. So, even if religion doesn't have a place in Victorian society, its values still ought to. This is emphasized by the switch in Gradgrind from thinking things like "the Good Samaritan was a Bad Economist" (215) to, at the end of the novel, "making his facts and figures subservient to Faith, Hope, and Charity; and no longer trying to grind that Heavenly trio into his dusty little mills" (291).
Another man - we are not told who the man is or why he is present, are
In this essay, I will argue that one of the underlying motives in Charles Dickens' novel A Tale of Two Cities (1859) is the reinforcement of Christian values in 18th century Victorian England. Dickens was very concerned with the accepted social norms of industrialized England, many of which he felt were very inhumane. Christian values were challenged, largely due to the recent publication of Darwin's Origins of a Species, and philosophy along with literature was greatly affected. In 1859, the industrial age was booming, making many entrepreneurs rich. However, the majority of the lower economic class remained impoverished, working in unsafe and horrific environments as underpaid factory workers. Additionally, child labor was an accepted practice in Victorian England's factories. Dickens, who worked, as a child in a shoe polish factory, detested this social convention with such strength that only one with experience in such exploitation could.
Here, Dickens focuses on the word “suffering”, to reinforce the idea that being wealthy, which is related to being better than other, a materialistic view of society is not what gives happiness, but the surroundings and
In Bleak House, by Charles Dickens, Mr. Vholes is Richard Carstone’s legal advisor. Introduced to Richard by Mr. Skimpole, Vholes encourages and assists Richard as he attempts to unravel the mysteries of the Jarndyce and Jarndyce case in Chancery. Vholes, however, may not have the best intentions. Through descriptions of his gloomy physical appearance, suspicious actions, and unfortunate connections to English law, Dickens paints a vivid image of Mr. Vholes—a man who cannot be trusted. Vholes, therefore, is made up of multiple layers; as each layer peels away, the reader understands a little bit more of this secretive man. Surprisingly, Mr. Vholes is seen as more and more evil as readers journey to the center of his being.
middle of paper ... ... Understanding the relationship between environment and morality—indifference and depravity—Dickens evaluated what the system does to a person, how it classifies, how it deforms. Fagin manages the underworld, connoting corruption as an entertaining, enjoyable, and artful game not only because of his intrinsic craftiness, but also because it is the only way he knows to survive. Exploiting his audience's attitudes, Dickens shaped a character with religious stereotypes to ensure that his readers could recognize the absolute evil it had bore through its ignorance and apathy--poverty is a product of a societal environment. Work Cited Dickens, Charles.
In society today, all people determine their lifestyle, personality and overall character by both positive and negative traits that they hold. Sydney Carton in Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities was a drunken lawyer who had an extremely low self-esteem. He possessed many negative characteristics which he used in a positive way. Carton drastically changed his life and became a new man. Sydney is not the man he first appeared to be.
Few people argue that Great Expectations, one of Dickens’s later novels, is a Darwinian work. Goldie Morgentaler, in her essay “Meditating on the Low: A Darwinian Reading of Great Expectations,” is one of those few. She argues primarily that Darwin’s Origin of the Species was a major topic of discussion in Dickens’s circle at the time he wrote Great Expectations, and that Great Expectations “marks the first time that Dickens jettisons heredity as a determining factor in the formation of the self” (Morgentaler, 708). This fascinating insight draws one to read more of Morgentaler’s essay. It does not, however, compel the reader to admit that Dickens became Darwinian. Morgentaler’s main argument, though useful, could point just as well, if not better, to Dickens’s growing maturity as a Christian.
Our Mutual Friend, Dickens' last novel, exposes the reality Dickens is surrounded by in his life in Victorian England. The novel heavily displays the corruption of society through multiple examples. These examples, that are planted within the novel, relate to both the society in Dickens' writing and his reality. In order to properly portray the fraud taking place within his novels, Dickens' uses morality in his universe to compare to the reality of society. He repetitively references to the change of mind and soul for both the better and the worst. He speaks of the change of heart when poisoned by wealth, and he connects this disease to the balance of the rich and the poor. This is another major factor to novel, where the plot is surrounded by a social hierarchy that condemns the poor to a life of misery, and yet, condones any action that would normally be seen as immoral when it occurs in the aristocracy. It expands on the idea that only an education and inheritance will bring success in society, with few exceptions. Lastly, Dickens expands his opinions of society through his mockery of ...
The novel, Great Expectations, presents the story of a young boy growing up and becoming a
In Charles Dickens' novel Hard Times, he uses the characters to present the reader with many messages. One of these messages presented is that the Gradgrind system of education is faulty. Dickens is critical of an education system that only regards things that can be weighed or measured as being worthy. Thus, intangibles like imagination, emotion, and compassion are not considered worthy. The Gradgrind system of education can be seen as flawed through the examples of Sissy Jupe. The lack of individuality and creativity can be proven to be detrimental to those who ascribe to the Gradgrind system, which denies anything that isn't factual. Sissy's caring; thoughts of fancy, and individualism have kept her from long-term sorrow, pity and loneliness. The Gradgrind system is also proven as flawed through Sissy in that her caring and ingenuity helps the other characters potentially realize how they have let the system flaw them. Also, Sissy's ability to ward of the system's teachings will prove useful and helping others escape the system, be it short term.
"The Victorians were avowedly, unashamedly, incorrigibly moralists. They . . . engaged in philanthropic enterprises in part to satisfy their own moral needs. And they were moralists in behalf of the poor, whom they sought not only to assist materially but also to elevate morally, spiritually, culturally, and intellectually . . . ." (Himmelfarb 48(8)). Charles Dickens used characterization as the basis of his pursuit of this moral goal in the serialized Oliver Twist. His satyr was meant to draw parallels to the dark side of an era of British progress. One side of progress is wealth, the other side of the same coin is poverty, despair, misery and crime. Dickens allegorized evil in contrast to good through characterization and melodrama. "Most of the moral judgments of the reader are pre-made for him or her. As a result, the reader objectively absorbs the moral lessons Dickens has set forth" (Stoddard).
At the start of the nineteenth century, religion and science coexisted as one. The idea behind the creation of man and nature was seen as the work of God, thus the issue of religion and science were one in the same. As the Victorian era progressed, there was an emergence of scientific thinkers that began to question the creation and miracles of God, which in turn led to turmoil within the Victorian society. What Victorian society had was a constant clashing of ideals between the emerging science group and the religious believers. People did not care to listen to each other’s beliefs, which led to an overall lack of mutual respect among the groups. It is through Emily Bronte’s The Prisoner. A Fragment that the tensions based on religion can be seen through the male and female characters who represent the clashing groups in Victorian society.
Morgentaler states, “My primary argument for a Darwinian reading of Great Expectations rests on the fact that this novel marks the first time that Dickenson jettisons heredity as a determining factor in the formation of self” (707-708). Prior to t...
Just before he started to toddle, he stepped into the glare of footlights. He never stepped out of it until he died. He was a good man, as men go in the bewildering world of ours, brave, transparent, tender-hearted, and honorable. Dickens was always a little too irritable because he was a little too happy. Like the over-wrought child in society, he was splendidly sociable, and in and yet sometimes quarrelsome. In all the practical relations of his life he was what the child is at a party, genuinely delighted, delightful, affectionate and happy, and in some strange way fundamentally sad and dangerously close to tears. 2
Dickens uses Thomas Gradgrind to demonstrate exactly how a basic philosophy of rationality self-interest. Thomas Gradgrind has faith that human nature can be restrained, calculated, and ruled completely by facts. Certainly, his schooling attempts to turn young children into tiny machines. Dickens’s main goal in Hard Times was to exemplify the risks of letting humans become nothing but machines, signifying that the lack of kindness and imagination in life would be intolerable. Louisa balms her father for only teaching her lessons on facts and nothing on life, she feels that that’s the reason she is unhappy in her marriage. “All that I know is, your philosophy and your teaching will not save me. How, father,...