Hard Times Charles Dickens was known to be very controversial and outspoken in his books and Hard Times was no exception. Hard Times takes place in the industrial-centered city of Coketown, England where Dickens’ clearly attempts to expose the massive inequality between economic/social classes as well as the outright narcissism of the middle to upper classes who are only concerned with making a profit in the most practical/efficient way. Charles Dickens is in no way subtle throughout this book and attempted to repeat his main theme constantly in order for the reader to quickly understand what was trying to be said. In Hard Times, Charles Dickens seems to suggest that the introduction and execution of an industrialized world has forced humans …show more content…
Fancy is seen regularly throughout Hard Times. What is considered “fact”, is simply a matter of opinion according to Dickens. For instance, Bounderby goes on a rant about the workers and how they need “to be fed on turtle soup and venison, with a gold spoon, as a good many of ’em do!” However, the workers themselves believe that they are hardworking individuals who are being treated unfairly by their employers. It seems as though that the book is suggesting that without fancy, facts would become too destructive in the current industrial era. For instance, since Gradgrind forced his children to grow up in an environment devoid of what is called “fancy,” Louisa is incapable of creating a connection with other people, such as being unable to love Mr. Bounderby, and her brother Tom cares little about others, as evidenced by him allowing Stephen to be credited with robbing a bank. The adopted sister Sissy, gives them both the fancy in which they were longing for throughout their lives. Sissy served as the balance between fact and fancy, suggesting that both are needed in order to have a healthy, successful life in the new industrialized world which is devoid of creativity and imagination. Due to Sissy’s influence, Louisa was able to understand her own …show more content…
.” Louisa believes that she has no other choice than to confront her father Gradgrind and speaks of the childhood she believes was taken from her, confessing “Father, you have trained me from my cradle...How could you give me life, and take from me all the inappreciable things that raise it from the state of conscious death? Where are the graces of my soul? Where are the sentiments of my heart? What have you done, O father, what have you done, with the garden that should have bloomed once, in this great wilderness here!” Also speaking of the marriage which she didn’t want and of the man whom she truly wished to marry, “When I was irrevocably married…There seemed to be a near affinity between us. I only wondered it should be worth his while, who cared for nothing else, to care so much for me.” Breath taken from the honesty shown by his daughter, Gradgrind comes to the realization that his methods and philosophies based on “fact over fancy” were responsible for Louisa’s inability to connect with others and his son Tom’s uncaring nature. Dickens appears to be hammering the notion that fancy is needed when the world is filled with too many facts. Without being able to experience a childhood and engaging in social situations, children will be unable to communicate with their peers properly and unable to act appropriately in public
There were many themes illustrated throughout the memoir, A Long Way Gone by Ishmael beah. These themes include survival/resilience despite great suffering, the loss of innocence, the importance of family/heritage, the power of hope and dreams, the effects of injustice on the individual, and the importance of social and political responsibility. Every theme listed has a great meaning, and the author puts them in there for the readers to analyze and take with them when they finish reading the book.
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
12. Oldham, R. (2000) Charles Dickens’ Hard Times: Romantic Tragedy of Proletariat Propaganda [Online]. Available: http://www.pillowrock.com [Accessed: 25th April 2005].
Charles Dickens’ (1812-1970) father had great financial difficulties. The boy had a rather miserable childhood, and the lad spent much of his time in poorhouses and workhouses. Did poverty overwhelm Charles Dickens? Was his negative environment to blame for an unproductive and fruitless life? No it wasn’t. Dickens retreated into his imaginary world and incisively wrote about the need for social reform in what later became such literary classics such as Oliver Twist and David Copperfield.
Ernest Hemingway uses the various events in Nick Adams life to expose the reader to the themes of youth, loss, and death throughout his novel In Our Time. Youth very often plays its part in war, and since In Our Time relates itself very frequently to war throughout; it is not a surprise that the theme of youthful innocence arises in many of the stories. In “Indian Camp” the youthful innocence is shown in the last sentence of the story: “In the early morning on the lake sitting in the stern of the boat with his father rowing, he felt quite sure that he would never die.” (19) When this sentence and the conversation Nick and his father have before they get on the boat are combined in thought it shows that because of Nicks age at the time that he does not yet understand the concept of death.
The novel, Great Expectations, deals with the concepts of a ‘true gentleman’; where the Victorian idea, which is based upon birth, wealth, social status and apparel, contrasts to Dickens’ portrayal of a gentleman who is a person of kindness, humility and generosity. Dickens upbringing and early life allows him to understand the position of the poor due to their humble upbringing, which keeps them in the lower social class. His didactic message, what it is to be a true gentleman, is reinforced by the bildungsroman style of the novel.
In Hard Times Charles Dickens portrays Louisa Gradgrind as a realistic character who faces conflict from the start of her life. Louisa encounters three major psychological conflicts in the form of three different men: Mr. Gradgrind, Mr. Bounderby, and Tom Gradgrind. Men play a very important role in the shaping of Louisa's life. Instead of being her own person and expressing her own feelings, Louisa falls under the realm of these three men.
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 ...
Taken is a fast-paced action film about a retired CIA agent on a quest to track down his 17 year old daughter who was kidnapped by Albanian slave traders whilst on holiday in Paris, France. The protagonist is Bryan Mills, ex CIA agent and father to 17 year old daughter Kim. His ex-wife, Lenore, divorced him due to his heavy work commitments, so much so that he was unable to be present in both Kim and Lenore’s lives most of the time. He retires with hopes to make up for the lost time towards his daughter and to spend more time with her. Taken focuses on the premise of Good vs Evil as Bryan, the concerned and protective father, singlehandedly takes down the bad people responsible for his daughter’s abduction.
The Victorian era reflected more than just a change in the lack of economic development, but it marked on young children that endured the child cruelty and labor, such as Dickens, and many other writers of this time. Dickens, having been a poor boy, worked in a factory where he was treated with no respect, and many, such as him, had to work in cruel and dangerous conditions. This comes out in his writing, as Oliver Twist works in a factory so that he would get a meal, and a place to sleep. Oliver works long days and his meals come in fist size portions, and therefore all of the young children in the factory become thin and are on the verge of going into starvation. "Please, sir, I want some more." (Ch. 2, pg. 12) This quotation is a direct reflection of Oliver's hunger, and a child's opinions of the cruelty that they have endured working in this factory in the Victorian era. Many children, perhaps even Dickens, worked 16 hour days under atrocious conditions. Of course, children of the Victorian time period weren't always being labored; many were verbally and physically abused by their parents, and the upper class workmen of the English society. Dickens shows how parents can be cruel to their children as he does in David Copperfield, how David's step father beats him. Also when he uses such a quotation from David's mother when she says, "Am I a naughty mamma to you, Davy? Am I a nasty, cruel, selfish, bad mamma? Say I am, my child; say Yes', dear boy, and Peggotty will love you; and Peggotty's love is a great deal better than mine, Davy.
Macmillan Master Guides: Hard Times by Charles Dickens, Macmillan Education Ltd, London ("Romanticism (literature)," Microsoft® Encarta® 98 Encyclopedia. © 1993-1997 Microsoft Corporation.) Watt, I. Ed. (1963) Jane
“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” (Dickens 5). So says Mr. Thomas Gradgrind, the proponent of a Utilitarian educational philosophy in Charles Dickens’ Hard Times. Cold, hard facts are what Mr. Thomas Gradgrind’s philosophy consists of, and cold hard facts are exactly what Tom and Louisa Gradgrind are raised on. They are taught by their father and by society to live their lives based on these facts. They are instructed to conduct themselves in accordance to them and nothing else. As stated by Taylor Stoehr, “Tom and Louisa Gradgrind are products of the Gradgrindian system, raised in Stone Lodge, taught in the school of hard facts, model grindings off the parent stone” (Stoehr 171). As a result of being raised in the loveless atmosphere of Stone Lodge and in accordance with the strictly enforced rules of the Gradgrindian system, Tom and Louisa are deprived of opportunities to cultivate imagination, emotions, and “fancy” (Dickens 5). The children are themselves fragmented and insufficient fragments who have been formed by a hard system of hard facts. By blocking every available outlet for the interplay of fantasy and emotion, Mr. Gradgrind unintentionally generates two extreme outcomes for his children. Even though the Gradgrind philosophy has completely different effects on Tom and Louisa Gradgrind, it ultimately deprives them both of the happiness that only a balance between the wisdom of the Head and the wisdom of the Heart can create.
In contrast to Pip, Salinger showed Holden’s family as fairly well off; “My father’s quite wealthy, though. I don’t know how much he makes- he’s never discussed that stuff with me- but I imagine quite a lot” (Salinger 107). Through the usage of an indifferent tone, Salinger illustrated how many youths seemed reluctant to care about money in his own society. Holden continuously spent a fortune on petty things instead of using it for important matters. His indifference towards wealth showed the mindset of many teens during the time and also how easily one spent his or her life away. In contrast to Holden, who lived in a well-off society, Pip came from a fairly low class area. After the introduction to wealth, Dickens expressed the lust many people held for the higher social classes and also for the material “property” they held: “I felt more than ever dissatisfied with my home and with my trade and with everything” (Dickens 110). Pip easily forgot his first happiness with Joe and began to mourn for the wealth and beauty Miss Havisham and Estella held. Dickens used the relationship between Pip and Estella to show how easily people forgot their ideals and love in the face of wealth. Even children became enraptured in the lust for material wealth in society. Both
In this novel, no one commits an entirely unselfish act. Even those characters that appear to be unselfish, help others only to fulfill their need to be seen as benevolent. For Dickens to rail against social inequality and not rail against the immoral and inherent selfishness of man, is an oversight that helped to embed the social caste system in England that pervades it to this day.
When considering representation, the ways in which the authors choose to portray their characters can have a great impact on their accessibility. A firm character basis is the foundation for any believable novel. It is arguable that for an allegorical novel - in which Hard Times takes its structure, Dickens uses an unusually complex character basis. The characters in Hard Times combine both the simplistic characteristics of a character developed for allegorical purposes, as well as the concise qualities of ‘real’ people (McLucas, 1995). These characters are portrayed to think and feel like we as readers do and react to their situations in the same way that most of us would. Such attributes are what give the characters life and allow us to relate to their decisions.