Theme Of Parental Love In Hard Times

German social psychologist Erich Fromm once wrote about parental love, “[A child] needs mother’s unconditional love and care physiologically as well as psychically. Father’s love [is] guided by principles and expectations; [is] patient and tolerant, rather than threatening and authoritarian”. Through this quote, he states that without a parent’s love, a child will not receive the correct nurturing process naturally. There is no mother to love and care for them unconditionally; no father to provide as a model for the child to work after. Eventually, the child will have no other choice than to choose a parent figure to mirror. In the literary fiction Hard Times, Charles Dickens exemplifies this case through the love between Louisa, Sissy, and

Losing her mother at a young age, Sissy only acquires love and care from her father. This factor results in Sissy’s loving behavior to not only her father, but also to her acquaintances. Thereby, due to the affection Sissy receives from Signor, she attains the ability to produce love for others whom she cherishes. “In this development from mother-centered to father-centered attachment, and their eventual synthesis, lies the basis for mental health and the achievement of maturity” (Fromm 37). Unfortunately, Sissy has never experienced her mother’s unconditional love, which fosters her acknowledgment of the fulfillment in her life to take care of her father whom she loves dearly. Subsequently, the love Sissy receives is her father’s conditional love provides her with knowledge and her “road into the world” (Fromm 36). Notwithstanding his commanding feature as a father, Signor loves Sissy profoundly in spite of his austerity for fulfillment in his life. Even though Signor provides and receives love from Sissy in profuse amounts, he lacks the pleasure of accomplishment and self-confidence. “— he felt himself to be a poor, weak, ignorant, helpless man….I used to read to him to cheer his courage” (Dickens 65). Despite Signor’s action of leaving his daughter behind, she still loves him. The love between Sissy and her father made them

Losing her father during her transformation into a young adult, Sissy needs a fatherly figure to guide her onto the path of a loving life. The influence Signor had while he “carried [Sissy] about with him when [she] was quite a baby” (64), allows Sissy to experience her first interaction with conditional love. From Sissy’s birth to her advancement towards adulthood, Sissy’s character and actions feed on the basis of love. Therefore, this loving relationship with her father sculpts the foundation in which Sissy uses to transfer her love to others. Such consequence of an affectionate childhood enables Sissy to acknowledge the necessity of love in life. Therefore, despite Gradgrind’s authoritarian actions to enforce his utopian educational system on Sissy, she refuses to accept hard facts instead of fancy and to become an automaton rather than a lover. “You have not acquired, under Mr. and Mrs. McChoakumchild, anything like that amount of exact knowledge which I looked for. You are extremely deficient in your facts. Your acquaintance with figures is very limited, You are altogether backward and below the mark” (96). According to Gradgrind’s rigorous school system, he comes to a conclusion that Sissy is unsuitable for his standards. However, repudiating Gradgrind’s basis for hard facts, Sissy, nevertheless, flourishes into adolescence. Consequently,