Hard Times, Charles Dickens Essay

Coketown, an industrial community in Northern England, serves as the setting for the book Hard Times. Through characters like Mr. Gradgrind, who governs his home and school in accordance with utilitarianism—a philosophy well-known during the Victorian era—the novel touches on important social issues. Tom and Louisa are his two kids. Mr. Gradgrind extends an invitation to a girl left at the circus by her father to reside with them. Bounderby, a different protagonist, is the proprietor of the Coketown factories and a proud man who boasts about how he rose from the gutter to become successful. Mr. Gradgrind begins to work in Bounderby’s bank, and the boss proposes to his daughter Louisa. She accepts to marry him despite their thirty years age difference. The marriage between the two is quite miserable, and Louisa is unhappy. Hearthouse, a politician, tries to seduce her soon after Gradgrind gets elected into Parliament. Gradgrind was a teacher who brought his children using facts, but he later realizes that bringing up his children using this approach was a mistake. Louisa remains unmarried while Sissy gets married and bears children becoming light in everyone's life. The book covers events in Coketown that had led to decay in the social, political, and economic aspects of the society. The novel portrays the monotony, ugliness, pollution, and health-destructions in the nineteenth-century society.

Author’s Thesis and Supporting Arguments

Thesis: Dickens applies literary devices and vivid descriptions to express his opinions and disapproval of the spiritual, legal, intellectual, and moral decay among the British using a fictitious Victorian-era city of Coketown that was caused by the industrial revolution.

Dickens has a sharp criticism of the social systems in place that had created imbalances in many aspects of the social fabric. The book gives rise to gender issues in the Victorian society that was mainly male-dominated. This era saw men control women in both public and private life. He courageously challenges the capitalist system that breeds economic imbalance. He also questions the social classes and the power structure of the society.

Book Organization

The book is an excellent work written in a period of social, economic, and political changes. The author portrays the reality of the Victorian era and how different social classes impacted the society. The book criticizes the community of the period with the suffering that the people underwent especially the children. Dickens uses various literary devices to portray the events in the society which are organized chronologically to ensure a perfect flow of messages, thoughts, and occasions artistically.

The Author’s Approach

Dickens is dedicated to criticizing social issues, and in the book, he reflects his disapproval for practical ideas of progress that valued that which produced the highest good for the highest number. The setting of the book is in a mill city, Coketown. The town is a representation of the impacts of Industrial Revolution in the nineteenth century. Dickens utilizes the memories of this revolution to frame the intellectual, spiritual, legal, and moral decay present among the British people. Therefore, the author’s approach is a social history when he expresses the problems in the society such as arrogance, self-absorption, and a lack of compassion for the needy.

Books Literary Qualities

The book uses numerous literary devices and techniques to criticize the society. In addition, they are evident in the writing style to indicate the different roles of characters and to express Dickens’ thoughts artistically through the actions and speeches of the protagonists. These literary devices such as irony, humor, expressions, repetition, metaphors, and similes describe particular patterns of language use. Therefore, the writer is a master of writing styles as he is excellent is illustrating the elements and details of the novel. Dickens had used numerous figures of speech to appeal to the emotion of the people particularly in the nineteenth century when the language and narrative styles of an author were regarded as an essential part of reading.

He was able to employ a figurative language that presents the actions and thoughts of the characters and helps the reader get a clear image on the different protagonist and the sequence of events. Therefore, the author can be classified as an outstanding English novelist with the excellent literary qualities. The author has a stylistic feature that is important both to him and his audience as he can express his ideas and messages successfully. He utilizes these elements to represent the real and profound meanings artistically.

Author and His Biases

Charles Dickens takes social reforms as a severe issue and through his book he stimulates interest among the readers and the public to reject the evils of the Victorian period. The society was living in poverty and immoral conditions, and he became a vocal social reformer. However, the author is biased on how he addresses some issues such as social class. Dickens criticizes a significant number of the upper class in the society in an unfair way. Also, he emphasizes on the human intellect without giving light on feelings and imaginations.

What did Book add to My Understanding of the Subject?

The contents of the book have shown Dickens as one of the most critical and vocal social critics. The author has revealed the importance of fictions to criticize moral, social, and economic injustices. Dickens has utilized his experience to develop a strong social conscience that he fruitfully makes use to expose the ills of the industrial society. He stands against meritocracy, poverty, inadequate sanitation, and class division. From the Victorian period, I have known that it is crucial to become imaginative and learn creativity. The book has shown the importance of literary devices and techniques in writing and giving the reader a vivid view of each character and their feeling. Also, Dickens played a significant role in the enactment of social policies that promised to change the lives of the minorities and raised awareness among the public to reject poverty, child labor, social classes, and adverse living conditions. The book and the message aimed to portray a picture of the social building.

YES, I enjoyed the novel. The book is written by an extraordinary author who gives a real vision and description of the nineteenth century. The text uses features that provide a clear view and characteristics of the Victorian era. He creatively produces an exciting literature work that portrays the various changes in different aspects of life and ethics that were a result of the Industrial Revolution. The novel is an excellent piece that presents a broad picture of interactions at all levels of the society.

Works Cited

Dickens, Charles. Hard Times. London, UK: Longman, 1985. Print.