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Joanne Alfieri Professor Lanzetta Survey of World Literature November 8, 1997 Hard Times by Charles Dickens There are five major themes in the novel Hard Times by Charles Dickens. Its themes overlap as Dickens points an accusing finger at a specific time and place: England during the time of the Industrial Revolution. The wisdom of the heart vs. the wisdom of the head Gradgrind represents the wisdom of the head. His philosophy is based on utilitarianism, which seeks to promote the greatest happiness for the greatest number. His philosophy is based on scientific laws that dictate that nothing else is important but profit, and that profit is achieved by the pursuit of cold, hard facts.
Everything that isnt fact is considered Fancy. The wisdom of the heart is embodied in Sissy June. Simple, considered uneducable, Sissy brings goodness and purity to many of the characters, including Gradgrind. As he sees the products of his philosophy shattered around him, particularly Louisa and Tom, he begins to wonder if the wisdom of the heart that others have talked about really exists.
Sissy proves to him that it does, and she salvages a great deal that might have been lost. Closely related to this theme is mans need for amusement. Salary, the circus owner, insists that people cant work and learn all the time an idea once odious to Gradgrind. Exploitation of the working class We see this theme worked out through the character of Stephen Blackpool, a factory worker. Stephens life is a muddle, in part because he and the other workers are exploited from all sides. Their employer, Bouderby, thinks that their lives are easy and that their complaints stem from selfishness and greed.
The utilitarians who run the schools and government are interested only in profit. The union organizers are driven by power-hungry self interest. At one point Stephen indicates that the workers have bad leaders because only bad leaders are offered to them. Throughout the novel, the workers are almost all nameless, faceless individuals. They are called by the reductive term hands, because it is their working hands that are important to their employers, not their souls, brains or spirits.
The effects of the Industrial Revolution Closely connected to the theme of exploitation, this theme is more all-encompassing. It reveals the abuses of a profit-hungry society that result in a variety of social disgraces: poor education, smoke-filled cities and polluted water, dangerous factory machines, terrible working conditions, substandard housing for the workers. This corrupt society is only interested in productivity and profit, not the health and happiness of its citizens. The failure of the utilitarian education The opening scene in MChoakumchilds classroom sets the tone for this theme. Students are taught according to what is factual and are ordered to avoid anything imaginative. As governor of the school, Gradgrind not only sets the policy of hard facts but also practices it in the raising of his own children.
Educators like Gradgrind see children as empty vessels to be filled to the brim with facts and statistics. They never take into account the childs need for poetry, song and fiction those elements that fill the heart and soul, as well as the mind. The failure of this system is seen through Louisa and Tom Gradgrind, and the ambitious sneak, Better. The arrogance of the upper class Mrs.
Sparsit and James Harthouse represent this theme. Mrs. Sparsit clings fiercely to her heritage and faded glamor. She is haughty to those beneath her and despises the efforts of the workers to organize a union. Harthouse is revealed as cynical and lazy.
He treats his seduction of Louisa as a diversion, without thinking of the consequences of his actions.
Free research essays on topics related to: hard times, charles dickens, industrial revolution, gradgrind, wisdom
Research essay sample on Charles Dickens Industrial Revolution
