Summary Of ' Hard Times ' By Charles Dickens

The importance of landscape throughout Hard Times by Charles Dickens is seen in various locations that help to thread the novel together. When new scenes are presented to the reader, we are often given explicit details of the characters’ surrounding and current environment to draw us into that particular moment. The city is mainly described in a more negative light, with words such as ugly and monotonous. In contrast, the countryside (away from the hustle of the working town) is portrayed in such a way that it feels like a pure or sacred space, free of the blemishes of the working town. Dickens creates an underlying importance with how he describes the city versus how he describes the countryside, being that the latter becomes the place of death for one of the main characters Stephen Blackpool.

During the 1800s, Charles Dickens was one of the most acclaimed writers of his time. He did not just write books but he was a journalist, and play write. Many of his experiences and people in his life influenced his books. Because of this he was known as not just a writer but a writer for “the people”. He wrote about the workhouse, poverty, disabilities, social class, and so much more that effected his era.

Dickens’ view of society having evil morals and ethics is conveyed with the use of hunger and an unjust law system. The bad morals of the wealthy aristocrats and the unfair treatment in prisons help portray why society would be angry. The people use these problems in society to fuel their revenge against the aristocracy so they can be treated equally. The people, starting an uprising against the aristocracy, will finally have the revenge they

In contrast to the luxurious life of the aristocrats, Dickens’ heart was deeply struck by the miserable life of the oppressed like impoverished peasants. Beneath the splendor, not only did these aristocrats show no mercy or love for the poor who suffered a lot in poverty, but also intended to make their life even more miserable. They used numerous taxes to put every peasant into a very difficult situation, holding the thought that the reason why the peasants postponed the payment was nothing but just making up excuse. As for their cruelty, for example, they acted completely indifferent to the death of a forester and the emaciated figure of a poor young mother. Even though Dickens exaggerated a little bit in exposing the inhumanity of the aristocrats,

Dickens idea that the rigid class structure is the reason for economic failure. This exhibits the economic principle that economic Systems Influence Individual Choices and Incentives. During Dickens’ era, many members of the lower classes were growing

Charles Dickens is an outstanding humanitarian in the 19th century. Even though a society can create a great writer, the great writer can also use his own power to improve the society. However, whatever the society period belongs to, a great literature work is able to influence a lot of souls and clarify them by its great value. Charles Dickens may eventually mount unprocessed bright brightness with his unique charm in world history of literature, and, forever.

Utilitarianism is a doctrine in normative ethics that is outlined and defended by many philosophers, including the English philosopher John Stuart Mill as a standard to determine what are right and wrong actions. At its most basic claim, the right course of action one must take should be in the interest of maximizing what is known as utility. The right course of action is determined as being right if it maximizes the total benefit and happiness gained, while at the same time reducing the greatest amount of pain for the greatest number of people. To put it simply, utilitarianism merits the greatest good for the greatest number. In Utilitarianism, John Stuart Mill details his explanation and support of the theory, and provides common criticisms of the theory that he refutes throughout the piece. A couple of these critiques include claims that the concept of utility is opposed to the concept of pleasure, and that it “renders men cold and unsympathizing” (p. 20). With conviction, Mill is able to successfully vindicate and define utilitarianism from critiques, although he could go beyond defining by providing examples and illustrations of utilitarianism in the way that critiques perceive it to be in order to demonstrate faults and holes that would arise.

To Dickens, at the time of writing Hard Times, these things were represented most articulately, persuasively, (and therefore dangerously) by the Utilitarians. [86]

The conflict in relationships due to family and class conflict can also be seen in Charles Dickens’s Hard Times. The central theme of the novel, that of fact versus fancy, is dramatized through the Gradgrind family and Louisa’s longing to find an imaginative escape into a world not conditioned by economic thinking (Dickens, 1854). Due to the expectations on Louisa and her life, she is bound to certain behaviors, and her desire for something else in her life contradicts those expectations. Only after Louisa marries Bounderby and is led, for the first time, to an encounter with Stephen Black pool, is she given a new perspective of the world around her (Dickens, 1854). Prior to this, Louisa had no conception of individuality in connection with her family outside of the ideas of supply and demand (Schor, 2001).

The novel Hard Times by Charles Dickens is a fictitious glimpse into the lives of various classes of English people that live in a town named Coketown during the Industrial Revolution. The general culture of Coketown is one of utilitarianism. The school there is run by a man ready to weigh and measure any parcel of human nature . This man, known as Thomas Gradgrind, is responsible for the extermination of anything fanciful and integration of everything pertinent and factual into the young, pliable minds of Coketown’s children. The older characters in the book, and especially Mr. Bounderby, are examples of how years of leading a utilitarian life can mold someone into an arrogantly bland and ignorant individual, which I think is one of

Charles Dickens’s novel Hard Times critiques the use of extreme utilitarianism as an acceptable means to governing a society in which citizens are able to lead happy, productive, flourishing lives. “Just the facts,”19th century English utilitarianism argued, are all one needs to flourish. Those answers that we can arrive at by way of mathematical, logical reasoning are all needed to live a full human life. Hard Times shows however that a “just the facts” philosophy creates a community inhospitable to the needs of one another, a society nearly void of human compassion, and one lacking in morality. Underlying the novel’s argument is the Aristotelian concept that the primary purpose of government is to

Charles Dickens' Bleak House presents a damning portrait of England's social institutions and political infrastructure. The novel allows Dickens to express condemnation for the English court and judicial system; as the author purportedly stated prior to writing Bleak House, "The one great principle of the English law is to make business for itself," (cited by Perdue). In addition to exposing the corruption of English common law, Dickens also draws attention to fractures in the very fabric of English society. Most of these fractures are related to social norms and ethics. Although Bleak House possesses a complicated, many-layered plot, one of the common threads remains the suffering of women and children.

Utilitarianism and Charles Dickens - The Analysis of Impact of Utilitarianism in Hard Times towards Humanity

Mr. Bounderby who is the fool, but rather Mrs. Sparsit, who does not seem to

Class systems sadly are an institutional part of society since biblical times and are still prominent in all cultures today. In British society, class systems are still as prevalent as they were in the 19th century, there are seven social classes, ranging from the elite at the top to the extreme poor at the bottom. Typically, in English society social class was always defined by occupation, wealth, and education with an addition of social and cultural classes. Social classes is a prevalent aspect of British society since before recorded history, it was the addition of money, land and title that increased the division of the classes. As the industrial revolution swung into full force, the division of classes strengthened. Social mobility became a common occurrence as society developed and moved forward towards the twentieth century. This holds true in the novel Hard Times, written by Charles Dickens in the Nineteenth century, examines the British class system through examples of social relationships and the labor force. (4)