Louisa and Sissy: Fact Against Fancy in Hard Times

ii. In contrast, Katie, Francie’s mother, is able to overcome poverty because she breaks down the gender stereotypes of what a married woman should do in her time; Katie goes out of the house to work. At that time, were expected to stay home and be cared for while caring for the children

Lizabeth begins to talk about what her family life is like. The passage states,”I did not notice my father’s silence, for he was always silent these days, nor did I notice my mother’s absence, for she always worked well into evening.” (220). Lizabeth’s family life has a huge influence on why she does not want to grow up. Seeing what her parents have to live through prevent her from having any hope and indirectly characterizes her as hopeless. That night, Lizabeth hears her parents arguing about how hard living is. She hears her father break down into tears (221). This was the last straw for Lizabeth. After hearing what her parents had to say in their conversation, she comes to the conclusion that if her life is not fair, then the life of others should not be fair either. The conclusion that Lizabeth comes to indirectly characterizes her as depressed as she feels as if her life is empty. Her conclusion also further develops Lizabeth’s self-centered character trait. Although there are people that have life worse than Lizabeth, she does not view it that way.

In Book the First: Sowing, Dickens introduces the destructiveness of the wrong kind of education on innocent minds. The schoolmaster Mr. Gradgrind refuses to face reality by insisting on addressing Sissy Jupe by her formal name and changing Mr. Jupe’s occupation to one less involved with “fancy” (Dickens 7-8). The classroom, “a plain, bare, monotonous vault” and Mr. Gradgrind’s rigid, square, and dry appearance reflect the stringent, detached teachings of his philosophy (Dickens 6). The name Gradgrind epitomizes what his beliefs have made of him: a “fact machine,” a grinder of fact. In Chapter 2 “Murdering the Innocents”, Dickens compares Gradgrind to a loaded canon “prepared to blow [the children] clean out of the regions of childhood at one discharge” (Dickens 7). The metaphor reiterates the damage Gradgrind’s philosophy can cause, including slaughtering the imagination of children. Gradgrind’s ideology sickens his wife, a “little, thin, white, pink−eyed bundle of shawls, of surpassing feebleness,

One person that is truly affected by her family limitations is Sara’s oldest sister Bessie. Bessie is known as the “burden bearer” of the family. The Smolinsky’s sincerely depend on Bessie to contribute her wages to the family’s well being, and it is apparent that if she seems to live up to her fathers standards to make good enough money, the family will certainly plummet into pieces. “And the whole family were hanging on Bessie’s neck for her wages. Unless she got work soon, we’d be thrown in the street to shame and to laughter

1) This passage in the nineteenth chapter in the book. This passage explains how Sissy treated Francie like her daughter when she went up to Mrs. Briggs to tell her that she has a severe kidney problem and that she can drop dead in class time if she doe not go out.

Abby Alcott, Louisa’s mother, was a highly educated young woman, rare for her time, but like her husband, made poor decisions that would ultimately hurt the family’s well-being severely. Abby worked as a nurse for families living in poverty, who could not afford health care from paid doctors. However, Mrs. Alcott was very careless about her nursing and never bothered to ask what she was treating. Her carelessness caused her to bring home smallpox and scarlet fever to her husband and four daughters. The Scarlett fever Abby brought home would eventually lead to the death of one of her daughters, Beth (Steven 112). Her parent’s financial carelessness lead her to “beg[in] writing to make money for her mother and three sisters”(DeSalle). Louisa also at one point in her childhood vowed that she would one day become rich so she could provide for her family, in the way her father had not.

In the novel Little Women by: Louisa May Alcott, a common theme is expressed throughout. To the family in this story, each other is the only thing that matters, therefore, displaying the message family is the most important thing you can have in your life. The four sisters, Jo, Meg, Beth, and Amy, belong to a very poor family in which the father is away at the military, leaving their mother alone to care for the children. The mother works very hard, but still can not manage to create a solid income for their family. The four sisters understand how hard their mother works

Throughout certain peoples lives, life can be a bit harder than that of others. In the book “Spoon River Anthology” By: Edgar Lee Masters many stated that life wasn’t very easy for them or for some other person in their life. These characters usually had very rough lives and or had rough deaths. In the the section of Fiddler Jones to Mrs. Reece, three characters that I chose were Nellie Clark, Nancy Knapp, and Mrs. George Reece. For them, life was not always easy.

The novel’s opening words (Book 1, Chapter 1) “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity. . .” Provided, Dickens conveys the relationship between poverty and aristocracy through the use of parallelism, paradox, and other poetic techniques. In addition to, Dickens's technique functions not only to draw opposites, but to reveal hidden parallels.

In her troubles, Sommers' finds fifteen dollars and thinks back to when she didn't have a family when she goes shopping for clothing material and tries having a good time before returning home, like buying some food for herself, going to a play, buying clothes for herself because she deserves a little piece of happiness for herself that she can enjoy at home. Sommers' life was wonderful and free before marriage because she was living an independent life, but then she had to give up on having that life after she married and had a family to support, staying home, not working outside of the home, and tending to her husband, children, and the home where she is denied the comforts of getting a job and working outside the house due to the rules of the 1800s run by society's corrupt men of law. In conclusion, Sommers' life was probably better when she had a job, but now she can give her children that view of independence and living a job that they would enjoy even as a mother who works hard from working before her

The fact that Lucie is great at “homemaking” further supports the claim that Dickens’ text is patriarchal. Also,

Throughout Hard Times by Charles Dickens and Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare, societies are conveyed to be significant factors in the development of their characters. Societies establish standards, moral beliefs, and opinions that greatly influence the decisions and learning of characters. Specifically, tragic events in both novels are not only major turning points, but also become defining moments for their characters’ understanding of other characters, conflicts, and of themselves. However, in both novels, societal influences tend to assert their dominance over characters in the novel. In order to reveal the predominant influence of societies on one’s moral beliefs, Dickens and Shakespeare directly attribute how their characters’

“Sorry. I couldn’t resist,” he chuckled out. By this time, he was standing there just wearing a pair of boxer briefs. He had placed his clothes on top of the rock and paused. “Are you telling me after last night you want to play little Miss Modest?”

August 2010 in New York City on the weathered track of Columbia University during my first Central Park Track Club practice, I had the privilege of meeting four incredible young ladies. It was here where we would train together through the temperamental northeastern weather running lap after lap filled with blood, sweat, and tears, adopting the name Lesleigh’s Ladies. We formed a bond that continues to grow as the years pass. The group is made up of Heather, Lisa, Maureen, Joy, and myself. The name of our quintet stems from a relay race that we raced together, paying homage to our awe inspiring coach, Lesleigh. When Lesleigh’s Ladies get together they become gatherings that outshine all others filled with exciting travels, a plethora of laughter

In Hard Times, Dickens presents life philosophies of three men that directly contradict each other. James Harthouse sees one’s actions in life as meaningless since life is so short. Mr. Gradgrind emphasizes the importance of fact and discourages fantasy since life is exactly as it was designed to be. Mr. Slearly exhibits that “all work and no play” will make very dull people out of all of us. He also proclaims that one should never look back on one’s life and regret past actions. Dickens is certainly advocating Sleary’s life philosophy because the subjects of the other two philosophies led depressing and unhappy lives. This is made clear when Louisa realises her childhood of fact without fancy has ruined her, when Tom’s life falls apart after leaving his father’s home in rejection of his strict parenting, and when Mr. Gradgrind himself realises the faults in his own philosophy and devotes the rest of his life to virtue and charity.