Alicia Gonzalez
Professor Richard C. Smith
English 150
8 October 2016 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. The city of Coketown is a town introduced as an uncompromising, brutal, and fearful place defined by its work and industrialization. The description that we are given of Coketown makes it clear that it is not a place of enjoyment, pleasure, or nature. It is heavily characterized by its repetitive and endless labor. Coketown is therefore essential as a setting displaying the negative aspects of industrialization. However, there is additional significance in the negative portrayal of Coketown. The idea of monotony in the industrial city is one that is returned to several times throughout the novel. Dickens writes
The novel, like many other classics, paints the society and time period in which the author lives through. Victorian England, which is the basis of Dickens setting, was a time where social principles were focused on the hierarchy and human nature. The
Authors have often uses natural phenomena to comment on what is happening among the characters. Dickens wrote a book called, “A Tale of Two Cities” which was about the French Revolution and how life was like in the 1800’s. Natural phenomena are things from nature that Dickens uses for the characters in the book, for example, animals, the weather, flowers, and anything that occurs in nature that will fit what is happening among the characters, and the book. He also uses symbols, themes, he creates the atmosphere in the beginning of the book, and an outlook of what is about to happen in the book. We’re about to look at the different types of natural phenomena that Dickens uses in his book. On Chapter 5, Dickens uses an example of natural phenomena, which was when during the summer thunderstorm at the Manettes’ house in Soho. Dickens’s use of nature to mirror human emotions is effective.
Dickens uses the needs and wants for people to get an image in their head about what life was really like before the French revolution. "Cold, dirt,
The novel, A Tale of Two Cities, was written by Charles Dickens and was published in 1859. A Tale of Two Cities is a historical fiction based during the French Revolution. As two groups of people who both live in London and Paris find themselves in a situation that affects all of them, which ends with some deaths and suffering. Charles Dickens purpose for writing A Tale of Two Cities was to inform and amplify the readers mind on human nature. Throughout the book Charles Dickens uses many themes and characteristics, that bring out human nature in all his characters, to broaden the view of the readers.
In many ways Dickens was viewed to denounce the Capitalist ethic. However never to found to be Communist/ Marxist it can be stated he was merely anti-materialistic. He felt the social injustice, which was created due to the heavy industry. Most of the mechanized account and in particular p.20 creates such an impression on the reader to think this. Dickens believed that this was a brutal world where everything is “measured by figures” in a Gradgrind gospel of “Fact”.
The first paragraph of Bleak House alone gives the reader an instant idea of how Charles Dickens saw London to be around 1842. He has portrayed the streets to be muddy and extremely polluted, "As much mud in the streets as if the waters had but newly retired from the face of the earth." Here Dickens has used a slight amount of Hyperbole to emphasize his point. He also uses personification when referring to the snow flakes, saying that they have gone into mourning, ?smoke lowering down from the chimneypots, making a soft black drizzle, with flakes of soot in it as big as full-grown snowflakes?gone into mourning, one might imagine, for the death of the sun.? the contrast of the imagery he is using helps for the reader to imagine the scene,
The Industrial Revolution generated the perception that applying solely logic to everyday activities could maximize productivity and efficiency. Charles Dickens explores the dangers of neglecting emotions and imagination in his novel Hard Times. Dickens separates Hard Times into three books: Sowing, Reaping and Garnering in order to reveal the negative consequences of industrialization and forsaking imagination for facts through the events, settings, and characters in the novel.
Dickens’ experiences of living in abandonment and working in Warren’s Blacking Factory, coupled with his
Dickens description of the Philadelphia prison and its inhabitants were harsh, disciplinary, and hopeless and feels hurt for the prisoners on being treated that why. He described every offender and problems from being there that had impacted them. Dickens stated that one man just kept getting up and sitting back down and didn't notice why he was doing it. in addition he states that being in 24/7 confinement for a period time and not interacting would affect there lives when they get out to society being hard to adjust. What I was struck with was how he said they had to put their hoods on when they were being transfer and when the offenders went out side and just stood there not knowing where to walk to. Its amaze me how the mind changes when
Written by Dickens in 1815, Hard Times attempts to convince readers by illustrating the fact that life during the Industrial Revolution was anything but pleasant for human beings. Centred around Mr. Gradgrind and his moderately sized family, Dickens succeeds at giving the reader a up close and personal view of what it meant to be a father, mother, man, woman, and child during the industrial revolution. Dickens also provides the reader with three central themes: the mechanization of human beings, the conflict of fact versus fantasy, and the significance of the female figure. Dickens set out with a goal in writing this novel to expose the truth on how grim the Industrial Revolution really was for the human race. I therefore think that, through examining various examples sprawled throughout the text in connection to the three themes, there should definitely be enough evidence to conclude that Dickens interpretations of the Industrial Revolution were believably similar and, in a sense, true to what people were faced with during the 18th
Charles Dickens is one of the most renowned British writers with well-known and widespread work. Dickens was born in England in 1812 and died in 1870. During this time, Victorian England experienced an Industrial Revolution, which impacted his life tremendously. New factories and industrial machinery changed many lives of the lower class citizens. The family grew up impoverished and struggled to maintain a good lifestyle. The family’s financial situation was strained as John Dickens, Charles’s father, spent money that the family didn’t have. These societal factors were influential in Charles Dickens’s life, and the same themes present themselves in his works. When an author creates a work, frequently themes of their life events are incorporated into the theme of the book, consciously or unconsciously. Victorian Age industrial-influenced strife was a common theme in Dickens’s life and presented itself throughout Dickens’s books.
Dickens begins the novel with a pro-revolutionary tone. His regard for the idea of the upcoming and inevitable revolution in a positive light is reflected by the atmosphere he sets for the reader. Dickens is able to make his readers pity the peasantry and sympathize with them. Through inclusion of detail, Dickens portrays the plight of the lower class writing, “gloom [gathers] on the scene that [appears] more natural to it than sunshine” (21). This allows the reader to imply that the suffering of the lower class has fallen into a continuous pattern, and they can understand the need for revolution. Additionally, Dickens uses anaphora with the phrase “Hunger [is]” (21). This gives the reader a sense of how much hunger dominates and defines their lives, effectively making their
The French Revolution mainly took place in the city of Paris during the late 1700’s. The Revolution did not only affect the people of France, but also the citizens of England as well. The French Revolution is known as one of the most brutal and inhumane periods of history. If one studied the beliefs and views of the people involved at the time, one would see a reoccurring theme of “ being recalled to life”. Born from the world of literature, Charles Dickens’ novel, A Tale of Two Cities takes a deeper look at the culture of the late 1700’s, in both England and France. Dickens uses the character of Lucie Manette to further examine one of the major themes presented in the novel, consisting of the belief of one being
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
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.