The Presentation of Education in Hard Times by Charles Dickens

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,

Dickens had a strong opinion on this ideal. "If you would reward honesty, if you would give encouragement to good, if you would stimulate the idle, eradicate evil, or correct what is bad, education -- comprehensive liberal education -- is the one thing needful, and the one effective end" (Speeches; 63). Dickens was able to prove his feelings towards education in one of the most famous novels, A Christmas Carol. Scrooge, a miserable man remembers his childhood education to be filled with restricted and horrible memories. Dickens' worry is shown with the illustration done by Birch on the factors of education. Birch is able to illustrate Dicken’s ideals on the wrong form of education. This is the idea of removing the aspects of imagination and personal emotion and replacing that with facts and strict guidelines. Dickens felt as though this was a form of dehumanization to humans. He made clear that he had a sort of uneasiness towards the role that the state plays in education and feels as though it has affected the lives of younger generations and their imagination. Today, schools are able to use more effective ways of learning with more projects based on opinion and free reign. This allows generations to gain a sense of their own. This was all due to the help of Dickens and his influence within social ideas in the education

Charles Dickens’ classic novella A Christmas Carol, focuses on the social responsibility of the wealthy to help the poor and less fortunate. Dickens, having lived in poverty as a child, knew of the many struggles of the lower class of London. As an author, he made it his goal to reform England as best he could. Many of his works ran in his weekly journal, Household Words, including "Christmas Stories" and Great Expectations. In a Christmas Carol, Dickens stresses the point that the writers of that time carried a special burden to speak out for those who lived in poverty and couldn't speak out for themselves.

Dickens was born in 1812 and was the second oldest child out of eight children. His Father, John Dickens, was a clerk while his mother, Elizabeth Barrow, was a teacher (“Charles Dickens”). In 1824, Dickens’ father was sent to prison because he was in debt, since his father was in prison, Dickens’ mother made him drop out of school to help pay bills. His first job was at a boot-blacking factory. When he was working there, he earned about six dollars a week and for him getting a job, he realized he was no longer a child anymore even though he was 12 years old at the time (“Charles Dickens”). At the age of 15, Dickens started working as an office boy; this helped him with his writing career. After a couple of years working there, he started reporting for the Law Courts of London, newspapers, magazines and more (“Charles

Dickens described the aristocracy was being unfair to the people and treat them in uncharitable ways. Dickens’ wrote about a aristocracy killed a man’s child and hanged the child high above to prove the symbol of the aristocracy. The aristocracy gave a gold coin to the man as the compensation after he killed the man’s child. Dickens disliked the way that the aristocracy used, but he also disliked the way revolutionaries used. From Dickens’ view, there was no real revolution because the revolutionaries were fighting in a barbaric way and only violence, but the Revolution had to be carried out. "I see Barsad, and Cly, Defarge… It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known."(page 2932-293)In the last few paragraph, Dickens wrote down the importance of the French Revolution and the result that brought to the people.

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

Dickens develops inhumanity as something innately present in human beings, but that is only truly revealed when there is lack of consequence for revealing it. Society then shifts to accept man’s inhumanity and becomes a destructive force, brutally hurting everything in its path and breeding the inhumanity of revenge in the people it wrongs. This inhumanity developed by other inhumanities is why Madame Defarge so mercilessly hunts the Evrémonde family. It is why the peasants of the French Revolution are equally as inhumane to the aristocrats as the aristocrats had previously been to them. The brutally honest theme of man’s inhumanity toward his fellow man is part of what makes A Tale of Two Cities such a memorable book, as it serves as not only an entertaining piece of literature, but also a warning to generations to come.

A literary allusion is a “brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing or idea of historical, cultural, literary or political significance” (Allusion). Dickens used allusion to describe and emphasize facts about many of the characters, as well as their actions or circumstances, to present facts, and to “impose his fictional world upon the reader” (Larson 18). Through the use of allusion, the reader is able to view “Dickens’ fictional world in an eternal order of value” and to “judge characters and read plots as moral designs” (Larson 18). In Hard Times, Dickens’ use of allusion conveys the concerns of choosing to indoctrinate their children in the utilitarian idea of fact through their education while choosing to neglect and avoid

Charles Dickens, author of Great Expectations, provides a perfect example of the hope of class mobility. The novel portrays very diverse and varied social classes which spread from a diligent, hardworking peasant (Joe) to a good-natured middle class man (Mr. Wemmick) to a rich, beautiful young girl (Estella). Pip, in particular, elevates in the social pyramid from a common boy to a gentleman with great expectations. With his rise in society, he also alters his attitude, from being a caring child to an apathetic gentleman. During this process, Pip learns how he should act and how to become a real gentleman. Social mobility and wealth, furthermore, carves a disposition and how a character is looked upon.

The beginning of the video started off by introducing a man named John Dickens, who worked at a naval pay office on the docks of Portsmouth, and lived in a small house at 387 Mile End Terrace. His wife was Elizabeth Barrow who he met at his office, and who he also had a kid with named, Charles Dickens. But within 7 months of Charles being born everything seemed to go wrong for them, from running into financial problems to being forced to move to several different locations, until they settled in a house up the hill from the docks of Chatham, London. This is where Charles had his happiest memories of his childhood.

Charles Dickens view of the poor is that they are rich with happiness even if they don't have a lot of money. The happiness is from not having greed, which causing driving people away, having no friends. Also you will be forgotten a lot faster after dying, making it so you have almost no lasting affect in the world. The character Bob Crachet is a perfect example of this idea, he is poor, but through the hard times he keeps a smile on his face and wishes good will on those richer then

Where does power come from? Well, Karl Marx doesn’t care because he doesn’t believe in power. He created a lens called the Marxist Criticism lens. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens is a wonderful example of the Marxist Criticism lens, because it reflects the idea that money creates power. This book is about a boy named Pip who experiences and lives all the ups and downs that money brings.

Great Expectations’ main character, Phillip Pirrip- generally known as Pip- had a rough upbringing as a child. His sister, Mrs. Joe had “brought him up by hand”, after their parents and five brothers had all been laid to rest many years ago. Another character, Herbert Pocket experienced a bizarre childhood, though in a different manner. Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations develops through the novel following Pip, a young “common boy” who grew up in the countryside. As he matured so did his love for a girl of higher class, Estella. However, being a common boy, Pip was not good enough for his Estella, thus once he was given an opportunity to become a gentleman in London he seized it without much hesitation. Charles Dickens’ had his own

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.