Hard Times is a novel written by Charles dickens Essay

Hard Times is a novel written by Charles dickens at the time of the industrial revolution. It is set in the nineteenth century in England. It is deuce harsh and satirical attack on the industrial and educational systems of his time. Dickens believed in impregnable high society and community values, which he felt were being destroyed by this new system based stringently on fact.In the novel Dickens uses satire, humour, irony and symbolism to convey is vision and bespeak the world what he thinks it should be like.This novel, set in a place c altogethered Coketown, England, is showing how English people live in a very harsh place. The characters in the novel include both good and bad people.Throughout this novel Dickens attacks the industrial and educational systems using satire and humour. He uses such techniques to poke fun out of them. He also uses irony, such as in the name Stephen Blackpool who at the end of the novel dies in a black pool. Dickens uses satire to describe things, for example chromatic brick buildings, or at least they would have been if it werent for the grime.Dickens also used characters and their names as a way of attacking the educational and industrial systems. doubting Thomas Gradgrind is a leading businessman in the town of Coketown. He is a good example of how things are run and done in Coketown, all based on facts. He says now what I want are facts, and facts are what Mr. Gradgrind use as a way of destroying other people in the novel such as young Tom, Louisa and Bitzer.Louisa Gradgrind, Thomas Gradgrinds daughter is a prime example of how the educational system is a complete failure. At the start of the novel she is caught looking at the circus, which shows how she wanted to experience more than the philosophy of facts that her father receptive her to. She is seeking love in her bearing later in the novel as she makes two pleas for encourage to Stephen Blackpool and to mob Harthouse. She gets married to a fellow busine ssman of her fathers, Mr Bounderby. She doesnt marry him out of love only for the sake of her brother Tom Gradgrind.Tom Gradgrind is the son of Thomas Gradgrind. Tom is dependent on his child Louisa a lot as he needs help to fuel his gambling habits. Throughout his life the educational system along with his father dehumanises him. Near the end of the novel the bank is robbed and Louisa fears that Tom had robbed it. She knew he was in debt and believed he did it as he worked there for Mr Bounderby.Bitzer is a model pupil of this so-called educational system. The system is so dehumanising that he thinks and acts more like a robot than a human. He has no imagination at all and as he gets older he gets more and more selfish. He has no sensitivity and no communal concern for others. He is the complete opposite of Sissy Jupe.Mr James Harthouse is the sneaky seducing snake of the novel, who came to Coketown looking for a part in Gradgrinds political party. He has an flying interest in L ouisa and uses Toms weakness in money to get to her. His name Harthouse is satirical, as he is a heart stealer. He takes advantage of young vulnerable women such as Louisa. Louisa makes the geological fault of falling for Harthouse and when she realises what she had done came to her father and collapsed at his feet. This collapse symbolises the collapse of the educational system and shows its failure proper(ip) in front of MR Gradgrind.Mr Bounderby re surrenders the industrial system in the novel. Throughout the novel he reminds people around his rags to riches story, about how he started out as a nobody on the slums of Coketown, to reach his present social and economic status.Stephen Blackpool, who is the victim of the industrial system, works in the factories of Coketown. He is unhappily married and in love with another woman, called Rachel. His wife represents all the pain and suffering in his life and Rachel represents all the mirth in his life. He falls down a mineshaft or a black pool at the end of the novel. He is pulled out alive but then soon dies. His name is ironic, Blackpool, as he dies down a blackpool.Sissy Jupe is the good person in the novel. She cannot be beaten by the system. She had imagination, which only the circus folk else in the novel had. She is the heroine of the novel as she saves Louisa from James Harthouse and Louisas young sis from her father and his educational system by educating her. MR Gradgrind at the start of the novel adopted her, as her father, who was in the circus, ran away and left her. Sissy symbolises imagination and humanity. She is the hope for the future.Dickens uses satire and humour in this novel very well. His attack on the educational and industrial system of his day was very good. Our world forthwith is much different than his. There are still people today who would fit the personality of such people like the characters in the novel, however our educational system and industrial systems are probably sor t of the opposite of Dickens days system. We are encouraged to use our imagination with such school subjects as english, art, music technology and drama.