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    Hard Times: The Unusual Novel

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    Кристофор Янчев
    Charles Dickens wrote the novel Hard Times in 1854 to criticize the working conditions of factories in industrial towns. The novel satirizes utilitarian thought which viewed people as machines and promoted fact over fancy in education. It also shows the wealthy as morally corrupt while the poor worker Stephen Blackpool has perfect morals. The themes include the harsh realities of the time period as well as criticisms of the education system, wealth, and utilitarian philosophy.

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    Hard Times: The Unusual Novel

    Uploaded by

    Кристофор Янчев
    45 views9 pages
    Charles Dickens wrote the novel Hard Times in 1854 to criticize the working conditions of factories in industrial towns. The novel satirizes utilitarian thought which viewed people as machines and promoted fact over fancy in education. It also shows the wealthy as morally corrupt while the poor worker Stephen Blackpool has perfect morals. The themes include the harsh realities of the time period as well as criticisms of the education system, wealth, and utilitarian philosophy.

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    Hard Times

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    Charles Dickens wrote the novel Hard Times in 1854 to criticize the working conditions of factories in industrial towns. The novel satirizes utilitarian thought which viewed people as machines and promoted fact over fancy in education. It also shows the wealthy as morally corrupt while the poor worker Stephen Blackpool has perfect morals. The themes include the harsh realities of the time period as well as criticisms of the education system, wealth, and utilitarian philosophy.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    45 views9 pages

    Hard Times: The Unusual Novel

    Uploaded by

    Кристофор Янчев
    Charles Dickens wrote the novel Hard Times in 1854 to criticize the working conditions of factories in industrial towns. The novel satirizes utilitarian thought which viewed people as machines and promoted fact over fancy in education. It also shows the wealthy as morally corrupt while the poor worker Stephen Blackpool has perfect morals. The themes include the harsh realities of the time period as well as criticisms of the education system, wealth, and utilitarian philosophy.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    of 9

    Hard Times

    The unusual novel

    Kristofor & Ddimitar 11”D”


    Charles John Huffam
    Dickens
    7 February 1812 – 9
    June 1870

    • Charles Dickens was one of the


    most famous English writers of the
    1800s. Although his books are often
    very funny, they show many of the
    difficulties of living in his time. His
    books are still very popular today.
    • Dickens finished school
    for good at age 15 and
    went to work. He wrote
    stories and articles for
    magazines and
    newspapers. His first
    novel, The Pickwick
    Papers, was published in
    1837.
    • In his later years, Dickens wrote less. He had grown tired. He published A Tale
    of Two Cities in 1859. It is a novel about the French Revolution. Great
    Expectations was published from 1860 to 1861. Dickens died on June 9, 1870.
    Hard Times
    • the tenth novel by Charles Dickens first published in
    1854.

    • One of Dickens's reasons for writing Hard Times was


    that sales of his weekly periodical Household Words
    were low, and it was hoped the novel's publication in
    instalments would boost circulation – as indeed proved
    to be the case.
    Major Themes
    • Dickens wished to educate readers about the working
    conditions of some of the factories in the industrial
    towns of Manchester, and Preston, to "strike the heaviest
    blow in my power", and as well to confront the
    assumption that prosperity runs parallel to morality.
    Utilitarianism

    • The Utilitarians were one of the targets of Dickens's satire.


    Utilitarianism was a prevalent school of thought during this
    period, its founders being Jeremy Bentham and James Mill,
    father to political theorist John Stuart Mill. Bentham's former
    secretary, Edwin Chadwick, helped design the Poor Law of
    1834, which deliberately made workhouse life as
    uncomfortable as possible. In the novel, this attitude is
    conveyed in Bitzer's response to Gradgrind's appeal for
    compassion.
    Fact vs. Fancy

    • The bastion of fact is the eminently practical Mr.


    Gradgrind, and his model school, which teaches nothing
    but "Facts". Any imaginative or aesthetic subjects are
    absent from the curriculum, and analysis, deduction and
    mathematics are emphasised. Fancy, the opposite of Fact,
    is epitomised by Sleary's circus.
    Morality

    • Dickens portrays the wealthy in this novel as being morally


    corrupt. Bounderby has no moral scruples, and, for example, fires
    Blackpool "for a novelty". He also conducts himself without any
    shred of decency, frequently losing his temper. He is cynically false
    about his childhood. Harthouse, a leisured gent, is compared to an
    "iceberg" who will cause a wreck unwittingly, due to him being
    "not a moral sort of fellow", as he states himself. Stephen
    Blackpool, a destitute worker, is equipped with perfect morals,
    always abiding by his promises, and always thoughtful and
    considerate of others, as is Sissy Jupe.

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