This blog is about a part of Thinking Activity which was given by Dilip Barad sir . In this blog I will answer Que. Themes of 'Hard Times '. on the basis of my understanding about Hard Time -Charles Dickens.
Charles Dickens:-
◾Born in 1812 in Kent.
◾His father was a clerk .....ran into debts which landed in prisonp
◾Letter returned to school but left at 15 to work as a low clerk court reporter and a political journalist before devoting himself to writing full time
◾His books where widely successful both in England and US.
◾Dickens first book pikwick papers (1837), others novels include: Olive twist (1839),Nicholas Nickleby (1839) , The Old Curiosity Shop (1840-41), Bleak house (1853),Hard Times (1853), Creat Expectations (1800) etc...
◾Edwin Drood was unfinished novel published posthumously.
Introduction to the Novel:-
◾It is a social protest novel of 19th century England.
◾Complete name is "Hard Times for these Times".
◾Originally published in a serial form of installment in magazine named "household words".
◾Published on first April 1854 ,
in London.
◾It is hist short test novel.
◾Hard times is considered as a revision of an earlier work or novel Chimes .
◾ Victorian channel and realistic novel, we can also say it's kind of satire.
◾ Not only the working classes have a hard times in the novel but other classes as well.
◾ Novel takes in three parts after a biblical verse."sowing" ,"Reaping" & "Garnering".
◾ It satirizes English society and social economic life of its contemporary life.
◾ Novel text place in the fictional American town in Northern England called coketown partially model on Manchester
◾ Novel suggest 19th century England touring into a factory machine.
◾ Middle class is concerned with making money
◾ The novel is best known for the state of trade unions and the explore edition of the working class by capitalist elites.
◾ Even, if it is not Dickens most popular novel, it is still an important expression of the world use he thoughts where fundamental to human existence.
Themes of the Novel:
Fact Versus Fancy
Dickens depics are terrifying system of education where facts and nothing but facts are prounded into the school children all day, and where memorization of information is valued over art, imagination or anything creative.
This results in some very warped human being . Mr Thomas Gradgrind completely in this system and is a superinted of schools and a father, he makes sure that all the children at the schools he is responsible for an especially he is own children are brought up knowing nothing but data .
As a result, things go very badly for his children, Tom Gradgrind and Louisa Gradgrind.
Since they, as children, were always treated as if they had minds and not hearts, teer adulthoods are warped,as they have no way to access their feelings or connect with each others.
Tom is a sulky person and he gets involved in a crime in an effort to pay of gambling debts.Louisa is unhappy when she follows her mind , not her heart, and marries Mr. Bounderby , her father's friend.
As a result of her unhappy marriage, she is little swept of her fit by a young gentleman, Mr James , who comes to stay with them and who seems to understand and love her. Louisa nearly comes to ruin by running of with Harq house.
Cecilia Jupe was encouraged when she was little to dream and imagine and loud her father dearly, and therefore she is in touch with her heart and feelings, and empathy and emotional strength the other children lack. Sissy adopted by the Gradgrind when her father abandons her , ultimately is the saviour of the family in the end.
Industrialism
Hand in hand with the glorification of data and numbers and facts in the school house is the treatment of the workers in the factorys of coketown as nothing more than machines which produce so much per day and are not thought of as having feelings or families or dreams.
Dickens depics this situation as a result of the industrialisation of England, now that down like Coketown are focused on producing more and more dirty factories are built, more smoke pollutes the air and water, and the factory owners see their workers as part of the machine that brings them profit.
In fact, the workers are only called" Hands", an indication of how objectified they are by the owners. Similarly, Mt Gradgrind 's children were brought up to "minds". None of them are people or "heart".
Industrialism creates condition in which owners treat workers as machines and workers respond by unionizing to resist and fight back against the owners.
In the meantime, those in parliament work for the benefit of the country but not its people. In short, industrialisation creates and environmental which people cease to treat either others or themselves as people.
Even the unions, the groups of factory workers who fight against the industries of the factory owners, are not shown in a good light.
Stephen Blackpool , a poor worker at Bounderby's factory, is rejected by his fellow workers for his refusal to join the union because of a promise made to the sweet, good woman he loves, Rachael. He is factory union than treats him as an outcast.
Marriage
There are many unhappy marriages in Hard Times and none of them are resolved happily by the end.
Mr Gradgrind 's marriage to his feeble, complaining wife is not exactly a source of misery for either of them, but neither are there or their children happy.
The Gradgrind family is not loving one.
The main unhappy marriage showcased by the novel is between Louisa Gradgrind and Mr. Bounderby.
The only solution to this bad marriage, once Louisa has escaped the hands of Jem Harthouse, is for Louisa to leave at home the rest of her days. She will never be happy with another man or have the joy of children, to Dickens hints she will find join playing with Sissy's future children.
Mrs. Sparsit was also unhappy married, which is how she came to be Mr Bounderby's companion before he marriage Louisa.
Femininity
The best characters in Hard Times are women.
Sissy Jupe can overcome even the worst intentions of Jem Harthouse with her firmeand powerfully pure gaze.
Louisa as disadvantaged as she is by her terrible upbringing, manages to get out of her crisis at the last minute by fleering home to her father for shelter .in contrast to her brother, Tom , who choose to commit a life- changing crime in his moment of crisis.
Through this example, the novel suggest that the kindness and compassion of the female heart can improve what an educational fact .
Still , not all the women in the novel are good. Mrs Sparsitis a comic example of femininity gone wrong.
She can't stand being replaced by Louisa when Bounderby marriage, and what is the progression of the affair between Louisa and Jem Harthouse.
In one scene she is portrayed as a cruel, ridiculous figure. Stephen Blackpool's wife is portrayed as a highly drunken prostitute.
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