Charles dickens hard times and
Charles dickens hard times andHard Times
Europe began the nineteenth century dominated by the romanticists. The realists changed the face of Europe once more by the middle of the nineteenth century. The importance of science and the industrialization of Europe characterized their movement. Where the romanticists believed in feelings, intuition, and imagination, the realists believed in a movement known as positivism, which applied the scientific method to the study of society. The authors of this period also changed their style of writing by dealing with cultural representation and life. They focused on "the here and now, with everyday events, with his own environment and with the movements (political, social etc.) of his time." Charles Dickens was an author during this period and his novel Hard Times reflects a number of different themes. The novel focuses on educational and economic systems of Victorian England, the industrial revolution, which spawned how industrial relations were viewed during the 1850's, and utilitarianism. I have chosen the two major themes of industrial relations and educational system during this period. Although, you can not discuss labor relations without bringing focus upon the class society of Victorian England during this period. I will use the Norton Critical Edition of Hard Times, the Sources of the Western Tradition, and the Communist Manifesto to support my analytical interpretation of Charles Dickens Hard Times.
During this period Dickens wrote for a weekly publication called Household Words, each issue dealt with a different social problem of the period. Hard Times began as a serialization in this weekly publication. In Hard Times Dickens writes about the horrors of the industrial revolution and was sparked by what he had seen first hand in Manchester, England fifteen years prior to writing Hard Times and the present goings on of a labor strike in Preston, England while he was conceiving the novel. The novel is almost biblical in nature as it has three books sowing, reaping and garnering. Book the First, "Sowing," is the planting of the seeds. It provides a basis for the problems that will affect Stephen Blackpool, who is a factory worker in Coketown. Book the Second, "Reaping," details the affect the industrial relations had on Stephen. The first to books describe the biblical passage,
"Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap"(Galatians 6:7). Book the Third, "Garnering," describes in a broad way the results of what industrialization did to Victorian England.
The industrialization revolution brought many problems to Victorian England in the 1850's. Industrial towns such as Manchester and Preston sprung up in northern England. Prosperity came to those who owned the factories or mills, while despair came to the "hands," the factory workers. Coketown is one such northern England town and Stephen Blackpool is a typical factory worker of the period in Charles Dickens novel Hard Times. The novel exemplifies the problems of...
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