British novelist Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812, in Portsmouth, England. Over the course of his writing career, he wrote the classic novels Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol, Nicholas Nickleby, David Copperfield, A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations. On June 9, 1870, Dickens died of a stroke in Kent, England, leaving his final novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, unfinished.
Hard Times (1854)
Hard Times was Dickens’ tenth novel. It was serialized from 1 April to 12 August, 1854 in the weekly journal Household Words, of which Dickens was editor. The mythical Coketown was based in part on Preston, Lancashire, which had experienced tremendous growth during the Industrial Revolution, particularly in the textile industry.
Question for consideration:
1. What social and economic roles do women play in Hard Times? What does Dickens see as “appropriate” and “inappropriate” roles for women? Why are certain women in the story punished and others rewarded? Why, for example, does Sissy have children but Louisa does not?
2. To what extent may the title of the novel, Hard Times For These Times (the full original title), be applied to the novel’s principal characters? Consider the social, educational, monetary, and personal implications of the phrase “hard times.”
3. Thomas Gradgrind is initially a cantankerous, socially alienated figure absorbed by some strange obsession. Gradually over the course of the story he changes his attitudes and reforms his views. How does he initially exemplify Jeremy Bentham’s concept of Utilitarianism (“the greatest happiness for the greatest number”)? What factors are responsible for changing his outlook on life? How is he by the end of the novel?
4. Surveillance and control are pervasive patterns in the book: characters are observing and reporting on other characters as a means of social control. Which characters serve as watchers, and how do they differ in their intentions? Which characters are observed and reported on, and why?
5. What about its effects makes Dickens hostile to industrial capitalism in Hard Times? How does he reveal his indignation? What cure does Dickens propose for the ills of industrial society as depicted in the novel?
6. George Bernard Shaw argues that Dickens deliberately wrote Hard Times to make his middle class readers feel “uncomfortable.” Do you agree? If so, identify and explain the sources of this discomfort.
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