Page 108 - The Gonzaga Record 1986
P. 108
HARD TIMES
Dickens' titles for each of the three separate books that make up Hard
Times - 'Sowing', 'Reaping' and 'Garnering' evoke his insistent concern
with the nature of education. They duly demonstrate that those who sow
evil seeds at an early stage, will reap their due pernicious reward later.
In the opening chapters of 'the sowing', Dickens investigates the
premises on which much of the education of the time seems to have been
based - an educational philosophy allowing no access to the world of
wonder but insisting instead on pragmatic proof and evidence. Dickens'
technique is to caricature grossly the evils of 'the system'. He uses visual
image to dictate value pattern - thus Sissy, the champion of imaginat-
ion, is associated with beauty, whereas Bitzer, the star pupil, possesses
repulsive lifeless features.
The principles that govern Mr Gradgrind's school are the principles
that dominate Coketown and its industry. His hard-facts philosophy is
only the agressive formulation of the inhumane spirit of Victorian mater-
ialism. However, he does not portray Gradgrind as evil but rather as a
brainwashed individual obsessed by a vicious philosophy. In Bounderby
this spirit is embodied in greed for power and individualism and is
portrayed in its ugliest and vulgarest form.
Dickens employs Biblical parallels to portray the characters of the
struggling working class. 'Old Stephen' is the first example, being a
victim to the labour cause. Stephen always conveys the impression that
life is a burden. Harthouse calls him 'an infinitely dreary person ...
lengthy and prosy in the extreme'.
Although biased, this is not completely inappropriate. Stephen seems
rather ill-equipped to deal with the world. This may appear a harsh
assessment of the character used to stir up emotion. His death scene
produces some confusion about his character. He is 'without anger
against anyone', but he confesses that he had indeed been angry with Tom
and Louisa. Later he points an accusing finger at Tom. Dickens employs
Stephen as a typical example of what injurious industry can do to men.
His choice of Stephen as the Champion of workers' rights with all his
problems probably was intended to suggest that industrial exploitation
both indirectly and directly caused such severe hardships.
Dickens satirises and condemns Bounderby from the outset by his
calculated repulsive description: 'A man with a great puffed head and
forehead, swelled veins in his temples and such a strained skin to his face
that it seemed to hold his eyes open and lift his eyebrows up~ Bounderby
is complacent and expects respect and esteem because of his 'self-made'
position in life. Later in the book he boasts that the sulphurous· air of
Coketown was 'the healthiest thing in the world' - this is an extreme
example of Dickens' caustic attack on the wanton destruction of the
landscape. lt is apt that the 'Bully of Humility' should constantly do
violence to that virtue in his hypocritical accounts of his lowly origins.
106
Dickens' titles for each of the three separate books that make up Hard
Times - 'Sowing', 'Reaping' and 'Garnering' evoke his insistent concern
with the nature of education. They duly demonstrate that those who sow
evil seeds at an early stage, will reap their due pernicious reward later.
In the opening chapters of 'the sowing', Dickens investigates the
premises on which much of the education of the time seems to have been
based - an educational philosophy allowing no access to the world of
wonder but insisting instead on pragmatic proof and evidence. Dickens'
technique is to caricature grossly the evils of 'the system'. He uses visual
image to dictate value pattern - thus Sissy, the champion of imaginat-
ion, is associated with beauty, whereas Bitzer, the star pupil, possesses
repulsive lifeless features.
The principles that govern Mr Gradgrind's school are the principles
that dominate Coketown and its industry. His hard-facts philosophy is
only the agressive formulation of the inhumane spirit of Victorian mater-
ialism. However, he does not portray Gradgrind as evil but rather as a
brainwashed individual obsessed by a vicious philosophy. In Bounderby
this spirit is embodied in greed for power and individualism and is
portrayed in its ugliest and vulgarest form.
Dickens employs Biblical parallels to portray the characters of the
struggling working class. 'Old Stephen' is the first example, being a
victim to the labour cause. Stephen always conveys the impression that
life is a burden. Harthouse calls him 'an infinitely dreary person ...
lengthy and prosy in the extreme'.
Although biased, this is not completely inappropriate. Stephen seems
rather ill-equipped to deal with the world. This may appear a harsh
assessment of the character used to stir up emotion. His death scene
produces some confusion about his character. He is 'without anger
against anyone', but he confesses that he had indeed been angry with Tom
and Louisa. Later he points an accusing finger at Tom. Dickens employs
Stephen as a typical example of what injurious industry can do to men.
His choice of Stephen as the Champion of workers' rights with all his
problems probably was intended to suggest that industrial exploitation
both indirectly and directly caused such severe hardships.
Dickens satirises and condemns Bounderby from the outset by his
calculated repulsive description: 'A man with a great puffed head and
forehead, swelled veins in his temples and such a strained skin to his face
that it seemed to hold his eyes open and lift his eyebrows up~ Bounderby
is complacent and expects respect and esteem because of his 'self-made'
position in life. Later in the book he boasts that the sulphurous· air of
Coketown was 'the healthiest thing in the world' - this is an extreme
example of Dickens' caustic attack on the wanton destruction of the
landscape. lt is apt that the 'Bully of Humility' should constantly do
violence to that virtue in his hypocritical accounts of his lowly origins.
106
