HARD TIMES:
George Barnard Shaw states that Dickens' corcern with the state of society and civilization itself
is the fact that the frightening state of order, and not that of disorder, terrifies him. What Dickens
establishes right at the onset of Hard Times is the close connection between education and
society. What we as readers need to be aware of are the implications of rapid industrialization.
While Dickens' peers were concerned with the conditions of the working class and focused on
the state of industries, Dickens had a larger outlook, not limiting his concern to the direct impact
of industries, their laws and their technologies on the working class. What he's focusing on is a
larger context of social transformation---a transformation of values. Not providing any facilities to
the downtrodden to prevent them from getting used to those facilities is one of the concepts that
utilitarianism promotes. A welfare state is one which is committed to the well-being of the
people. Privatization signifies moving away from the ideology of a welfare state. Education is
formative and enables social growth. The type of society one is trying to promote will emerge
from the kind education available to its people. Hard Times emphasizes on a framework of
cultivation, which Dickens scholars claim to be a metaphor commonplace in educational
spheres. The three titles, sowing, reaping and garnering, also refers to Victorian society and its
practices.
In a school system, the seed of knowledge is sown which will germinate into benefits all around.
The first chapter is both descriptive as well as judgemental. When it comes to characterization,
Dickens does not adhere very closely to realism. Certain features of a person are highlighted
and enlarged in proportions. Such magnification of certain characteristics can also be noticed in
their nomenclature. Gragrind and Bounderby are two wealthy and powerful people who are
invested in an education system which encourages children to not look beyond facts.
Imagination not only fuels creativity but also enables us to grow certain human attributes such
as sympathy and empathy. It enables us to form bonds with other people; we feel for them, we
think for them. Dickens thus believes that there is an intrinsic link between education and social
values. Dickens' argument in Hard Times has two stages. First, the dominant philosophy of
utilitarianism, particularly as it expresses itself in education, results in the damaging
impoverishment of the moral and emotional life of the individual. The second stage, that it leads
to in turn, is the social and economic injustice since individuals in such conditions are incapable
of dealing with the human problems created by industrialism. Utilitarianism, as a philosophy, can
be applied to a huge range of domains.
In Dickensian England, there were several issues like wages which the government was very
reluctant to interfere in, even if people were starving. Another issue in Victorian England that the
government turned a blind eye to was working hours, and age restriction for the same, thus
leading to an exceptionally high mortality rate and a low life expectancy. The mention of
unparliamentary smoke in the book suggests the government not being very passionate in
enforcing such laws. Utilitarianism robs one of empathy, where laws exist only for the opulent
and there is no system of redressing issues which affect the poor. The working class, despite
providing hard labour, are not well paid. It is wrong to address them as merely poor because
poor solely has an economic implication, whereas here it is a social plague. They have wracked
diseased bodies, unhygienic living conditions and poor nourishment. The practice of
utilitarianism has only taught us to look at profits and figures. It has not opened us up to the
sufferings and needs of people. This damaging impact of education inspired by utilitarianism is
, seen in the children. The Gragrind children, in whom the Gragrindian system of education has
been inculcated since their birth, are distorted as human beings due to the stunting of their
moral and emotional development. Someone like Tom Gragrind has no love, care, sympathy, or
empathy for anyone at all, not even his sister Louisa who he is closest to. All he cares about is
his benefit. Louisa, a better person that Tom, although not apathetic to the plight of others, can
do nothing to relieve them of distress because she does not know how to do so. Healthy, living
relationships are something she's never been a part of. Bunderby and her are like two
emotionally blinded people stuck in a marriage. Despite Louisa carrying out her duties as a wife
adequately, Bunderby realises the absence of something in their relationship, though he cannot
put a finger on what it is, because he himself has never encouraged any kind of emotional
attachment. What can result from an encounter between a character like Harthouse is lust. She
escapes, because she pulls back at the final moment, and collapses at her father's feet. This
collapse, while physical, also symbolises the collapse of the Gragrindian system of education,
because it has not given Louisa any moral strength with which she can resist characters like
Harthouse. Sissy is the person who can make Harthouse feel ashamed, for to feel shame, one
needs a moral compass. She's the daughter of a circus performer who Gragrind takes in as a
ward after her father goes missing. But Sissy, till the end, remains a glorious failure of the
Gragrindian system. She does not understand cold, hard facts because she has been brought
up in a world of storytelling. One of her fondest memories is her time spent with her father when
he used to tell her stories. That nourishment to her imagination that her father provided right
from her infancy makes Sissy a morally aware, strong, vibrant young woman. She has an
emotional warmth and the ability to nurture. In Hard Times, nurturing is one thing most of the
characters miserably fail to do. She is the only one in the end fortunate enough to be happily
married with children, for only she can nurture life, something Louisa could never do. Next, we
have Bitzer, a success produced by the Gragrind's rationalistic system, because he is entirely
self-centered. Even which his master asks him to help his son Tom, he refuses, because it will
not further his self interest. For Sissy, statistics do not mean anything, because what Sissy can
see are human beings who exist beyond specifics and figures. Another aspect of this education
system is that it churns out identical teachers, resembling every other teacher, as though they
were factory objects. There is nothing distinctive and individualistic about them. There's trained
in a rigid system, allowing no room for Innovation and creativity. While we tend to see creativity
and rationalism as an antithesis of the other but that in actuality is not the case. Both the
creative aspect and the rational aspect uses one's intellect. Rational thinking demands usage of
the intellect to raise questions. When the imagination is curbed, what follows is the diminishing
of the rational faculty as well. Such an education system will produce individuals incapable of
address social issues. Problem solving requires rationalism and creativity, and such citizens
cannot thereby resolve the human problems created by industries, thus perpetuating the system
of social and economic injustice. Furthermore, such individuals cannot empathize with the ones
victimized by such problems. What Dickens, and Hard Times as a text, worries about is how the
values of an industrial society shape other fundamental domains of human society. Such a
society is sterile, incapable of nurture, humanism, and the concept of love.
George Barnard Shaw states that Dickens' corcern with the state of society and civilization itself
is the fact that the frightening state of order, and not that of disorder, terrifies him. What Dickens
establishes right at the onset of Hard Times is the close connection between education and
society. What we as readers need to be aware of are the implications of rapid industrialization.
While Dickens' peers were concerned with the conditions of the working class and focused on
the state of industries, Dickens had a larger outlook, not limiting his concern to the direct impact
of industries, their laws and their technologies on the working class. What he's focusing on is a
larger context of social transformation---a transformation of values. Not providing any facilities to
the downtrodden to prevent them from getting used to those facilities is one of the concepts that
utilitarianism promotes. A welfare state is one which is committed to the well-being of the
people. Privatization signifies moving away from the ideology of a welfare state. Education is
formative and enables social growth. The type of society one is trying to promote will emerge
from the kind education available to its people. Hard Times emphasizes on a framework of
cultivation, which Dickens scholars claim to be a metaphor commonplace in educational
spheres. The three titles, sowing, reaping and garnering, also refers to Victorian society and its
practices.
In a school system, the seed of knowledge is sown which will germinate into benefits all around.
The first chapter is both descriptive as well as judgemental. When it comes to characterization,
Dickens does not adhere very closely to realism. Certain features of a person are highlighted
and enlarged in proportions. Such magnification of certain characteristics can also be noticed in
their nomenclature. Gragrind and Bounderby are two wealthy and powerful people who are
invested in an education system which encourages children to not look beyond facts.
Imagination not only fuels creativity but also enables us to grow certain human attributes such
as sympathy and empathy. It enables us to form bonds with other people; we feel for them, we
think for them. Dickens thus believes that there is an intrinsic link between education and social
values. Dickens' argument in Hard Times has two stages. First, the dominant philosophy of
utilitarianism, particularly as it expresses itself in education, results in the damaging
impoverishment of the moral and emotional life of the individual. The second stage, that it leads
to in turn, is the social and economic injustice since individuals in such conditions are incapable
of dealing with the human problems created by industrialism. Utilitarianism, as a philosophy, can
be applied to a huge range of domains.
In Dickensian England, there were several issues like wages which the government was very
reluctant to interfere in, even if people were starving. Another issue in Victorian England that the
government turned a blind eye to was working hours, and age restriction for the same, thus
leading to an exceptionally high mortality rate and a low life expectancy. The mention of
unparliamentary smoke in the book suggests the government not being very passionate in
enforcing such laws. Utilitarianism robs one of empathy, where laws exist only for the opulent
and there is no system of redressing issues which affect the poor. The working class, despite
providing hard labour, are not well paid. It is wrong to address them as merely poor because
poor solely has an economic implication, whereas here it is a social plague. They have wracked
diseased bodies, unhygienic living conditions and poor nourishment. The practice of
utilitarianism has only taught us to look at profits and figures. It has not opened us up to the
sufferings and needs of people. This damaging impact of education inspired by utilitarianism is
, seen in the children. The Gragrind children, in whom the Gragrindian system of education has
been inculcated since their birth, are distorted as human beings due to the stunting of their
moral and emotional development. Someone like Tom Gragrind has no love, care, sympathy, or
empathy for anyone at all, not even his sister Louisa who he is closest to. All he cares about is
his benefit. Louisa, a better person that Tom, although not apathetic to the plight of others, can
do nothing to relieve them of distress because she does not know how to do so. Healthy, living
relationships are something she's never been a part of. Bunderby and her are like two
emotionally blinded people stuck in a marriage. Despite Louisa carrying out her duties as a wife
adequately, Bunderby realises the absence of something in their relationship, though he cannot
put a finger on what it is, because he himself has never encouraged any kind of emotional
attachment. What can result from an encounter between a character like Harthouse is lust. She
escapes, because she pulls back at the final moment, and collapses at her father's feet. This
collapse, while physical, also symbolises the collapse of the Gragrindian system of education,
because it has not given Louisa any moral strength with which she can resist characters like
Harthouse. Sissy is the person who can make Harthouse feel ashamed, for to feel shame, one
needs a moral compass. She's the daughter of a circus performer who Gragrind takes in as a
ward after her father goes missing. But Sissy, till the end, remains a glorious failure of the
Gragrindian system. She does not understand cold, hard facts because she has been brought
up in a world of storytelling. One of her fondest memories is her time spent with her father when
he used to tell her stories. That nourishment to her imagination that her father provided right
from her infancy makes Sissy a morally aware, strong, vibrant young woman. She has an
emotional warmth and the ability to nurture. In Hard Times, nurturing is one thing most of the
characters miserably fail to do. She is the only one in the end fortunate enough to be happily
married with children, for only she can nurture life, something Louisa could never do. Next, we
have Bitzer, a success produced by the Gragrind's rationalistic system, because he is entirely
self-centered. Even which his master asks him to help his son Tom, he refuses, because it will
not further his self interest. For Sissy, statistics do not mean anything, because what Sissy can
see are human beings who exist beyond specifics and figures. Another aspect of this education
system is that it churns out identical teachers, resembling every other teacher, as though they
were factory objects. There is nothing distinctive and individualistic about them. There's trained
in a rigid system, allowing no room for Innovation and creativity. While we tend to see creativity
and rationalism as an antithesis of the other but that in actuality is not the case. Both the
creative aspect and the rational aspect uses one's intellect. Rational thinking demands usage of
the intellect to raise questions. When the imagination is curbed, what follows is the diminishing
of the rational faculty as well. Such an education system will produce individuals incapable of
address social issues. Problem solving requires rationalism and creativity, and such citizens
cannot thereby resolve the human problems created by industries, thus perpetuating the system
of social and economic injustice. Furthermore, such individuals cannot empathize with the ones
victimized by such problems. What Dickens, and Hard Times as a text, worries about is how the
values of an industrial society shape other fundamental domains of human society. Such a
society is sterile, incapable of nurture, humanism, and the concept of love.
