Analyse Louisa’s Marriage with Bounderby as an Example of Patriarchal and Utilitarian “Arrangement” in Victorian Society (Hard Times by Charles Dickens)
A patriarchal society is the one in which the father is the head of the family. In such a social system, men have authority over women and children, and descent, kinship, and title are traced through the male line. The idea of utilitarianism suggests that human beings act in a way that highlights their own self-interest. It is based on pure factuality, leaves out on imagination. Dickens provides three vivid examples of this utilitarian logic in Hard Times through the characters of Mr. Thomas Gradgrind, Mr. Bounderby, and Mr. Gradgrind. Mr. Gradgrind educates his daughter, Louisa, with facts and facts alone. He raises her to disregard emotions and see everything in terms of statistics. He forces this type of education upon Louisa much like the marriage with Bounderby that ends up being nothing but a loveless marriage without any hope for improvement.
Written during the Victorian era, Dickens’ novel, Hard Times, constitutes of a number of examples to prove the prevalence of patriarchy in the society at that time. Marked by Queen Victoria’s reign from 1873 to 1901, the Victorian era is known for its cultural, political, economic, industrial, and scientific changes. The status of women is often seen as a discrepancy between England’s national power and wealth and what many consider its appalling social conditions. During this period difficulties escalated for women because of the vision of the ideal woman shared by the society. They had no voting rights or the right to property, their only role was to have children. Professing a job other than that of a domestic servant was forbidden, they were simply confined to the domestic sphere. Education was viewed as the economic necessity of men only. The attitude towards women’s education was that education need not be of the same extended classical and commercial characteristic as that of men. Women were supposed to be educated in issues that involved domesticity. Subjects such as history, geography and general literature
Written during the Victorian era, Dickens’ novel, Hard Times, constitutes of a number of examples to prove the prevalence of patriarchy in the society at that time. Marked by Queen Victoria’s reign from 1873 to 1901, the Victorian era is known for its cultural, political, economic, industrial, and scientific changes. The status of women is often seen as a discrepancy between England’s national power and wealth and what many consider its appalling social conditions. During this period difficulties escalated for women because of the vision of the ideal woman shared by the society. They had no voting rights or the right to property, their only role was to have children. Professing a job other than that of a domestic servant was forbidden, they were simply confined to the domestic sphere. Education was viewed as the economic necessity of men only. The attitude towards women’s education was that education need not be of the same extended classical and commercial characteristic as that of men. Women were supposed to be educated in issues that involved domesticity. Subjects such as history, geography and general literature