Comparison Between Hard Times and Communist Manifesto

Throughout history, a divide has always existed between the rich and poor in society. However, during the Industrial Revolution in Victorian England, this rift reached its peak. The working class labored for long hours and received miniscule wages, whereas the bourgeoisie grew abundantly wealthy through the labor of the working class. Published in 1848 and 1854 respectively, Karl Marx’s The Communist Manifesto and Charles Dickens’ Hard Times both comment on these troubles. While Hard Times is a novel which tells a story and The Communist Manifesto is a short publication which tries to bring about social change, both writings offer a sharp critique of the class antagonism brought about by capitalism at the height of the Industrial Revolution. From the opening of Hard Times, the setting of Coketown offers a sharp critique of the consequences involved with industrial capitalism. The town existed solely for the benefit of the bourgeoisie; however, this was brought about at the expense of the factory workers, or proletarians. Dickens described the town as “several large streets all very like one another, and many small streets still more like one another, inhabited by people equally like one another.” Dickens recognized that the proletarians had no individuality. Before the Industrial Revolution, independent production was the norm, not the exception; therefore, the types of laborers were much more diverse. Any given laborer could have been a farmer, a nail-crafter, etc. This gave the laborer a much greater sense of individuality since there were different jobs within the working class. However, with the introduction of factories and mass production, the proletarians had no choice but to work in factories. Since almost the entire working class lived in factories, they began to be viewed more as one large group rather than as individuals. The sameness of Coketown illustrates this sameness among the working class. In the same way, Marx claims that the