The days of childhood are limited‚ and inevitably everyone will grow old. Yet the way a childhood should be spent has often been disputed‚ by some regarding it as a time to prepare for the future‚ and others as a chance to explore freedom. Charles Dickens‚ in Hard Times‚ portrays both sides of the argument in their most extreme forms. One might argue that much of Hard Times is about extremes. The first character to be introduced‚ Mr. Thomas Gradgrind‚ enforces a very rigid approach to education
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The Loss of Victorian Morality The Victorian era marks the period of Queen Victoria’s reign over England from 1837‚ until her death in January 1901. It was an age of new prosperity brought about by thriving industrialization‚ new scientific discoveries and technology‚ which encouraged the rise of an educated middle class. This new age also brought about a shift from agriculture to manufacturing‚ causing mass immigration into cities. City life provided Victorians with freedom and anonymity from
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Dickens’ novel Hard Times. Stephen Blackpool goes to Mr. Bounderby in the look for advice‚ on how to break away from his marriage. For nineteen years‚ Blackpool was patient with his wife as she became a raging alcoholic‚ sold their possessions‚ and tore herself apart‚ along with the marriage as a whole. Due to all of the problems he has dealt with‚ he sees nothing to do but part ways with his fallen spouse. When he lays all of his problems to Bounderby‚ he simply replies‚ "You had better have been satisfied
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Dickens’ Hard Times “Now‚ what I want is‚ Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life.” (Dickens‚ 1854‚ p.1) With these beginning sentences of the novel “Hard Times”‚ Charles Dickens has made readers doubt whether it is true that facts alone are wanted in life. This question leads to the main theme of the story‚ fact against fancy‚ that author has never been written this kind of plot in his other stories before. In fact‚ Hard Times is considered as "the
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When we look at education today‚ we see more than just reading‚ writing and solving numerous calculations‚ sometimes providing more than one answer for a question. Your opinions and views actually count for something and are appreciated. We have so many resources‚ culture and trips bought into education; that children can actually look forward to coming to school‚ each teacher having various ways of teaching‚ each pupil having a different way of comprehending and learning. The novel ’Hard Times’
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Alice Rino Karri Harris ENG403B 10 March 2014 Hard Times Essay The novel Hard Times‚ by Charles Dickens was written in 1854 based on the idea that logic and fact helped advance society more than fancy and imagination did. Dickens was concerned with the gloomy lives and social problems of mid-nineteenth-century England’s working class and Hard Times was his way of expressing his thoughts. He addresses these problems through three divided sections of the novel where logic‚ reason‚ fancy and
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KWB 724: 19th CENTURY LITERATURE MAJOR ESSAY SCIENCE AND PROGRESS IN FRANKENSTEIN ANDHARD TIMES The 19th century was a time of massive change socially‚ politically and scientifically. This time saw the rise of Imperialism and of the Industrial Revolution in Britain‚ seeing massive changes in the way industry was run. Also during this time the literary movements of Romanticism and Victorianism emerged. Romanticism dealt with the issues of reality versus illusion‚ childhood and man versus nature.
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“Coketown” The passage “Coketown” begins as Messrs Bounderby and Gradgrind walk through the industrial Coketown. Through the use of metaphorical language‚ and a repetition much like what industry seems to represent‚ and chiasmus the author brings across the point that society is often a reflection of what occurs because as industry mechanizes work‚ it mechanizes the lives of people as well‚ which is said in a rather melancholic tone. “Interminable serpents of smoke trailed” expresses how Dickens
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people The ill effects of Victorian Utilitarianism are seen in the novel‚ through two of its characters‚ Thomas Gradgrind and Josiah Bounderby. the sleary circus in Charles Dickens’ novel Hard Times is full of life‚ color‚ and character which is in sharp contrast to the bleak and gray industrial setting of Coketown‚ the modernist mentality represented by Bounderby and Gradgrind’s modernist attitude‚ characterized by brazen materialism‚ selfishness‚ and pure rationality ‚ the circus workers are
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"Give me your definition of a horse‚" (Pg 3) says the eminently practical Mr. Thomas Gradgrind of Charles Dickens’ unforgettable novel‚ Hard Times. Can anybody really define a horse? Cecilia Jupe‚ also known as Sissy‚ was unable to answer this question because she was‚ well‚ normal. Bitzer‚ the boy brought up in Coketown‚ the city of facts‚ answered‚ "Quadruped. Graminivorous. Forty teeth‚ namely‚ twenty-four grinders‚ four eye-teeth‚ and twelve incisive..." (Pg. 4). Clearly the contrast between
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