Hard Times Flashcards
plot+characteristics
- Plot of Hard Times
-town called Coketown (cuz they loved coke)
- Schoolroom with educator THOMAS GRADGRIND he believes imagination is stupid and essentially is a boring man who never has sex
-he raises his poor children, Louisa and Tom, in a very repressed way
-Sissy Jupe , abandoned by her father, is practically adopted by Thomas
-Louisa ,forced by her father, marries a piece of shit who happens to be an older friend of mr. Gradgrind and a banker and manufacturer.
-Louisa marries him cuz she thinks it will help her brother who is apprentice of MR BOUNDERBY
-Tom is a bit of an asshole and tries to rob his employee=) he succeeds and put the blame on an innocent dude, but luck only takes you this far and is later discovered and sent away
-Bounderby dies and Gradgrind understands how much of a bigot he is and becomes a new man
Tom dies ands Louisa embraces a lesbian kinda life with her “dear friend” Sissy.
- How is “Hard Times” structured?
-It is divided into 3 sections/books which are also divided into separate chapters
- “Sowing” intro to Louisa, Tom and Sissy victim of the strict education
2.”Reaping” reveals how this education hurt the children aka Louisa unhappy marriage, Tom’s selfishness and criminal tendencies
3.”Garnering” (to collect something with difficulty) details of the last part of the story
- What can you say about the imaginary city of Coketown?
-it is an industrial town
-even though it’s supposed to be ruled by strict rules and ideas it becomes a sort of caricature /fantasy land =) the smoke of the factories looks like serpents and the machines are like mad elephants
-all the buildings are the same
-The mill owners are proud of the polluted city and the workplaces =) to them the soot covering the city symbolizes productivity and it is a good sign.
- What do the characters mean and symbolize ?
-Mr Gradgrind= grade and grind
=) his task is to crush his pupils imagination and creativity
-Mr Bounderby= from Bounder aka a man that behaves unfairly because he treats his workers as objects and not people
-Mr M’ Choakumchild = another teacher who chokes the children’s mind and imagination
- What are the main themes in Hard Times ?
-it is Dicken’s most polemical novel
-denounces industrialization which is the cause for the differences between the poor and the rich
-criticises materialism and BENTHAM’S UTILITARIANISM ( = claims that human nature was motivated by self-interest and it was the State’s duty to support and encourage each individual to pursue their own interests through education )
-suggesting that England of the 19th century was turning people into machines and repressing their imagination and creativity
