Charles Dickens Essay

How has Charles Dickens put forward to us a sense of the hardtimes as shown in the town and education system? A main theme in the Charles Dickens book, ‘Hard times’ is the Industrial Revolution, how technology had advanced drastically, yet the standard of peoples lives were decreasing and getting ever harder. No more is this emphasised, than through the basic layout and look of the, appropriately named, ‘Coketown’. The town was supposed be evolving both technology wise and money wise, yet each building was as plain and as dirty as the next, closely resembling most of the people who work and will work in the town, those being the young machinists – the children of ‘Coketown. ‘ Although the standard of living was supposedly better through the Industrial revolution, with new communication, transportation, and manufacturing methods, it meant there was an even greater demand for workers to work the machines. The life of a worker in the Revolution was, monotonous, and could kill the spirits of even the most imaginative of people. As a result, from a fairly young age, the children were taught not to have imaginations. ‘Only facts’ were to be learnt and applied to everyday life. Thomas Gradgrind is the patron of the school in which this process is highly used and believed in. Gradgrind himself was bought up believing there was nothing more to, ‘this life’ than facts. Imagination would only get in the way of the children when they started working in the factories. We are introduced to the method of teaching immediately at the beginning of the story. ‘What I want is Facts,’ and the opinion of the Gradgrind, being that, ‘Facts alone are wanted in life. ‘ To emphasize this, ‘facts’, has a capital F. According to this theory, there is no religion, no clear identity, and only one belief and purpose. This is ironic because most of the people of the time were quite religious Christians and it shows a contradiction between their beliefs and views. The first paragraph is almost a monologue with Gradgrind, because no one interrupts him. This shows his importance, the slight fear he inflicts on people, when the children spoke to him with a, ‘trembling voice’, and the respect they have for him. With these aspects in mind, it is easy to see how he influences the children’s minds and opinions. Gradgrind’s ambition is to, ‘plant nothing else and root out everything else,’ but facts. The children are not even to, ‘fancy’ anything. So much so, the room in which the children are being taught is just a, ‘plain, bare, monotonous vault,’ of a classroom. The word vault, indicates the children are trapped in the education system. Every bit in the room is the same, boring and dull and in no way creative – so the children would get no mental stimulation from it. It leaves little to the imagination, as with Gradgrind himself. Dickens uses technical and geometric words, like ‘square,’ and, ‘plain’ to put forward to us his rigidity in his belief as though the whole education system was personified through Gradgrind. In addition, the subject of facts also helped Dickens to describe Gradgrind. Through his, ‘inflexible,’ voice. Unchangeable, like the childrens futures. Also, his necktie, wrapped around his neck, ‘like, a stubborn fact. ‘ With the inspector watching the class, this style of education was enforced on the teachers. As a result, they themselves were ready to teach the children in such a way, it would blow the children, ‘clean out of the regions of childhood. ‘ Gradgrind himself, believes that this is the right way of teaching. Consequently, he has learnt little about the complexity of human nature, causing him to believe that everything about people can be simply reduced to science, and that by training the, ‘vessels’ in the way he is, he is giving them a future and a chance in life, when really he is removing them. The metaphor, ‘vessels’ is the word Gradgrind uses for children. It shows first hand how he thinks about his children. A class comes in, he fills them with facts like a bucket, then they go to work in a factory. A new class comes in, and so on, all the time, them learning nothing about morals and principles of life. Chapter two is metaphorically named, ‘Murdering of the Innocents’. It shows what the education system is potentially doing to the children in it. It is not only killing the children’s imagination and identity, but also deprives them of a decent future. With the education currently received, the children will be both physically and mentally, ‘deformed’. The true impact on the education system to the children, is shown in chapter when two children are juxtaposed. One child, by name of Sissy has just moved to the school, and another child, Bitzer, has been taught at the school for most of his life. Our first introduction to Sissy, is by her being called, ‘number 20,’ by Gradgrind. This is because a name shows a personality, and imagination, along with nicknames. As a result, Gradgring calls herself, ‘Cecilia’. Anything in the children’s lives which requires imagination, a unique style, is removed by Gradgrind, quite easily because of the respect the children have for him. He rejects Sissy’s father belonging to, ‘the horse-riding’. He then gives the job the title of a, ‘veterinary surgeon’. This is ironic, because Sissy has dealt with horses all her life, so understands them more and probably knows more about them than Gradgrind does, yet he doesn’t want understanding, he wants facts. That is why Sissy cant give the definition of a horse.