Hard Times And The Nineteenth Century

. Hard Times And The Nineteenth Century Essay, Research Paper

Europe

began the nineteenth century dominated by the romanticists. The realists

changed the face of Europe once more by the middle of the nineteenth century.

The importance of science and the industrialization of Europe characterized

their movement. Where the romanticists believed in feelings, intuition, and

imagination, the realists believed in a movement known as positivism, which

applied the scientific method to the study of society. The authors of this

period also changed their style of writing by dealing with cultural

representation and life. They focused on "the here and now, with everyday

events, with his own environment and with the movements (political, social

etc.) of his time." Charles Dickens was an author during this period and

his novel Hard Times reflects a number of different themes. The novel focuses

on educational and economic systems of Victorian England, the industrial

revolution, which spawned how industrial relations were viewed during the

1850’s, and utilitarianism. I have chosen the two major themes of industrial

relations and educational system during this period. Although, you can not

discuss labor relations without bringing focus upon the class society of

Victorian England during this period. I will use the Norton Critical Edition of

Hard Times, the Sources of the Western Tradition, and the Communist Manifesto

to support my analytical interpretation of Charles Dickens Hard Times. During

this period Dickens wrote for a weekly publication called Household Words, each

issue dealt with a different social problem of the period. Hard Times began as

a serialization in this weekly publication. In Hard Times Dickens writes about

the horrors of the industrial revolution and was sparked by what he had seen

first hand in Manchester, England fifteen years prior to writing Hard Times and

the present goings on of a labor strike in Preston, England while he was

conceiving the novel. The novel is almost biblical in nature as it has three

books sowing, reaping and garnering. Book the First, "Sowing," is the

planting of the seeds. It provides a basis for the problems that will affect

Stephen Blackpool, who is a factory worker in Coketown. Book the Second,

"Reaping," details the affect the industrial relations had on

Stephen. The first to books describe the biblical passage, "Whatsoever

a man soweth, that shall he also reap"(Galatians 6:7). Book the Third,

"Garnering," describes in a broad way the results of what

industrialization did to Victorian England. The

industrialization revolution brought many problems to Victorian England in the

1850’s. Industrial towns such as Manchester and Preston sprung up in northern

England. Prosperity came to those who owned the factories or mills, while

despair came to the "hands," the factory workers. Coketown is one

such northern England town and Stephen Blackpool is a typical factory worker of

the period in Charles Dickens novel Hard Times. The novel exemplifies the

problems of an industrial town in 1850 England. Dickens describes Coketown

"A town of red brick, or brick that would have been red if the smoke and

ashes had allowed it; but as it matters stood it was a town of unnatural red

and black like the painted face of a savage." He explains the black smoke

spewed continuously from the factory chimneys and that the river is polluted by

an ill-smelling purplish dye. Josiah Bounderby owns the factory where Stephen

Blackpool is employed. Stephen

symbolizes the workers of this period, who put in long hours for little pay and

lived under horrible conditions. Josiah on the other hand represents the greedy

capitalist, who cares little for his workers. Hard Times illustrates the

history of class struggles and is re-enforced by the writings of Karl Marx and

Friedrich Engels in The Communist Manifesto. The struggle between the

bourgeoisie, "the class of modern Capitalists, owners of the means of

social production and the employers of wage-labour" and the proletariat,

"the class of modern wage-labourers who, having no means of production of

their own, are reduced to selling their labour-power to live." In Hard

Times Josiah Bounderby and Stephen Blackpool are representative of the

bourgeoisie and proletariat classes respectively. Dickens alludes that the

government knows the capacity of work the machines can produce, "So many

hundred Hands in this Mill; so many hundred horse Steam Power. It is known, to

the force of a single pound weight, what the engine will do." The workers

are then paid by piece-work, where they are paid ‘by the piece’ rather than

earning a fixed hourly wage. Dickens was also interested in factory safety and

the negligence of the factory and min

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