|
St. Norbert College, Spring 2012

Hard Times by Charles Dickens and a New Historicism Approach

Thursday, April 5th, 2012 by

Permalink for this paragraph 0 I just finished Hard Times by Charles Dickens for my British Literature class, and I think it is a great example to apply New Historicism to, so that it may be fully appreciated and understood.

Permalink for this paragraph 0 The novel centers around a few citizens in Coketown, which is an industrial city perpetually covered with the smog from its factories.  Thomas Gradgrind is a man who only believes in “Facts” because “Facts alone are wanted in life” (9). He raised his children, Louisa and Tom, with a no-nonsense philosophy that prohibited imagination and stunted creativity– things that Mr. Gradgrind views as completely unnecessary and inhibit success in life. He does not even let his children begin sentences with “I feel…” or “I fancy…” because that leaves things open to interpretation, not fact.  Louisa and Tom are listless and do not now how to deal with their inherent emotions because of the way they were raised, and both fall into their own serious troubles as a result. Sissy Jupe, on the other hand, was taken into their home in order to be educated in Mr. Gradgrind’s school– which of course stresses absolute fact– but she originally grew up in the circus. The circus is a fun-loving, wondrous place that embodies everything Gradgrind cannot stand, so he tries to instill his values in Sissy.  However, Sissy prevails and holds on to her caring, empathetic personality that Dickens portrays as the more favorable way of thinking that leads to true happiness.

Permalink for this paragraph 0 Without a historical background, the satire in this novel would be entirely missed.  I learned in by Brit Lit class that Dickens is criticizing Utilitarianism, which derived from the purely self-interested, individualistic, rational, and money-based Industrial Revolution in England.  Representing Utilitarianism is Mr. Gradgrind and his obsession with facts, which emphasize the betterment of an individual through hard work and no nonsense.  Dickens attacks this view, and demonstrates how “an educational and social philosophy based on the recognition of the necessity of looking after one’s own interests can blind one to the needs of others” (Flint xii). Sissy Jupe’s philosophy of subjective, creative thinking represents Dickens’s belief in “the idea that compassionate understanding of the lives and circumstances of others is infinitely more use than the accumulation of knowledge” (Flint xi). He is defying the idea that people are just “useful tools” for creating industry and should be seen as “fully functioning, complex human beings” (Flint xi) whose individual lives should be empathized with.

Permalink for this paragraph 0 Dickens’s opposition and critique of the values of the Industrial Revolution are essential to understanding the novel’s satire; without out the historical background, a reader of Hard Times would miss Dickens’s purpose for writing it.

Permalink for this paragraph 0  

Permalink for this paragraph 0 Works Cited

Permalink for this paragraph 0 Dickens, Charles.  Hard Times. ed. Kate Flint. London: Penguin Group, 2003. Print.

Permalink for this paragraph 0 Flint, Kate.  ”Introduction.” Hard Times by Charles Dickens.  London: Penguin Group, 2003. xi-xxxii. Print.

Permalink for this paragraph 0  

Permalink for this paragraph 0  

Permalink for this paragraph 0  

This entry is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.