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Hard Times. Suggested Essay Topics. 1. What is the significance of the book’s structure? What does each of its three parts represent? Why are the different sections given agricultural titles when the book is about industrial England? 2. Does Hard Times have a protagonist?
1. In the opening lines of Hard Times, Gradgrind teaches children about the importance of facts. How does his personal philosophy dictate the course of the narrative? 2. Tom and Louisa grow up in the same house but develop two very different characters. At what point and in what ways do their characters diverge? 3.
Get unlimited access to SuperSummary. for only $0.70/week. By Studs Terkel. Thanks for exploring this SuperSummary Study Guide of “Hard Times” by Studs Terkel. A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Critical Evaluation. Dedicated to social critic Thomas Carlyle, Hard Times represents Charles Dickens’s first work of overt social criticism and reflects his contempt for utilitarian ideals of ...
- The Mechanization of Human Beings
- The Opposition Between Fact and Fancy
- The Importance of Femininity
Hard Times suggests that nineteenth-century England’s overzealous adoption of industrialization threatens to turn human beings into machines by thwarting the development of their emotions and imaginations. This suggestion comes forth largely through the actions of Gradgrind and his follower, Bounderby: as the former educates the young children of h...
While Mr. Gradgrind insists that his children should always stick to the facts, Hard Timesnot only suggests that fancy is as important as fact, but it continually calls into question the difference between fact and fancy. Dickens suggests that what constitutes so-called fact is a matter of perspective or opinion. For example, Bounderby believes tha...
During the Victorian era, women were commonly associated with supposedly feminine traits like compassion, moral purity, and emotional sensitivity. Hard Timessuggests that because they possess these traits, women can counteract the mechanizing effects of industrialization. For instance, when Stephen feels depressed about the monotony of his life as ...
A. Pollution. 1. Atmosphere thick with smoke and soot. 2. Heaps of coal, litter, machinery. 3. Dye from the cotton fabric is in the river and the canal is black and foul-smelling. B. Ugliness.
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Hard Times is set in the fictional city of Coketown in northern England. Coketown is in the grips of industrialization. Factories dominate the skyline, their smoke colors the sky, and the needs of industry reshape the geography. The factories’ owners are the community’s leaders; men like Gradgrind and Bounderby own the schools and dictate ...
