»»» Hard times character list and themes :

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》 About the charles Dickens :

➢Born : 7 February 1812, Landport, Portsmouth, United Kingdom

➢Died : 9 June 1870 (age 58 years), Gads Hill Place, United Kingdom

➢Resting place :

Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey, England

➢Notable works :

The Pickwick PapersOliver TwistNicholas NicklebyA Christmas CarolDavid CopperfieldBleak HouseLittle DorritA Tale of Two CitiesGreat Expectations

➢Spouse: 

Catherine Thomson Hogarth

(m. 1836; sep. 185 )

➢Partner:

Ellen Ternan (1857–1870, his death)

➢Children:

Charles Dickens Jr.

Mary Dickens

Kate Perugini

Walter Landor Dickens

Francis Dickens

Alfred D'Orsay Tennyson Dickens

Sydney Smith Haldimand Dickens

Henry Fielding Dickens

Dora Annie Dickens

Edward Dickens

➢Major Works:

✿Oliver Twist (1838) 

✿A Christmas Carol (1843) 

✿David Copperfield (1850) 

✿A Tale of Two Cities (1859) 

✿Great Expectations (1861) 

》 Details of the Marriage: 

➢Marriage: Charles Dickens married Catherine Hogarth on April 2, 1836.

➢Children: They had ten children together.

➢Separation: The couple separated in 1858, after 22 years of marriage.

➢Divorce: The marriage was officially dissolved in 1858.

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》 About the Hard times :

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»Author:

Charles Dickens

»Original title;

Hard Times: For These Times

»Language:

English

»Genre:

Novel

»Published:

Serialised April 1854 – 12 August 1854; book format 1854

»Publisher:

Bradbury & Evans

»Publication place:

England

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》 Character list of the Hard times   :

➳Thomas Gradgrind :

A wealthy, retired merchant in Coketown, England; he later becomes a Member of Parliament. Mr. Gradgrind espouses a philosophy of rationalism, self-interest, and cold, hard fact. He describes himself as an “eminently practical” man, and he tries to raise his children—Louisa, Tom, Jane, Adam Smith, and Malthus—to be equally practical by forbidding the development of their imaginations and emotions.

➳Louisa:

Gradgrind’s daughter, later Bounderby’s wife. Confused by her coldhearted upbringing, Louisa feels disconnected from her emotions and alienated from other people. While she vaguely recognizes that her father’s system of education has deprived her childhood of all joy, Louisa cannot actively invoke her emotions or connect with others. Thus she marries Bounderby to please her father, even though she does not love her husband. Indeed, the only person she loves completely is her brother Tom.

➳Thomas Gradgrind Jr:

Gradgrind’s eldest son and an apprentice at Bounderby’s bank, who is generally called Tom. Tom reacts to his strict upbringing by becoming a dissipated, hedonistic, hypocritical young man. Although he appreciates his sister’s affection, Tom cannot return it entirely—he loves money and gambling even more than he loves Louisa. These vices lead him to rob Bounderby’s bank and implicate Stephen as the robbery’s prime suspect.

➳Josiah Bounderby:

Gradgrind’s friend and later Louisa’s husband. Bounderby claims to be a self-made man and boastfully describes being abandoned by his mother as a young boy. From his childhood poverty he has risen to become a banker and factory owner in Coketown, known by everyone for his wealth and power. His true upbringing, by caring and devoted parents, indicates that his social mobility is a hoax and calls into question the whole notion of social mobility in nineteenth-century England.

➳Cecelia Jupe:

The daughter of a clown in Sleary’s circus. Sissy is taken in by Gradgrind when her father disappears. Sissy serves as a foil, or contrast, to Louisa: while Sissy is imaginative and compassionate, Louisa is rational and, for the most part, unfeeling. Sissy embodies the Victorian femininity that counterbalances mechanization and industry. Through Sissy’s interaction with her, Louisa is able to explore her more sensitive, feminine sides.

➳Mrs. Sparsit:

Bounderby’s housekeeper, who goes to live at the bank apartments when Bounderby marries Louisa. Once a member of the aristocratic elite, Mrs. Sparsit fell on hard times after the collapse of her marriage. A selfish, manipulative, dishonest woman, Mrs. Sparsit cherishes secret hopes of ruining Bounderby’s marriage so that she can marry him herself. Mrs. Sparsit’s aristocratic background is emphasized by the narrator’s frequent allusions to her “Roman” and “Coriolanian” appearance.

➳Stephen Blackpool:

factory. Stephen loves Rachael but is unable to marry her because he is already married, albeit to a horrible, drunken woman. A man of great honesty, compassion, and integrity, Stephen maintains his moral ideals even when he is shunned by his fellow workers and fired by Bounderby. Stephen’s values are similar to those endorsed by the narrator.

➳Rachael:

A simple, honest Hand who loves Stephen Blackpool. To Stephen, she represents domestic happiness and moral purity.

➳James Harthouse:

A sophisticated and manipulative young London gentleman who comes to Coketown to enter politics as a disciple of Gradgrind, simply because he thinks it might alleviate his boredom. In his constant search for a new form of amusement, Harthouse quickly becomes attracted to Louisa and resolves to seduce her.

➳Mr. Sleary:

The lisping proprietor of the circus where Sissy’s father was an entertainer. Later, Mr. Sleary hides Tom Gradgrind and helps him flee the country. Mr. Sleary and his troop of entertainers value laughter and fantasy whereas Mr. Gradgrind values rationality and fact.

➳Bitzer:

Bitzer is one of the successes produced by Gradgrind’s rationalistic system of education. Initially a bully at Gradgrind’s school, Bitzer later becomes an employee and a spy at Bounderby’s bank. An uncharacteristically pale character and unrelenting disciple of fact, Bitzer almost stops Tom from fleeing after it is discovered that Tom is the true bank robber.

➳Mr. McChoakumchild:

The unpleasant teacher at Gradgrind’s school. As his name suggests, McChoakumchild is not overly fond of children, and stifles or chokes their imaginations and feelings.

➳Mrs. Pegler:

Bounderby’s mother, unbeknownst as such to all except herself and Bounderby. Mrs. Pegler makes an annual visit to Coketown in order to admire her son’s prosperity from a safe distance. Mrs. Pegler’s appearance uncovers the hoax that her son Bounderby has been attesting throughout the story, which is that he is a self-made man who was abandoned as a child.

➳Mrs. Gradgrind:

Gradgrind’s whiny, anemic wife, who constantly tells her children to study their “ologies” and complains that she’ll “never hear the end” of any complaint. Although Mrs. Gradgrind does not share her husband’s interest in facts, she lacks the energy and the imagination to oppose his system of education.

➳Slackbridge:

The crooked orator who convinces the Hands to unionize and turns them against Stephen Blackpool when he refuses to join the union.

➳Jane Gradgrind:

Gradgrind’s younger daughter; Louisa and Tom’s sister. Because Sissy largely raises her, Jane is a happier little girl than her sister, Louisa.

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》 Theames :- 

➳The Mechanization of Human Beings:

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 his family and his school in the ways of fact, the latter treats the workers in his factory as emotionless objects that are easily exploited for his own self-interest. In Chapter 5 of the first book, the narrator draws a parallel between the factory Hands and the Gradgrind children—both lead monotonous, uniform existences, untouched by pleasure. Consequently, their fantasies and feelings are dulled, and they become almost mechanical themselves.

The mechanizing effects of industrialization are compounded by Mr. Gradgrind’s philosophy of rational self-interest. Mr. Gradgrind believes that human nature can be measured, quantified, and governed entirely by rational rules. Indeed, his school attempts to turn children into little machines that behave according to such rules. Dickens’s primary goal in Hard Times is to illustrate the dangers of allowing humans to become like machines, suggesting that without compassion and imagination, life would be unbearable. Indeed, Louisa feels precisely this suffering when she returns to her father’s house and tells him that something has been missing in her life, so much so that she finds herself in an unhappy marriage and may be in love with someone else. While she does not actually behave in a dishonorable way, since she stops her interaction with Harthouse before she has a socially ruinous affair with him, Louisa realizes that her life is unbearable and that she must do something drastic for her own survival. Appealing to her father with the utmost honesty, Louisa is able to make him realize and admit that his philosophies on life and methods of child rearing are to blame for Louisa’s detachment from others.

➳The Opposition Between Fact and Fancy:

While Mr. Gradgrind insists that his children should always stick to the facts, Hard Times not 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 that factory employees are lazy good-for-nothings who expect to be fed “from a golden spoon.” The Hands, in contrast, see themselves as hardworking and as unfairly exploited by their employers. These sets of facts cannot be reconciled because they depend upon perspective. While Bounderby declares that “[w]hat is called Taste is only another name for Fact,” Dickens implies that fact is a question of taste or personal belief.

As a novelist, Dickens is naturally interested in illustrating that fiction cannot be excluded from a fact-filled, mechanical society. Gradgrind’s children, however, grow up in an environment where all flights of fancy are discouraged, and they end up with serious social dysfunctions as a result. Tom becomes a hedonist who has little regard for others, while Louisa remains unable to connect with others even though she has the desire to do so. On the other hand, Sissy, who grew up with the circus, constantly indulges in the fancy forbidden to the Gradgrinds, and lovingly raises Louisa and Tom’s sister in a way more complete than the upbringing of either of the older siblings. Just as fiction cannot be excluded from fact, fact is also necessary for a balanced life. If Gradgrind had not adopted her, Sissy would have no guidance, and her future might be precarious. As a result, the youngest Gradgrind daughter, raised both by the factual Gradgrind and the fanciful Sissy, represents the best of both worlds.

➳The Importance of Femininity:

During the Victorian era, women were commonly associated with supposedly feminine traits like compassion, moral purity, and emotional sensitivity. Hard Times suggests 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 factory worker, Rachael’s gentle fortitude inspires him to keep going. He sums up her virtues by referring to her as his guiding angel. Similarly, Sissy introduces love into the Gradgrind household, ultimately teaching Louisa how to recognize her emotions. Indeed, Dickens suggests that Mr. Gradgrind’s philosophy of self-interest and calculating rationality has prevented Louisa from developing her natural feminine traits. Perhaps Mrs. Gradgrind’s inability to exercise her femininity allows Gradgrind to overemphasize the importance of fact in the rearing of his children. On his part, Bounderby ensures that his rigidity will remain untouched since he marries the cold, emotionless product of Mr. and Mrs. Gradgrind’s marriage. Through the various female characters in the novel, Dickens suggests that feminine compassion is necessary to restore social harmony.

➳Tom's Downfall:

Tom, Gradgrind's son, is corrupted by his loveless upbringing and lack of imagination, becoming greedy and eventually stealing from his father's bank. 

➳Louisa's Struggle:

Louisa, Gradgrind's daughter, is trapped in an unhappy marriage to the factory owner Bounderby, a man who treats his workers with a lack of compassion. Her education on facts leaves her unable to handle emotions, leading to personal despair and an unfulfilled life. 

➳Hope in the Heart :

As the family faces their crises, they turn to Sissy Jupe, a young woman raised in the circus, who represents the values of the "fancy" and the "heart" that Gradgrind has rejected. Sissy and other compassionate characters like Rachael, Stephen Blackpool's lover, help the Gradgrinds and work to reform the corrupted working-class population. 

》 Major Themes :- 

➳The Dangers of Pure Rationalism:

The novel criticizes the Victorian belief in education based solely on logic and "facts," showing its negative impact on characters like Louisa and Tom. 

➳The Importance of Imagination and Emotion:

Dickens argues that imagination and emotions are essential parts of being a complete human being and must be nurtured alongside reason. 

➳Critique of Industrialization:

The novel portrays the grim conditions of industrial towns like Coketown and critiques how industrialization can dehumanize people, reducing them to cogs in a machine. 

➳Femininity and Compassion:

Women, represented by characters like Sissy and Rachael, are shown to possess the empathy and emotional depth that are absent in the industrial world, highlighting their role in promoting moral and emotional well-being. 

➳Class Conflict:

The novel explores the stark divide and inherent conflict between the wealthy factory owners who exploit the working class and the workers themselves. 

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✿ References:- 

1 :- "Hard Times page proofs with manuscript notes" British Library

2:- Chesterton, G. K. (1911). Criticisms And Appreciations of the Works of Charles Dickens. London: J. M. Dent and Sons Ltd. p. 176. Retrieved 22 January 2024.

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