Hard times is set
out in three different books: The Sowing; The Reaping; The Garnering. They are named so as it has a special
reference to the education and upbringing of children. The titles collectively underlines the basic
plot. It suggests that the grounding
children received in their formative years would directly affect their adult
lives. This comes evident as pupils of
the Gradgrind system of education is not ready to tackle situations which
require imagination or experience in life.
In Hard Times the
two characters that are most affected by the Gradgrind system of education are
Tom and Louisa Gradgrind.
The Gradgrind
system of education is the reason why Tom and Louisa Gradgrind are lacking in
imagination and therefore are not ready to tackle every day human life. The
Gradgrind education system was very common in Victorian times and was probably
devised by the many rich powerful people ready to employ the pupils once
graduated. As this type of education
teaches its pupil's to be a passive unthinking work force, therefore the
employers could manipulate their minds, doing whatever they were told. The system forces the pupils to intake pure
hard facts, nothing else, therefore not exercising the imagination at all. Leading the pupils to be lost in the
surrounding world when a difficult problem requiring experience or maturity
arises, as the Gradgrind system of
education denies access to this knowledge.
The Gradgrind
system of education seems to wipe out any chance of any fiction or fantasy in
the minds of the pupils. If Louisa or Tom happen to even have the slightest
hint of fantasy or fiction it would be immediately be destroyed by their father
who was a teacher of facts and facts alone.
This is proved when Louisa and Tom were caught by their father peeping
into a circus ring. When they where
caught Mr Gradgrind immediately told them off, later asking "what can you
possibly want to know about circus shows?"
This implies that children shouldn't see the circus as it doesn't teach
you anything. From this we can assume
that that the children studying the Gradgrind system of education can't do the
many things that are enjoyable in their lives as it would not teach them
anything. This view is not healthy
towards the pupils as the system is denying them the enjoyment of childhood,
therefore affecting their adulthood in later life as all they would want to do
is earn money, and be, less experienced
in the virtues of life. Although maybe
it doesn't teach you anything educational, it teaches you about life, how to
enjoy yourself how to be a well rounded person.
Mr Gradgrind was again suppressing his son and daughter' imagination,
not letting them experience normal everyday life. This suppression of imagination
leads to curiosity as shown by Louisa as when she was told off after watching
the horses, she states that she 'just wanted to see what it was like', which
shows that she was curious about it.
This curiosity could be dangerous in later life as we see in Louisa that
she ventures in a risky relationship once married.
In contrast to
the Gradgrind children, Sissy Jupe was not even in the slightest affected by
the Gradgrind system of education.
Sissy, daughter of a 'horse breaker', has managed to keep all her
imagination throughout the book and hence become the so called heroine of the
book. She is unlike Tom and Louisa who
have almost lost trace of any imagination in their mind. Sissy the least educated person in Hard
Times, yet is the only person to understand Louisa when she decided to marry
Bounderby. She takes pity on her as she
sees the petty motive of marrying. This
wasn't taken kindly by Louisa although she knew that she was right. Later on in the book Sissy makes amends with
Louisa, making Louisa feel good when she admits it was her fault that their
relationship got distant over this matter, which is was not.
Dickens is trying
to convey that to be a well rounded person such as Sissy, does not need the
factual requirement of the Gradgrind system of education, in fact the totally
opposite. In Sissy the chance to let her own imagination wonder when she was
just a child travelling with her real father, has led her to be the most
individual and most rounded person in Hard Times. Sissy understands and is able to deal with
the even most complicated problems that crosses her path. For example, she confronts James Harthouse
when she saw that Louisa was in trouble when she was almost seduced by
him. Even James Harthouse, the smooth
talking calculating individual, could not deal with her very honest and natural
way of talking and thinking.
However Louisa
has managed to keep a little bit of imagination through all the boring factual
bombardment from her education. Proof is
when she is constantly asking questions to people once in the outside world
about life she is constantly curious about things that she was never
taught. However because of her lack of
exposure to the world outside books and facts she is unable to use it. This is proved when Louisa faces Rachel and
Stephen, which was the first time that Louisa encountered anybody from the
Coketown dwellings i.e. people who has not been brought up the Gradgrind way of
education. Arriving with good wishes,
she is not able to convey her services that she wishes to share with them but
instead, she sounds rather rude. This is
another example of inexperience in life which the Gradgrind system of education
has imposed on her. This is also proved
by when in the third chapter first book, the narrator says about Louisa 'would
have been self-willed but for her bringing up'.
The character
Bounderby claims that he made it into this world by himself when his mother
abandoned him when he was young, but this is not true as we find later in Hard
Times as his mother turns up later in the book to put him to shame. He claims that he was raised in the
"gutter" as it helps to boost his ego and make him stand out from
other business colleagues. However he is
not telling the truth, far from it, when his mother turns up on the doorstep,
she humiliates him quite unintentionally.
In fact she really cares for her son as she quotes "Lord forgive
you, sir, for your wicked imaginations" after Mr Gradgrind curses her
saying she deserted Josiah in his infancy.
Mr Bounderby is a bad person thinking about himself and himself only at
all times, doing things for only his own personal gain. Sissy who was actually was abandoned by her
parents, is the opposite of Boundaby, she is a good person with a good view of
life, she is a well rounded person, knowing that life shouldn't be based on
money and that people have feelings.
Tom appears to be
a clever schemer and frames Stephen Blackpool in secrecy. However Tom in fact is a very weak and
feeble, and it is not very hard to bring out his weaknesses. Tom as a result from his upbringing would
never do anything for other people unless there was something in it for
him. When Stephen decides to leave
Coketown, Tom uses it to his advantage.
He tells Stephen that he might help him, but he will have to wait
outside the bank on three consecutive nights making sure he was seen. After these three nights have passed nothing
happened. Later on in the book we learn
that the Bank is robbed and it looks like Stephen robbed the bank as all the
facts point to him. But in fact it was
Tom who carried it out as a probable result of his gambling debts
Tom has been
brought up to be a mercenary with regards to other people in higher
places. Because of this attitude Tom
goes to great lengths to impress or make happy people in higher places than
himself therefore improving his place in society. Because of his education he received he goes
to any extents to get money, with no regards to other peoples feelings an
example of this is when he set Stephen Blackpool up, with the framing of the
bank robbery, see above.
Tom as a result
of his mercenary behavior has become addicted to money. Consequences from this has been an addiction
to gambling, running gambling debts of up to one hundred pounds, which was lots
of money in the Victorian times. When Tom is in financial debt, he turns to his
sister for money, this shows how dependent Tom is on Louisa, and how
incompetent he is to look after himself.
As to Louisa, her
mind has been twisted and she has
remained naïve and curious about life.
Louisa is a precious child, she treats Bounderby with contempt
throughout the book, even early in the book when he insists a kiss from
her. It comes evident all through the
book of her love for Tom, she would do virtually anything for him. As a result of her inexperience in life; and
love for Tom, Louisa though she knew it was a bad thing, had no other
possibility but to marry Boundaby when the proposal was put to her because
again of her love for Tom, as Tom asked her to, again for his personal gain. Her father stated that the age difference did
not matter that 'the Calmucks of tartary, the British in India and a
considerable part of China' don't take age into account. These places were totally useless in helping
her to decide and was another example of useless facts. A factor that made her decide most certainly
would be the influence of Tom, Tom wanted her sister to marry Boundaby because
it would help him get into a high position in Bounderby's company, again this
shows his mercenary behavior. Because
Louisa really cares for Tom she married Bounderby because she did not want to
upset Tom. So Louisa married Boundaby
even though she did not want to. We can
tell that she did not really want to marry him because, when she said 'There
seems to be nothing there but languid and monotonous smoke. Yet when the night comes, fire bursts out,
father!'. This quote seems to incline
symbolism to a negative view to marrying Boundaby, as in other words she is
saying that there would be repressed feelings of passionate love, if this
marriage would go ahead as its denies her the opportunity of Love, therefore
she is susceptible to being seduced. As
this does almost happen with Mr James Harthouse.
Bitzer is the
perfect product of the Gradgrind system of education. Bitzer appears to be like Bounderby when he
was young. He does whatever he is asked
to do. In the classroom when asked to
define a horse, he give a text-book style definition of facts, not commenting
on the horses natural beauty. He states
that "the whole social system is a question of self-interest.". Bitzer like Tom does not care for other
peoples feelings. This is proven when
Bitzer tries to capture Tom so that he will get his job when he is fired if
caught, he would not even take a bribe from Tom's father, as getting his job
would benefit him more.
Theft with
adultery, were serious issue when Hard Times was written. The notion of that a woman belonged to a man
was true. Therefore I believe that it
was the reason why Dickens did not create an affair in Hard Times as in doing
so he may have offended the people reading his material, therefore losing
readers. Also I think that was the
reason why Louisa close relationship with Harthouse was justified by the way
Bounderby treated her.
Summing up all
the evidence I have deduced that the Gradgrind system of education was designed
by powerful people to make a unthinking passive workforce so that they could
take advantage of them and they wouldn't rebel.
The system was probably intended to produce people with no ability to
think for themselves, with suppressed imaginations. The Gradgrind system of education has no
interest in making pupils into well rounded people and is only an evil way of
denying children their childhood for their own personal benefit. In Hard Times Dickens uses the book as the
medium to express his bitter feelings against systems of education that were
like Gradgrind's, that were plentiful in Victorian Times.
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