Inventor and scientific pioneer Albert Einstein once commented that "it has become frighteningly obvious that our technology has surpassed our humanity." Although he was not referring to the industrialization of England during the nineteenth century, his sentiment was echoed by many during England's Victorian age. That era saw, in the words of critic Carol Christ, a "shift from a lifestyle based on land ownership to a modern urban economy based on trade and manufacturing" (Christ 1043). Starting from the previous rural economy, England has now entered the modern world of technology. Although productive and profitable, this change in the social and economic structure of England transformed the psyche of many Victorians. By the end of the century, England was the world's leading imperial authority, but with this new power came the destruction of the moralistic lifestyles found earlier in England's history. Nineteenth-century England's excessive embrace of industrialization threatened to dehumanize its citizens by hindering the development of their emotions and imaginations for the tangible productions of industry. To quote Christ, the Victorians "suffered from an anxious sense of something lost, even a sense of being displaced in a world made alien by technological changes that had been exploited too rapidly." (Christ 1044). Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay In his novel Hard Times, Charles Dickens criticizes the industrialization of England and the dehumanization of the spirit. Dickens's critical view of society "becomes increasingly systemic, and he begins to use organizational metaphors to express his social vision" (Christ 1335). The author sees urbanization as “a tyrannical behemoth that reduces him to a single digit” (Manlove, 224). Written in 1854, Hard Times is Dickens' commentary on urbanization and its harmful effects on the inhabitants of Coketown. In her article “Hard Times and the Structure of Industrialism: The Novel as Factory,” Patricia E. Johnson states that “Hard Times uses the physical structure of the factory itself both as a metaphor for the destructive forces at work in its characters' lives and as metaphor of the novel's own aesthetic unity" (410). Dickens portrays Coketown and its citizens as a microcosm for industrialization, with Stephen symbolizing the working class, Louisa representing the mechanized production of industry, and the town itself embodying a factory. Stephen Blackpool embodies the working class in Hard Times, both through the names and words associated with Stephen and the character himself. Thomas Carlyle wrote in his essay "The Condition of the Working Class" that "the condition and disposition of the working class is at present a rather disturbing question" (345). The name "Blackpool" alludes to underlying negative imagery to suggest Stephen's dim prospects for the future. He cannot divorce his alcoholic wife and therefore cannot marry Rachel. Dickens implies throughout the novel that Stephen is perpetually stuck in his role in Coketown. Only bad things happen to Stephen, even though he remains an incredibly virtuous person throughout the novel. In chapter ten of Hard Times, the story focuses on the workers of Coketown, a group of workers known as "the Hands". In his article, "Them and the United States in Literature: Hands, Knees and a Dickens Book", Paul O'Flinn comments on the idea that Dickens portrays the mentality of factory owners through his connotation of "the Hands". O'Flinn saysthat industrialization does not require "eyes" or "heart", but rather only "hands". And he continues by saying that "in large numbers people tend to form gatherings and make the police work overtime. But their hands are harmless" (1). O'Flinn argues that urban workers are not seen as whole individuals, but rather as harmless hands created exclusively to work. This idea of ​​the working class being nothing more than mere "hands" belittles the characters as human beings and alludes to the dehumanization caused by industrialism. Among these "hands" lives a decent man named Stephen Blackpool. He looks much older than his forties and has had a difficult life. Dickens writes that "every life has its roses and its thorns [...] in Stephen's case, [...] someone else had taken hold of his roses, and he had taken hold of the same thorns as someone else besides to their own". […] He used to call him Old Stefano, in a sort of rude homage to the fact” (52). Stephen has little in the way of intelligence or social qualities and is defined very simply as "a good power-loom weaver and a man of perfect integrity" (52). Stefano, an almost saintly character, never speaks badly of others and appears honest and hard-working. Johnson believes that Dickens used Stephen as a "representative factory worker" and that he "exists at the heart of the system, almost in the heat of the furnace as it were" (414). Stephen's entire life "is fully contained and defined by the factory system" (416). Indeed, Stephen's home is "in the most industrious part of Coketown; in the innermost fortifications of that ugly citadel, where Nature was as strongly walled in as the air and deadly gases were walled in (Dickens 52). Here Stephen's representations of labor The working class is seen through its intricate place in history and its permanent place in Coketown. Through Stephen, Dickens personifies the working class society of Stephen in Hard Times is exemplified in the fourth chapter of second book. leading a union-building movement, starts a discussion with the “Hands.” While Slackbridge considers the legitimate concerns of the poor, he is more interested in inciting outrage and building a platform for his own power and edification. than to achieve the goal, common goals of the "Brotherhood" whose rights he so adamantly defends. Dickens symbolizes the materialism of industrialization through Slackbridge. Stephen attends the meeting when asked to speak. He refuses to join the union, saying “I doubt they're doing you any good” (Dickens 108). Stephen has no problem with others joining the movement and supports them, but he cannot join and simply wants to continue his work without any commitment. trouble. Slackbridge denounces Blackpool and restrains his language only after several members of his loyal audience demand that Stephen be given a chance to defend himself. Stephen lacks Slackbridge's rhetorical skills and manipulative inclinations, and his deeply felt observations are met with little success. Under Slackbridge's new regime, Stephen is ostracized as a traitor, deliberately ignored and shunned. Bounderby dismisses him, stating that "even your own Union, the men who know you best, will have nothing to do with you" (Dickens 116). Stephen is forced to leave town to look for work and is mistakenly suspected of committing a bank robbery. Traveling back across the country to Coketown to clear his name, Stephen falls down a disused mine shaft. Although saved, he dies shortly after. This "fall" of Stephen as a character represents Dickens's beliefthat urbanization traps Coketown's citizens, leaving them hopelessly shackled to industry. Stephen takes a stand against Slackbridge, and therefore a symbolic stand against industrialization, when he rejects the union. The end result of his outward criticism is not only his being shunned by his colleagues, but also his death. There is simply no way out of the system for the factory worker, an idea that Dickens ironically illustrates by having Stephen leave Coketown only to fall into an abandoned mine. Stephen recognizes that his end is a metonym for the life of the factory worker. .." (Johnson 415). Stephen Blackpool's life and death embody the working class in Hard Times, thus weaving his character into the thematic fabric of the film.nvoel.In Hard Times, Dickens uses his characters to illustrate how the 'urbanization results in the mechanization of emotions. Industrialization creates "dead souls" who "appear only in furtive and anonymous form" in the novel (Manlove 222). factory is evident in her portrayal of one of the main characters, Louisa Gradgrind. Louisa, raised in an environment based solely on facts, remains insensitive to her emotions plant nothing else and uproot everything else. You can form the minds of rational animals only on facts: nothing else will ever be of any use" (Dickens 5). Dickens describes him as a "man of reality. A man of facts and calculations" (6). He raises his daughter and son Tom in an environment devoid of imagination or emotion, much like the robotic productions of an urban factory. Louisa and her brother Tom try to break out of this rigid mold and they try to peek at the circus, a symbol of imagination and creativity. The two are harshly chastised by their parents, signifying the reproach of a life without facts, the narrator states: "Not that they knew, by name or nature, something about an Ogre. Fact forbid!" (11). Because of her upbringing, Louisa Gradgrind is a mechanical character, governed not by her sense of self, but by her programmed desire to please her father and adhere to the expectations of Coketown's urbanized society. Discussing Bounderby's marriage proposal, Louisa arrives at her decision through a monotonous rationalization of the facts: "Mr. Bounderby," she continued firmly and directly, regardless of this, "is asking me to marry him. The question I have I have to ask myself if I will marry him? That's how it is, isn't it? You told me, didn't you? "Of course, my dear." “Let it be so” (Dickens 79). Here Louisa, a young woman, agrees to marry a much older man with no points in common with her. Louisa “allows herself to be used as a bargaining chip by her father…”, thus illustrating her character as a dehumanized shell (Johnson 417). She admits marriage, a monumental decision for any girl, devoid of feelings or sensations in a robotic demonstration of her education through “facts.” When James Harthouse proposes to Louisa after her marriage to Bounderby, Louisa struggles with newfound desires never awakened before. He runs to his father's aid and asks to tell him about his situation. As she says to Mr. Gradgrind, "I curse the hour in which I was born to such a fate," and asks him, "Where are the graces of my soul? Where are the feelings of my heart?" (Dickens 163). Because Louisa has become involved in an emotional attachment to Harthouse, she loses control and has an emotional breakdown, a symbolic disintegration of her robotic upbringing. Louisa's mechanical way of thinking is unable to cope with the feelings Harthouse hasawakened and his character implodes. Just like Stephen Blackpool, Louisa has no way out and “neither Gradgrind nor the circus can restore Louisa's wasted life” (Johnson 413). Mr. Gradgrind lays Louisa on the ground and "saw the pride of her heart, and the triumph of her system, lying, a callous heap, at her feet" (165). Dickens uses the character of Louisa to support his critique of urbanization and the harmful effects it has on the human spirit. Her portrayal of Louisa Gradgrind paints her as an unfortunate product of industrialization. Hard Times also uses the structure of the novel and the physicality of Coketown to symbolize the city as a microcosm of industrialization. In his Hard Times article, Johnson states that "the novel form recreates the dynamics of urban industrialization" (411). Johnson writes that "according to the Oxford English Dictionary, coke is a Northern word, probably derived from the word 'colk' meaning kernel. Coke is 'the solid substance remaining after the mineral coal has been stripped by dry distillation of its constituents birds" (412). Here Johnson points out that even the name of the fictional city created by Dickens is based on the imagery of the urban factory. The actual structure of Hard Times alludes to the mechanized formula of industrialization. Dickens organizes the novel into three books: "Sowing", "Reaping" and "Reaping". These titles represent an organic analogy that stands in ironic contrast to the mechanized skeletons that Dickens "implicitly criticizes." the unnatural method of production which the factory system represents" (Johnson 414). Dickens titles sections of his novel to rural industry to exemplify his disdain for capitalist urbanization. The entire novel is divided regimentally into these three books, and each book produces more than ten chapters This structure of the novel alludes to the narrow and rigid structure of an industrialized society. Dickens uses imagery to portray the physical functioning of Coketown as a factory of red bricks, or bricks that would have been red if the smoke and ashes had allowed it. [...] It was a city of machinery and tall chimneys. [...] It had a black canal" (Dickens 20). The narrator goes on to say that it "contained several large streets all very similar to each other [...] inhabited by people equally similar to each other, all entering and exiting at same hours [...] to do the same work, and for which every day was the same as yesterday and tomorrow" (21). Here he illustrates the city through a sad and monotonous scenario, very similar to that of an urban factory. Every inhabitant of the city "must know exactly the same things as the others; there must be no imagination, no individuality, for each must be a standardized wheel in the social engine" (Manlove 223). The physical structure of Coketown is monotonous and the lives of its citizens repetitive, similar to an assembly line. Coketown is "oriented - and the word is also meant literally - to the incessant minds and bodies driven incessantly to the perpetuation of useless knowledge and the fabrication of vulgar objects" (Manlove 224). The physical structure of the city and its inhabitants exemplifies the urbanized lifestyle that exists there. Dickens describes Coketown as a factory to symbolize his role in the microcosm of industry. Although Hard Times, when compared to Charles Dickens' other works, is often less recognized or appreciated by readers, it is a novel steeped in contempt for the effects that industrialization had on industry. The social values ​​of England Although the English industrial revolution generated many beneficial aspects of English life, “most of the elite.