Dickens' 10th novel, written for Household Words from April 1 to August 12 1854.
Hard Times Facts
Written by Charles Dickens for his "Household Words" magazine in 1854 in monthly installments. It was written to increase the magazine's circulation.
Gradgrind's sons, Malthus and Smith, are named after well-known laissez-faire economists.
Almost every name in the book is chosen carefully- M' Choakumchild, Gradgrind, Harthouse, Sparsit, Sleary and so on.
Main Characters
Thomas Gradgrind- The master of the Gradrind house. He is utterly devoted to Utilitarianism but is benevolent. He learns how his ways have affected his children and reforms.
Thomas Gradgrind, Jr.- "The Whelp", as he is nicknamed by Harthouse. He is his father's son- no sense of responsibility and no conscience. He robs a bank and sets Blackpool up to take the fall.
Josiah Bounderby- The self-made man, apparently. He is a phony and a liar. He is also Gradgrind's friend and marries Louisa.
Stephen Blackpool- The hand in Bounderby's factory who is in love with Rachael. He is the victim of Utilitarianism.
Louisa Gradgrind Bounderby- She is also the victim of Utilitarianism. She marries because she cannot think of a reason not to, and she leaves her husband because she does not love him. She goes to live with Sissy.
Cecilia "Sissy" Jupe- The circus-grown girl who comes to live with the Gradgrinds when her father leaves to find a better life. She never accepts Utilitarianism, and remains warm and endearing to the end.
Sleary- The honest circus ringleader, who says that people must be amused.
Mrs. Sparsit- A very highly born lady, she is Bounderby's housekeeper and the only one who foresees her fall.
More to come....
Summary- BOOK OVERVIEW (see chapter-by-chaper below)
The book opens with a view of an Utilitarian educational system. We are introduced to a style of teaching that is dependent only on facts. Thomas Gradgrind champions this system and has raised his children, Tom and Louisa (and their siblings) this way. His longtime friend, Josiah Bounderby, a factory owner, also appreciates the system. Louisa is a misled, miserable girl and Tom is an ambitious and unwholesome youth. When a circus performer's daughter, Sissy Jupe joins the Gradgrind School, she shakes things up a little by her interpretation of life other than of hard facts. Her father has outlasted his usefulness with the circus and he runs away, deserting her. Gradgrind takes pity on her and takes her in as one of his servants.
In the industrial town the average people are symbolized by Stephen Blackpool, a hand in Bounderby's factory. Blackpool wants a divorce from his raving mad alcoholic wife, but cannot afford one. He is in love with a woman named Rachael, also a factory hand. He goes to Bounderby for advice and has lunch with him and his housekeeper Ms. Sparsit. Bounderby sees Blackpool as ungrateful. When a strange woman comes to town and meets Blackpool coming from the house, she asks how the man (meaning Bounderby) is doing and is unusually curious. She is his mother, and comes to town rarely only to catch a glimpse of him. Bounderby has claimed to be an upstart, born in a ditch from a mother who abandoned him, so she keeps quiet and tells no one who she is.
As time goes on, Sissy Jupe becomes a member of the family and is an alternative to the lackluster Louisa. Bounderby convinces Louisa to marry him, and she does so because her brother encourages her to do so and because she can think of no better reason. Tom attempts to work his way up in life in the meantime. He befriends a drifter, Harthouse, who nicknames him the "Whelp" because of how much he takes after his father and uses him to get to Louisa. He is curious of her because of her unusual philosophy toward life, which seems to be that she thinks of nothing. Ms. Sparsit worries about Louisa and Harthouse and foreshadows Louisa's doom but does nothing because she is jealous of Louisa. Harthouse convinces Louisa to run away with him but Sissy intervenes by going to Harthouse and paying him off. Louisa blames her father and he is heartbroken and guilt-ridden.
Blackpool, at Rachael's advice, concedes not to join the union due to its crooked boss, Stackbridge. Because of this he loses his job and is ostracized. The strange woman (Mrs. Pegler), Bounderby's mother, sees Blackpool again. Tom tells Blackpool to wait outside the bank until he has a position for him and he does so for several days, as onlookers notice the strange old woman and a factory hand standing outside a bank and become suspicious. When the bank is robbed, the two are automatically suspected. Gradgrind and Tom go looking for Blackpool and find that he has fallen into an abandoned mineshaft. He tells that Tom requested him to wait by the bank and then dies. When Mrs. Pegler is found she admits that Bounderby is her son and his self-made story is a sham, humiliating him.
Tom escapes as soon as he learns that he has been found out. He has made off with the money, and framed Blackpool, but is found when he flees to the circus by his father and Bitzer. He blames Louisa for not giving him money and cites statistics that show that the others should have predicted he would do it, so it is not his fault. Gradgrind is even more outraged, and feels the weight of his system collapsing on him. He undertakes to learn and accept the circus philosophy and give up Utilitarianism because of all of the harm it has caused him. Tom flees the country and supposedly reforms himself in a foreign land. Louisa never again marries but lives as Sissy's companion when Sissy does marry and have children. Though Mrs. Gradgrind died knowing that something was missing from her life but not knowing what, Thomas Gradgrind Sr. lives the rest of his life
Summary- CHAPER BY CHAPTER
Book 1
Chapter 1- This chapter introduces us to the world that we are being led into. Mr. Gradgrind is one of the principal characters. He is the sponsor of a school, in which he wants teaching to be centered on facts and nothing else- i.e. no imagination, and information does not need to be useful. Did you notice that the teacher's name is M'Choackumchild? Not a coincidence! He is choking the imagination out of the children. Just as the name Gradgrind refers to a grinding of facts. Look for these things to be blaringly obvious throughout the book. There are no hidden themes or metaphors- it is all out in the open, take it as it is.
Chapter 2- Sissy Jupe has not yet been filled with facts. She is a disgrace, according to Gradgrind. The teacher is from a factory like a product, and does not think for himself. He, at Gradgrind's bidding, is teaching the children not to think for themselves. They are to be regulated and governed by fact, not imagination! Dickens uses a blunt allusion to Arabian Nights to show that the children are being filled with a deadly poison.
Chapter 3- Gradgrind discovers two of his children, Tom and Louisa, watching a circus. They have been raised by facts from their infancy, and he cannot see how they have gone wrong- wasting their scientific, fact-filled minds on something as blasphemous as a circus! He asks them what Bounderby would say.
Chapter 4- Gradgrind represents the ruling class in England during the Industrial Revolution. Bounderby represents the Darwinist idea that anyone can become a success in these times through hard work (this is important, we later find out that he is a fraud). He is a banker and owns a factory. Mrs. Gradgrind turns out to be a meek, shell of a woman who represents what her daughter might turn into if raised in a household like that. Gradgrind names his children after Laissez-faire Economists- very important, as Dickens is telling us that he does not just believe this stuff, he lives and breathes it. Bounderby has his eye on Louisa, though he is much older than she. Bounderby and Gradgrind decide to convince Signor Jupe, Sissy's father, who is a clown, not to encourage Sissy to muddle the minds of other children with circus nonsense- in other words, they want her out of the school because they feel that she is corrupting the minds of the fact-filled vessels.
Chapter 5- Coketown is described. It is a dull, dirty brick city where everything is uniform and dismal. Metaphors are used here that will be used throughout the book. The city represents what the Industrial Revolution is doing to people- here people do not live; they work. Everything is functional- everything is devoted to fact. And everything is touched by the factories. Bitzer (fact) is tormenting and chasing Sissy (imagination). The men follow Sissy.
Chapter 6- Notice that the inn where Sissy and the circus party are staying is called Pegasus's Arms- the only shell of imagination or fantasy left in the city. The circus people tell the men that Sissy's father has left her because his act was slipping. Bounderby is disgusted by Signor Jupe's lack of responsibility, but Gradgrind decides to take Sissy in. As they leave, Sleary the circus master reminds the men that "people must be amuthed" and tells them to "make the betht of us, not the wurtht" (translation: people must be amused, make the best of us not the worst).
Want more? More to come, I promise. In the meantime, e-mail me!
LITERARY TERMS
GENRE
The book is an allegory. It is organized into books, each marking a particular theme in the progression of the story. Plot is second stage to metaphor and meaning, etc, but in that case you could say that the author uses the message to get to the plot and vice versa.
SETTING
The book covers many years, many many years- as in all of Dickens' books. It takes place in Coketown, a mythical industrial town in Northern England. The time is the Victorian industrial age, the mid to late nineteenth century.
SUBJECT
The book is about life in an Industrial town, and the effects of Utilitarianism. For more on this, see my website. The story essentially traces the lives of the Gradgrinds from their education to their adulthood and their immediate circle.
TONE
Satire- complete satire: the book also has elements of the fable, which means it is didactic and has a moral.
Themes
Utilitarianism and Laissez-faire economics
Do you know anything about economics or moral philosophy? There is a two-pronged answer to this question. Dickens wrote Hard Times as a scathing report on how capitalism failed the working man. Gradgrind represents all that Dickens felt was evil- he is a utilitarian and a laissez-faire economist. Utilitarianism is the philosophy that as long as you can get what you want, it does not matter how you get it (sort of an ends justifies the means idea) and society should strive for the greater good for the greater number. What this means is that it's okay for the working people (i.e. Coketown's factory workers) to suffer as long as the economy as a whole benefits. This brings me to laissez-faire economics. It is the philosophy that the government should have a hands-off approach with business- that it, with no rules the economy as a whole will benefit most. It's okay if some suffer, for they are the weak (think social Darwinism, same thing). That's why his sons are named Adam Smith (who pioneered the "invisible" hand theory that the markets will best control themselves without interference) and Thomas Malthus (who built on it). Remember, this is an allegory, Dickens had no time for subtlety!
Gradgrind is a fact worshipper (think of his name, as in "grinding" facts). For him, we must have facts, facts, facts, and imagination is a horrible waste of time ("never wonder", and why do you think chapter two is called "murdering the innocents"). Note how his educational philosophy (how do you define a horse?) plays in with the ones I described above. It's not a coincidence that his school is run by Dr. McChoakumchild!
As for your question about how the narrator criticizes it, the entire book is full of biting sarcasm! Notice the reference to Morgiana and the Forty Thieves, and just read the chapter titles! There's your best hint there- I gave you two examples already.
Fathers
Gradgrind is a good father in that he really believes that he is doing the best for his children. When he learns that he is wrong, he changes his tune. He supports Louisa and Tom because he realizes that he has caused their unhappiness, and he is very sorry. On the other hand, it was his utilitarian philosophy to "never wonder" and fact-worshiping that led to their demise in the first place.
Signor Jupe was a good father, most of the time. He did abandon his daughter- but he did it for her own good. He was a sweet and gentle man, and he did not understand that his leaving would not be for the best. Gradgrind and Bounderby think he is a terrible father for leaving his daughter, but Sissy understands and trusts his judgement. He is similar to Gradgrind in that he wants what is best for his daughter. They both love their children and want them to be the best they can be. Their philosophies are in opposition, however, as Gradgrind is critical of Jupe's circus lifestyle.
An Industrial Education
Obviously, Dickens is harshly opposed to the utilitarian educational system used by Gradgrind. What is the use of knowing how many teeth a horse has, if you don't know what a horse looks like or is used for? McChoackumchild is the name of the factory-produced schoolteacher who fills the little vessels with poisonous facts. Children are supposed to be able to play, to imagine, to fantasize, to love, to learn, to be creative, and to have an interest in the world. This is not the philosophy of Gradgrind. As a result, the little children have no basis in the imagination, they only know facts- and facts are devoid of morality or emotion.
In a way, the Gradgrinds are childish, but they have no child's heart. They have no morals, are unable to take responsibility for their actions, and are unable to grasp simple concepts such as love and imagination. Their lack of responsibility makes them childish, while their lack of understanding of emotion makes it so that they never had the delicacy of a child's heart.
The Results of an Industrial Education (continued)
Louisa has been subjected to an analytical education and is thus devoid of morality and self-consciousness. She is an empty hole. Louisa is alienated not just from others- from the ability to care for and love other human beings- but also from herself. She does not know or understand herself. This is one of the reasons why she marries Bounderby- she is lost, has no direction, and cannot think of a reason not to. Louisa is dejected because she has grown up in a household without love or humanity (think of her mother's last words, that there was something missing from her life). Sissy was dejected but had the benefit of love earlier in her life, and an education based on humanity (from her father and those in the circus). She grew up with the connectedness of knowing that there was always someone there for her, and even when she was with the Gradgrind's she was never fully dejected or alienated because she still had the memory of her father and the hope that he would return. Sissy is not only capable of love and happiness, she is able to instill it in others. She can tell right from wrong and rescues Louisa from making bigger mistakes by getting rid of Harthouse. She allows Louisa to remain with her as she raises her own loving family, though Louisa is incapable of love.
Important Quotes
"Bitzer," said Mr. Gradgrind, broken down and miserably submissive to
him, "have you a heart?"
"The circulation, sir," returned Bitzer, smiling at the oddity the
question, "couldn't be carried on without one."
Important Information
(Invaluable links)
Utilitarianism
This is the theory that the good of the whole takes precedence over the individual. It is based on the principle of utility (the use one gets out of something). Want more information?
Microeconomics shows you why all of this is relevant, and where it came from.
Laissez-faire Economics
This does not have to get too technical- unless you want it to. However it is important to know that Laissez-faire economics ("let it alone") is the theory that markets will find their own price levels through supply and demand.
For Further Reading
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
Cite this page in MLA
Tracy, Trinity. "Notes on Hard Times." Dickens Made Simple. 2002. http://www.dickensmadesimple.com (date of access).
