? Hard Times And The Nineteenth Century Essay, Research Paper
Europe
began the nineteenth century dominated by the romanticists. The realists
changed the face of Europe once more by the middle of the nineteenth century.
The importance of science and the industrialization of Europe characterized
their movement. Where the romanticists believed in feelings, intuition, and
imagination, the realists believed in a movement known as positivism, which
applied the scientific method to the study of society. The authors of this
period also changed their style of writing by dealing with cultural
representation and life. They focused on "the here and now, with everyday
events, with his own environment and with the movements (political, social
etc.) of his time." Charles Dickens was an author during this period and
his novel Hard Times reflects a number of different themes. The novel focuses
on educational and economic systems of Victorian England, the industrial
revolution, which spawned how industrial relations were viewed during the
1850’s, and utilitarianism. I have chosen the two major themes of industrial
relations and educational system during this period. Although, you can not
discuss labor relations without bringing focus upon the class society of
Victorian England during this period. I will use the Norton Critical Edition of
Hard Times, the Sources of the Western Tradition, and the Communist Manifesto
to support my analytical interpretation of Charles Dickens Hard Times. During
this period Dickens wrote for a weekly publication called Household Words, each
issue dealt with a different social problem of the period. Hard Times began as
a serialization in this weekly publication. In Hard Times Dickens writes about
the horrors of the industrial revolution and was sparked by what he had seen
first hand in Manchester, England fifteen years prior to writing Hard Times and
the present goings on of a labor strike in Preston, England while he was
conceiving the novel. The novel is almost biblical in nature as it has three
books sowing, reaping and garnering. Book the First, "Sowing," is the
planting of the seeds. It provides a basis for the problems that will affect
Stephen Blackpool, who is a factory worker in Coketown. Book the Second,
"Reaping," details the affect the industrial relations had on
Stephen. The first to books describe the biblical passage, "Whatsoever
a man soweth, that shall he also reap"(Galatians 6:7). Book the Third,
"Garnering," describes in a broad way the results of what
industrialization did to Victorian England. The
industrialization revolution brought many problems to Victorian England in the
1850’s. Industrial towns such as Manchester and Preston sprung up in northern
England. Prosperity came to those who owned the factories or mills, while
despair came to the "hands," the factory workers. Coketown is one
such northern England town and Stephen Blackpool is a typical factory worker of
the period in Charles Dickens novel Hard Times. The novel exemplifies the
problems of an industrial town in 1850 England. Dickens describes Coketown
"A town of red brick, or brick that would have been red if the smoke and
ashes had allowed it; but as it matters stood it was a town of unnatural red
and black like the painted face of a savage." He explains the black smoke
spewed continuously from the factory chimneys and that the river is polluted by
an ill-smelling purplish dye. Josiah Bounderby owns the factory where Stephen
Blackpool is employed. Stephen
symbolizes the workers of this period, who put in long hours for little pay and
lived under horrible conditions. Josiah on the other hand represents the greedy
capitalist, who cares little for his workers. Hard Times illustrates the
history of class struggles and is re-enforced by the writings of Karl Marx and
Friedrich Engels in The Communist Manifesto. The struggle between the
bourgeoisie, "the class of modern Capitalists, owners of the means of
social production and the employers of wage-labour" and the proletariat,
"the class of modern wage-labourers who, having no means of production of
their own, are reduced to selling their labour-power to live." In Hard
Times Josiah Bounderby and Stephen Blackpool are representative of the
bourgeoisie and proletariat classes respectively. Dickens alludes that the
government knows the capacity of work the machines can produce, "So many
hundred Hands in this Mill; so many hundred horse Steam Power. It is known, to
the force of a single pound weight, what the engine will do." The workers
are then paid by piece-work, where they are paid ‘by the piece’ rather than
earning a fixed hourly wage. Dickens was also interested in factory safety and
the negligence of the factory and mine owners. In his original proofsheets of
Hard Times there was a footnote bringing to the attention of the readers "a
gruesome report on accidents in factories, "Ground in the
Mill."" There was also an exchange between Stephen and Rachel, his
wife, recalling how Rachel’s younger sister had suffered when a factory machine
tore off her arm. Both the footnote and exchange were deleted from the final
publication. The
deplorable working conditions and the low wages were soon to bring trade unions
into being. The Communist Manifesto explains that trade unions came into being
because "with the development of industry the proletariat not only
increases in number; it becomes concentrated in masses, its strength grows, and
it feels that strength more." The collisions between the employee and the
employer are more characteristic of collisions between classes. "During
the period in which Hard Times was conceived and written, a topic frequently
brought to Dickens’ attention
was that of a bitterly-contested strike." The strike was in the textile
manufacturing town of Preston and was "regarded as a test case of power of
the trade unions, which after having declined in influence during the 1830’s
had made a remarkable recovery in the 1850’s." In Hard Times Dickens uses
a character named Slackenbridge to move the mill workers towards forming a
union. He makes an passionate speech about being enslaved by the iron-handed
factory owners. Slakenbridge states, "the hour is come, when we must rally
round one another as One united power, and crumble into dust the
oppressors." This reads more like the words of Karl Marx when he writes
about the proletariat taking over the ruling class. Dickens uses Blackpool to
voice an opinion against the trade union. He is singled out and booed because
he would not join the union. Blackpool believes the union will do more harm
than good and because of his beliefs his follow workers shun him. Dickens
shows the ruthlessness of Bounderby by firing Blackpool even after he is
summone
Blackpool tells Bounderby of how bad the working conditions are in the mill and
the living conditions in Coketown, but yet the workers are still faithful and
always keep the mill producing. Bounderby states his reasons for the firing
Blackpool as "that you are one of those chaps who have always got a
grievance." "That even your own Union, the men who know you best,
will have nothing to do with you" and with that he goes on to state,
"I’ll have nothing to do with you either" and he dismisses Blackpool.
Stephen could do nothing but leave town because if he didn’t work for Bounderby
he would be able to work for any other factory owner in town. The unions
force the factory owners in districts to group together. It was the plan of the
union leaders in Victorian England to select a particular town and a particular
factory to call a strike against them, in this way they hoped to have the firms
succumb to their demands. The factory or mill owners joined together in the
districts where a strike would be called and instantly closed the door of the
unstruck plants. By the
exchange at the public house, where the union meeting was held, and the meeting
between Stephen and Bounderby, it is unclear what Dickens’ views are towards
unions. While he shows Bounderby, the owner of the mill, as a greedy capitalist
he also portrays Slackenbridge as a demagogue who would exploit the workers for
his own gratification of power. There is some insight as to what Dickens’
believes in the article he wrote, "On Strike" from Household Words.
He writes about the exchange with Mr. Snapper on the train to Preston, he
proposes a man may be both friend to Masters and Hands when talking about whom
to befriend during a strike. When pressed for a more concise answer Dickens
states, "I believe that into the relations between employers and employed,
as into all relations of this life, there must be something of a feeling and
sentiment; something of a mutual explanation, forbearance, and consideration;
something which is not found in Mr. McCulloch’s dictionary, and is not exactly
stateable in figures; otherwise those relations are wrong and rotten at the
core and will never bear sound fruit." The article further goes on to
state about an ongoing conflict between Master and Hand, that a person above
suspicion from both sides would be able to settle the dispute, for Dickens saw
nothing but "certain ruin to both in the continuance or frequent revival
of this breach. And from the ever widening circle of their decay, what drop in
the social ocean shall be free!"Dickens’
has a more exact view of the educational system from a speech on November 5,
1857 he states, "I don’t like that sort of school – and I have seen a
great many of these latter times – where the bright childish imagination is
utterly discouraged,. . . . . where I have never seen among pupils, whether boys
or girls, anything but little parrots and small calculating machines." It
seems even though Dickens is a realist he still believes children should be
taught the arts. Hard Times opening scene is a classroom where the someone is
speaking, "Now, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing
but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life." These opening lines are in
direct contrast to what Dickens’ believes, but it was the established teachings
during this period. Dickens brings out in Hard Times that the schoolmaster, Mr.
M’Choakumchild, along with another 140 schoolmasters had been taught everything
there is to know. They all had the same principles, the same knowledge on all
subjects, as if they were
taught in a factory rather than a classroom. Dickens goes so far as to state
that if Mr. M’Choakumchild, "had learnt a little less, how infinitely
better he might have taught much more!" Thomas Gradgrind, is the governor
where Mr. M’Choakumchild instructs, and he totally believes in the teaching of
facts only. The teachings during this period were void poetry, fairy tales, or
song. "Simple extracts, relating to Natural History, Elementary Science,
Religion, &c. have taken the place of Dramatic Scenes, Sentimental Poetry,
and Parliamentary Orations." Dickens in early satirical writings brings
forth statistical research about the state of infant education among middle
classes of London. It was found that in children only three miles from London
ignorance prevailed. His writings showed that the children believed that Jack
the Giant-killer, Jack and the Bean-stalk, Jack and Eleven Brothers, and Jack
and Jill were real life people. The children in these areas aspired to grow up
like them and slay giants or dragons and ride off with the princess. This was
presented at a Conference of Statisticians where the members immediately called
for "storing the minds of children with nothing but facts and figures;
which the process the President forcibly remarked, had made them (the section)
the men they were." When Hard Times was first published the scholars of
Victorian England did not believe that such an educational system existed in
England. A review of the novel in the Westminster Review in 1854 states,
"that Mr. Dickens launches forth his protest, for we are not aware of such
a system being in operation anywhere in England. They believed that there might
have been too great a part of the studies dedicated to mythology, literature,
and history. "In almost every school in the kingdom passages of our finest
poets are learned by heart; and Shakespeare and Walter Scott were among the
Penates." It was their opinion that schools such as the one that Gradgrind
governed were in the minority. Now in the opening lines of Hard Times, "we
find ourselves introduced to a set of hard uncouth personages, of whose
existence as a class no one is aware, who are engaged in cutting and paring
young souls after their own ugly pattern, and refusing them all other
nourishment but facts and figures." It seems by the reviewer’s comments he
was unaware of Dickens’ feelings towards the educational system of that period.
He assumed by the title that Dickens, "could be entrusted with this delicate
task, and would give us a true idea of the relations of master and workman,
both as they are and as they might be."Hard Times
did not receive as much critical acclaim as Dickens’ other novels. This could
be because it was written in serial form and a new chapter or episode had to be
done weekly. It did however bring to the forefront the plight of the workers during
the industrial revolution, of which many were aware, but it seems to have
caught the intellects by surprise with his scourging account of the educational
system during this period. It is a novel that gave credence to the workers
problems and to what the adolescence of England was being taught.?