Dickens, Charles - Hard Times, Coketown

Description of Coketown

This extract deals with the description of the industrial centre Coketown, where the whole story is set and where Mr Gradgrind and his friend Mr Bounderby are now walking.
This town is considered a triumph of facts, it is a town of red bricks, which are not red anymore because of the smoke and pollution which has made them black, they are compared to the painted face of a savage, that gives the idea of danger and chaos. It's also a town of tall chimneys and machinery out of which serpents of smoke come out, image which conveys the idea of a very polluted town. The pistons of the engines in the factories are compared to a mad elephant's head: this means that the huge machines could become dangerous and kill people. The process of industrialization is harshly criticized and seen as something evil, indeed these three images share the common ground of the jungle, therefore industrialization is like war, chaos and danger.

Monotony and Alienation

These three images add an even gloomier touch to the description of the city, which is composed by many streets, either large or small, but all of them looked the same, moreover the buildings looked all the same and even though they were made of red bricks, they turned black because of pollution, just like the canal's water turned purple. This description is gloomy also because of the rich and vivid imagery used. Everything in Coketown is based on facts and look alike: there is no difference between a jail, an hospital and a town-hall, all the buildings are square, made of red bricks painted black and white, which gives a sense of monotony.

In Coketown people are alienated, they all live in the same houses, walk the same streets at the same time, work in the same place and do the same things everyday.

Contrast Between Social Classes

According to the narrator's description, the inhabitants' expression and way of living communicate the monotony and sadness of life in this town. People have lost their personality and individuality: they are equally like one another and look like machines. The first part of the description is based on the lower classes, while the second part is based on the comforts of the upper ones. Indeed, in the first part it deals with pollution and dirt, while in the second one it deals with the comforts and elegancies of life, which gives an idea of the well-off life conditions opposed to the exploitation and precarious ones of the lower class. The narrator focuses on the indifference and contempt of the upper class towards the lower one, indeed he states that fine ladies couldn't even bear to hear the place mentioned. This is an example of Victorian compromise, which shows a hypocritic and superficial attitude, indeed the life of those who bought the goods becomes more comfortable and elegant, while both Coketown and its people don't look so.

Critique of Education and Society

All of these characteristics are showed by the repetition of “same”, “like one another”, and “fact”. This last word is crucial: indeed even the school M'Choakumchild is based on facts, its name is a pun because it sounds like “choke the child”, and the verb to choke refers to the children's intelligence. Education should help children to develop their intelligence and personality, but in this case it has the opposite function, its aim is to make machines full of facts out of children.

The narrator is a third person, omniscient and obtrusive one, indeed he stops the narration in order to make personal comments, like in line 35 he states that people doesn't get on well through a rhetorical question, which introduces the critics that the upper classes make towards the poor, who are accused of always getting drunk and taking opium, eating prime parts of meat, fresh butter, mocha coffee and live upon the best. The narrator here is conveying critics about the poor in an hyperbolic way, indeed it is obvious that he's talking about the rich.