Concetti Chiave
- Charles Dickens portrayed the harsh realities of the Victorian Age, focusing on social issues, workers' lives, and workhouses with vivid descriptions.
- His style, though realistic, often lacks objectivity due to the use of figurative language and emphasized descriptions.
- In "Hard Times," Thomas Gradgrind is a rigid character who embodies a philosophy of rational rules and mechanical teaching methods.
- Coketown, an imaginary city in "Hard Times," illustrates the monotony and pollution of the Industrial Revolution era, reflecting the loss of individuality among its inhabitants.
- "Oliver Twist" depicts the grim conditions of workhouses, highlighting Oliver's struggle and innocence in a system that dehumanizes orphans.
Hard Times
Thomas Gradgrind was a mechanized person, with monotone attitude and appearance. He had got square coat, square legs, square shoulders, and square fingers, so he was a rigid person. Mr. Gradgrind completely believed in his philosophy of calculating: he believed that human nature could be governed by completely rational rules, and he was able to weigh and measure any small part of human nature, and tell you what it came to. He was a schoolmaster but his way to teach was founded on the knowledge from the pupils of facts not deepened and on the repetition in mechanical way of scientific definitions, there is an example of it when he asked to a young girl what a horse was, and he ridiculed her because she did not know how to describe it.
Coketown it is an imaginary town, it is the classic city that reflects the period of the Industrial Revolution. The town is represented by different colours: the brick of "unnatural red and black", "black canal", "the river that ran purple" and it is evident the atmosphere of pollution caused by the tall chimneys and machinery that work continuously "for ever and ever". The city appears monotonous not only in the colours but also in the sounds, in the noises, in the buildings ,in the streets. As in a painting, the inhabitants’ expression communicate only the monotony and sadness of life in this industrialized town. People have lost their personality: they look like robots.
Oliver Twist
Oliver Twist was an orphan born in a workhouse. He was a pious and innocent child. At the age of nine, Oliver was transferred in a badly workhouse for young orphans, where children are treated as animals, in fact they had to work and they had not much to eat. After boys threw to fate, Oliver is constricted to ask for more gruel at the end of a meal. It could not be accepted, so Mr. Bumble, the workhouse beadle, decided to offer five pounds to anyone who would take the boy away from the workhouse. Oliver escaped being apprenticed to a brutish chimney sweeper but was apprenticed to a local undertaker, Mr. Sowerberry.
Domande da interrogazione
- Quali problemi della società vittoriana rappresenta Charles Dickens nei suoi romanzi?
- Come viene descritto Thomas Gradgrind in "Hard Times"?
- Quali caratteristiche ha la città immaginaria di Coketown?
- Qual è la situazione di Oliver Twist nel romanzo omonimo?
Dickens rappresenta i mali dell'epoca vittoriana, come i problemi sociali, la vita dei lavoratori e delle classi sociali inferiori, e le problematiche delle workhouses, fornendo descrizioni vivide della vita reale.
Thomas Gradgrind è descritto come una persona meccanizzata, con un atteggiamento e un aspetto monotono, caratterizzato da tratti "quadrati" che riflettono la sua rigidità e la sua filosofia di vita basata su regole razionali.
Coketown è una città che riflette il periodo della Rivoluzione Industriale, caratterizzata da colori innaturali e un'atmosfera di inquinamento, monotonia e tristezza, dove gli abitanti sembrano aver perso la loro personalità.
Oliver Twist è un orfano nato in una workhouse, trasferito in un'altra workhouse dove i bambini sono trattati come animali. Dopo aver chiesto più cibo, viene offerta una ricompensa per chi lo porti via, e Oliver finisce per essere apprendista presso un impresario di pompe funebri.
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