Dickens, Charles - Life, style, hard times

Infanzia e primi anni di Dickens

Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth at the beginning of 19th, a city in the Southern coast of England and he had an unhappy childhood. His father was imprisoned for a debt and Charles was sent to a workhouse. When his father gots free he was sent to a School in London. At 15 he found employment as an office boy at lawyer’s study and he also studied shorthand at night. In his first story appeared in a newspaper and he signed with the pen-name of “Boz”. After a bit of time he started a full-time career as a novelist. He's first success was a Christmas Carol, a Christmas book. After that he brought some autobiographical novels like Oliver Twist and David Copperfield which became the symbol of an exploited childhood. He also talks about the bitter realities of slums and factories in his novel Hard Times.

He died in Kent in 1870 and he was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Carriera letteraria e temi

In the novel by Charles Dickens the main characters are from the lower classes of the society. His aim was to get the reader's attention by exaggerating his characters’ habits, and he used sarcasm and hyronical expressions. He was always on the side of the Poor, the outcast and also the working class. Children are often the most important characters of Dickens novels, in fact children are sometimes more wise than adults.

He wrote about people with difficulties because he wanted to educate the upper classes who read his Novel, in fact he's novels have a didactic aim. so he used sarcasm for talking about these hard themes in order to not offend the middle class and upper class readers.

Stile unico e impatto sociale

His style of writing was unique, because he used powerful descriptions of the setting and of the characters, he also made a careful choice of any words he used. In fact he is considered as the greatest novelist in the English language.
This novel is set in an imaginary industrial town named coketown. Thomas Gradgrind is an educator who only believes in facts and statistics. He found a school where his theories are taught. He brings up his two children Louisa and Tom in the same way, repressing their imagination and feelings. He chose as husband of her daughter the son of a rich banker of the city Mr Bounderby, much older than Louisa. The marriage after a bit of time proves to be unhappy. Tom, who is lazy and selfish, robs his employer, he is discovered and obliged to leave the country. So Mr Gradgrind understands the damage he caused to his children with his materialistic philosophy.

Critica sociale e ambientazione

Hard times focused on the difference between the rich and the poor at Dickens’ time, the factory owners and workers who were first to work for almost 12 hours per day without a resting day. They worked and lived in dangerous and terrible conditions. This novel has the aim to make a critique of materialism and narrow-minded utilitarianism. 19th century England, period of the second industrial revolution, was turning humans into machines.

This Scene takes place in a classroom where Mr Gradgrind is the headmaster, and he is explaining his belief in “facts”.

Descrizione di Mr Gradgrind

The text starts with Mr gradgrind who is saying that facts are what is really useful for life, facts are the principle on which he brings up his children. The place of the scene was a monotonous room over School. Dickens starts to describe Mr Gradgrind's face: he was a man with a large face which had a rectangular shape, his eyebrows were lowered and his eyes were described as too dark caves. The aspect of Mr Gradgrind had a geometrical shape, because he was made to say facts.

Caratteristiche di Coketown

In this text are presented the characteristics of Coketown, a very productive town based on production with a very clear separation between classes. It has been built for industrial aim, in fact it has a symbolic meaning. Coketown is a triumph of fact, it has nothing beautiful. it is Square as much Mr gradgrind and black smoke has covered the surface of buildings. The look of Coketown was unpleasant in fact there were serpents of smoke and everything was grey, black and white.