MB UNIUD

COKETOWN

Coketown is the setting of the novel.

Coketown is the "town of coke", a town where you can find coke.

Coke is very important in the Victorian Age because it is essential for factories.

First of all it is presented as a manufacturing centre; in the Victorian Age you can find numerous industries.

The speaking voice describes the town.

Its colours are black and red: black stands for shadow and death, red stands for blood and passion.

So we can find a contrast between the colours of the city: they are opposite!

The town is made of red brick, but everything is covered in smoke and ashes.

The reader may easily understand that Coketown is not a nice city, as a matter of fact it appears in a negative way: the narrator does not like it and so he describes it underlining its negative aspects.

An important aspect is pollution: the town has a lot of industries and so you can find smoke and ashes, because it is "a town of machinery and tall chimneys".

Coketown is also an uncivilized town, as a matter of fact it is like "the painted face of a savage".

The negative idea of the town is given by the imagine of "interminable serpents".