Notes about the Extract Coketown from Hard Times (14/5/12)

The extract is taken from the fifth chapter of C. Dickens' novel Hard Times.
The name of the town reminds to the fuel employed in factories during this period. It is symbolic and introduces an alienated and polluted situation. The description of the town moves from the distance to the specific.
In the first sequence of the extract the narrator presents Coketown. It is characterized by red bricks buildings, but the narrator corrects himself after saying it because they are black because of pollution. So the narrator at the first wants to give the reader a sense impression (sight). The colours of the city are interesting: it is a dark town, described in the effects of factories. There is a contrast between what is natural and what is not: red (natural) is an unnatural red (artificial); black (natural) contrasts with "painted" (something artificial). These oppositions underline there is something wrong in the town. Moreover the intelligent reader understands that he is speaking about pollution throughout a metonimic rendering. A language that appeals to sense is used here and the colours used recalls Puritan mentality: red recalls Christ's blood and the passion and black the evil.
The narrator presents here a deep concept: Coketown is turned up into something unnatural. The word "savage" is a simily used by the narrator to create a comparation with savages (no culture, no civility).
The town is not described throughout people who animates it, but throughout the buildings and the factories chimneys. The narrator describes in a metaphorical way the smoke, using also "s" sound that creates the idea of the serpent (the temptor of Eve, another reference to religion). In this way the narrator criticizes deeply industrial society and English one from the inside.
There are also time references saying that productive process goes on the whole day.
The river is another element of the Industrial Revolution and the canal (artificial) contrasts with the channel (natural), giving the idea of the superstructures the Industrial Revolution required.
All what is here described is antropomorphized, described as if it were human.
The narrator appeals also to hearing impression: the onomathopeic words ricreate the noise of machinery, their incessant going up and down, without an ending (there is no hope for people to have a better life conditions). Moreover repetitions create a sense of soffocation: there is a disease in town and a monotony of living in a place that never changes.
Monotony and soffocation are recreated by an anaphorical use of language.
The buildings the narrator presents have a very poor architectural design, without creativity. The city seems an alienated place. What is worst is that there is no possibility to change. The importance of the work is never put into doubt.
There is a third person omniscient and intrusive narrator, who knows everything.