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CTullis - 5 A - The Victorian Novel and Utilitarianism View task. Coketown analysis
by - (2012-05-22)
Up to 5 A - The Victorian Novel and Utilitarianism
Coketown is described in an extract from "Hard Times" written by Charles Dickens.
The function of the first paragraph is to give information and opinions, in fact the narrator gives a judgement and guides the reader's judgements.
The function of the first paragraph is to give information and opinions, in fact the narrator gives a judgement and guides the reader's judgements.
Right from the start there is no reference to human being. The way the narrator speaks about the town is a pollution way; the Industrial Revolution in fact caused pollution in cities. He try to make the reader see pollution in the town talking about the red bricks: red is dark and it represents blood and sufferance. Everything is artificial. There is a sense of obsession and inability to change the situation. The auditory effect appeals to sounds: Dickens uses alliterations and repetitions. The repetition of sounds underline the monotony in Coketown. Furthermore there is nothing human in Coketown and this highlight alienation.
The narrator also gives opinions about the edifice's architecture. Dickens uses irony to describe the industrial city Coketown. Everything was built don't give freedom to citizens, there isn't individuality, only horrible buildings.
Dickens wants to make a parody: he uses similes (for example at line 33 "pinnacles like florid wooden legs") and the narrative techniques of the grotesque. Everything have the same architecture, it's difficult to find an identity. Furthermore every written is black and white: this recalls the medieval philosophy of dualism. The writer also uses a lot of repetitions: for example the obsessive repetition of "fact" alludes to the obsession of utility and material typical of this age. The immaterial, on the contrary, is considered sinful because it doesn't produce anything. So if everything must be useful, no imagination can be hosted in the town (Puritanism idea of progress and Utilitarianism). There is no creative process because imagination is band.