Charles Dickens, Hard Times, Coketown

Textual analysis

The extract under analysis is taken from Hard Times, a novel written by Charles Dickens in 1854. It focuses on the setting of the novel: Coketown, an industrialized city. As suggested by the title, the name of the city is a reference to coke, which is the “fuel” of machinery and industry. Besides referring to the negative consequences of the Industrial Revolution in terms of environment, it anticipates materialism and concreteness, two typical features of the Victorian mentality. What makes the extract interesting is that it shows problems still present in the XXI century, thus making the reader reflect.

The text is opened by a short paragraph, which is part of a narrative sequence. Its function is to introduce the reader to the setting. In particular, the paragraph features different characters about whom the reader already knows: Mr. Gradgrind (introduced in “The description of a horse”) and Mr. Bounderby (introduced in “Mr. Bounderby”) are known as two extremely rational men who follow the logic of puritanism and utilitarianism. The city they’re walking in seems to perfectly fit their mentalities, since it is presented to the reader as “a triumph of fact, (that had) no greater taint of fancy in it than Mrs. Gradgrind herself”.

The description of the city begins in the second paragraph. The description features a series of words linked to industrialization and urbanization, such as “town”, “machinery”, “chimney”, “canal”, and last but not least the “piston of the steam engine”, which is the icon of the Industrial Revolution. The narrator also uses a completely opposite semantic field linked to wild and Nature: words such as “savage”, “serpents”, “river”, “elephant” create a strong contrast with the previous ones. The purpose of such lexical choice may be to underline the distance between the Man and Nature, which grows huge as time goes by. Also, the reader may single out one similarity between Coketown and a wild forest: both Industralization in Coketown and Nature aren’t under man’s control. The Industrial Revolution seems to have taken over the man: indeed, another similarity with Nature is the lack of civilization, meant as the specificity of a group of people. It is provided by the use of language: the frequent use of repetition makes the city and its people look flattened.

The description of Coketown is marked by a negative connotation. The narrator appeals to the reader’s senses by mentioning colours, especially black and grey (ashes and smoke), and smells (ill smelling). It is another hint to the materialistic mentality.

The third paragraph portrays the Victorian mentality, strictly linked to utilitarianism and puritanism: if one must work hard and focus on what’s really useful, comforts lose their importance. The fourth paragraph provides the reader an example: even Churches, that are places linked to spirituality, are revisited according to the logic of utilitarianism. The narrator tells about a birdcage that makes the example look ridiculous. Also, the fourth paragraph makes different references to the second with words and expressions such as “red brick”, “black and white” and places described as if they were all the same. The latter is well conveyed by the chiasm “the jail might have been the infirmary, the infirmary might have been the jail”, which makes places interchangeable.

The fourth paragraph is marked by the repetition of the word “fact”, mentioned at the beginning of the text. Here, “fact” is repeated ten times: its obsessive presence makes it seem the only word that could stick into people’s minds. It seems to be the key word, the core of their faith (as suggested by the word “amen”, that ends the extract).

From the text, the reader may picture the Victorian Age as a combination of alienated people who live in alienated cities. It is a current problem in today’s society: however, now it is more due to globalization rather than to the Industrial Revolution.