TEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF HARD TIMES

"Hard times" is one of several Victorian novels which describes and criticizes the social and economic conditions of England. Moreover "Hard times" is also an important novel by Dickens, which is considered the novel where Utilitarianism find his best expression. According to this policy, whatever you produce in society was to be useful.  The novel is set in Coketown, that is to say in the North of England, where there were a lot of industries, useful to policy of Utilitarianism. It is a fictional town, but it represents a model of industrial town. "Coke" reminds the importance of this material in the industrial production. The colours black and red evocate bad associations. In this way the narrators conveys his message: the life in town is like a life in the hell.

The main protagonists Bounderby and Gradgrind are the typical representative of the people who believe in industrialization.

Grandgrind brought up his children according to the principles of Utilitarianism. The man decided to married his daughter to Mr Bounderby, a rich banker a self-made man, even if his daughter didn't agree. At the end the father acknowledges that his principles were far from perfect.

The events are described by a third person omniscient intrusive narrator, who filtered all and so the reader can't form a different opinion  from him, as an example the narrator gives personal judgement (a man who  always proclaiming his old ignorance and poverty; the most appropriate thing her imbecility could think of doing) . As a matter of fact the narrator gives us a peculiar characterization of the protagonists creating through the use of  grotesque and pathetic description. Grotesque is render using the exaggeration of tones, characters and emotions.

The description of a typical middle class self made man is conveyed thanks to : physical description ( a big loud man, with a stare and a metallic laugh, great puffed head and forehead, swelled veins in his temples, he had not much hair ), the description of social status( rich man, banker, merchant, manufacturer), his age ( his seven or eight and forty), his behaviours ( could never vaunt himself a self made man, a man who  always proclaiming his old ignorance and poverty, windy boastfulness, took up a commanding position ), last but not least the extract from book the second , chapter two and the extract form book the third, chapter three, particularly   the Bounderby's dialogue makes clear his boastfulness and his sense of superiority( I have lifted myself out of, better than any man does,would come up to my mark) . This narrative technique emphasises a person devout to the Utilitarianism and devoid of sentiment, , who was afraid of falling down the social ladder, in addition to this it seems evident that the description isn't a realistic description, as a matter of fact the protagonist seems to be a Muppet, as you can understand reading the similes ( a strained skin to his face that it seemed to hold his eyes  open and lift his eyebrows up; inflated like a balloon).

Moreover the dialogue of  Bounderby gives to the reader a further representation of his exaggeration ( lines 36-40)

In opposition to men's description there is also a description of Gradgrind' daughter. Her physical aspect ( little, thin, white, pink -eyed bundle of shawls), her nature ( feebleness, mental and bodily).

So from analyzing the extracts the intelligent reader can notice that Dickens wants to present the social background of the Victorian age, thorough the pompous description of a man belonging to the middle class.