The extract is taken from Hard Times, a Dickens’ novel in which the poet affronts some problems of the nineteenth English society. It is a novel in which real facts or events are narrated. In fact Hard Times is a Victorian novel and this kind of poetry refuses imagination: reality is predominant in the Victorian novels. In particular the text belongs to the first part of the second chapter. From the title, Murdering the innocents, the reader can make some hypothesis about the possible content of the text: it could be about particular negative aspects. From the first lines, the narrator, that is a third person omniscient narrator, presents a character to the reader: Thomas Gradgrind. He is described through his working profession: he is a teacher. Besides the teacher’s features come into surface: he is a rigorous person that considers only denotative aspects of things. So he isn’t able to investigate the real meaning of things, he doesn’t study and interpret connotative aspects of reality. His personality is revealed through his use of the language: he refers to the students as if they weren’t people. He treats them as animals: in fact he uses numbers to distinguish students. So Thomas Gradgring appears to the reader as a person that isn’t able to relate to the other in a correct way. The meaning of the title is showed: the word “innocents” refers to the students that aren’t considered as human being. The term “murdering” expresses the effects of Gradgrind’s teachings: they are dangerous for the students. Going on the analysis of the extract, the attention of the narrator focuses on a new character, Sissy. She is a new student and she is presented to the teacher by “the girl number twenty”. The first piece of information is about her name and her father’s employment working: he breaks horses. So the dialogue between the teacher and the girl moves to the question of the horse. The teacher starts to ask to some students a description of a horse. The first student, “the girl number twenty”, isn’t able to provide to give a definition of the horse, while the second student, Bitzer, gives a detailed definition and description of the animal. The different personalities of the two students are put in evidence: on one side there is the uncertainty and shyness of the girl, on the other we find the certainty and determination of the boy. In the central part of the extract the narrator focuses his attention on the atmosphere in the classroom: a ray of sun illuminates the room and the effect is to show the students in a different way. In the final part, the narrator provides to highlight the girl’s inability in describing the animal: the teacher says that now “she knows what a horse is”. The girl’s embarrassed is showed through the use of the language: the narrator says she curtseys again.

Concerning the connotative aspect, the first thing that an intelligent reader can notice is the use of a complex language: Dickens talks about the problems of society and in particular about the absence of methods in teaching, through a high language and the use of narrative techniques such as irony, grotesque and hyperbole. Besides repetition is an expedient used by Dickens to impress in the reader’s mind a message or a consideration. Observing the extract’s structure, we can see the alternation of descriptive sequences and dialogues. So the reader provides to combine different elements to create a various kind of novel. The aim of the narrator is to put in evidence negative aspects: it is as if he moves a critique to his contemporary society.

In conclusion, I can say that in Hard Times, as in David Copperfield and Oliver Twist, there is a Dickens’ invite to the reader to reflect about negative aspects of nineteenth English society, such as poverty, inhumane living conditions, shortage of methods in student’s education. Reflection is one of the most important way to fight and to overcome all the dark side of society.