MANCHESTER 
 

Analysis of the texts "Manchester from Journeys to England and Ireland, 1835" by Alexis de Tocqueville and the Chapter V of "Hard Times" by C. Dickens.

The Industrial Revolution allowed the opening of new factories and industries, especially in the north of England, near the coal mines: it follows that cities became overcrowded, while countries showed a different human dimension from the traditional one.

The texts provide a negative and dark vision of Manchester: A. Tocqueville describes it ina similar way to C. Dicken's  Coketown , because of its coal mines and industries, and as a city of degradation and deep pollution. In a parallel way  Dickens  illustrates it as a labyrinth of poverty and death.

The city is filled with smoke and ashes, because of the huge number of factories and industries, the rivers are black, the workers' conditions are terrible and they often die as a result.

People work exhausting hours, they live within  perpetual stink and  monotonous noise, they live in the same squalid houses, going in and out at the same hours and doing the same things every day; it as if they were all robots.

The material aspect of the town comes to the surface: wealth is the most important value, even if workers are underpaid, exploited or live in inhumane conditions.

Even if people worked several hours every day and even if Manchester was full of energy, extreme industrialization took poverty, misery and perpetual sadness, "never the gay shouts of people amusing themselves, or music heralding a holiday".

Summing up, A.Tocqueville and C. Dickens highlight the negative side of industrialization, because the lust for wealth and progress may take people to self-destruction.