Manchester in A. Tocqueville and Coketown in C. Dickens

Both writers deal with the consequences of the Industrial Revolution on the population and the cities involved.

A. Tocqueville rights a description which belongs to "Journeys to England and Ireland", while C. Dickens rights a description taken from the novel "Hard Times". The first writer describes Manchester from geographical point of view in order to introduce the topic, then he examines the conditions of the city. In contrast, the second writer talks about Coketown, which is a fictional city, indeed it is in the mind a real industrialized town.

A. Tocqueville has a more detached attitude, indeed his work is a diary of travel; he criticizes the process of industrialization, and individualism, so he has a negative opinion because everyone thinks for himself, there was not indeed a balance within the city. For this reason, Manchester celebrates the power of individualism against the society, it is the place where individualism is focused. The industry was the first aspect, while the man was the second one.

In "Hard Times" Coketown is the city of the imagination, indeed the writer wants to make the reader to able to imagine the setting. He focuses his attention on coke, because it has become more important during the Industrial Revolution. C. Dickens does not provide a thesis, he adopts the third personal intrused narrator and he appeals to sight, hearing, touch and smell to better describe the city. In addition, he adopts a bionary system and adds a symbolic meaning: for example, the black, which is a symbol of darkness, of hell, and the red, which is a symbol of blood, of suffering. Coketown is a town of red bricks, which suggest something of building and imply progress; there were unpaved roads, heaps of dung, stink, smoke, noises from the shriek of steam from boilers, from the looms and from the heavy carts, the sea was red because of the dye that went into the sea.