Francesco Floritto

COKETOWN

The starting lines of this extract are the occasion for Dickens to give a hyperbolic description of one industrial town, in this case the fictional Coketown. His words convey a sense of dullness: the smoke, the ashes, turning the red bricks into black, their chimneys, the machinery, everything is dark and sad. The canal is black, the water in the river is purple and ill-smelling, all streets resemble each other as well as people, because everyone of them does the same work and to them, everyday is the same. Everything is workful, even religion chapels which are made warehouses, all the public inscriptions are in severe character of black and white this means this town has nothing personal or subjective, everywhere there is dull and repetitive, everything is fact .

After this descriptive introduction of Coketown , Dickens starts to introduce is society to the reader: the town is filled with denominations and organizations and their main aim seems to criticize the way the labouring people live. They don't accept the fact that they don't go to church, they complain because the workers get drunk or even take opium, they say these people meet in hidden places where they sing and dance. The last critical commentary is given the two characters who are introduced in this chapter : Mr Gradgrind and Mr. Bounderby : they state that these people are bad, restless, always dissatisfied and incapable of being tankful .    

XXXXX