ANALYSIS OF COKETOWN

Considering the title, the reader imagines that the text will deal with the presentation of a town where all the activities are connected to the use of coke. Therefore, maybe the narrator wants to underline how coke seemed to be a central point in the development of the cities of the time. Indeed, the extract is taken from Charles Dickens’s “Hard Times”, a novel set in the nineteenth-century England, where cities had been completely changed by the Industrial Revolution. The novel also embodies the philosophy of utilitarism adopted mainly by the middle class of the time.

The story is set in the city of Coketown, and the narrator presents the setting while the two characters (Mr Gradgrind and Mr Bounderby) are walking through the streets. The third person omniscient narrator is an intrusive one: he involves the reader through expressions like “let us”. The choice of an omniscient narrator also give the opportunity to create a detailed mental picture in the reader’s mind, creating a specific atmosphere: saying “Coketown [..] was a triumph of fact”, the narrator conveys the idea that nothing is attractive, or collected with emotion.

To underline Coketown’s unattractiveness, the narrator also makes a comparison between the town and a woman who is not attractive (“it had no greater taint of fancy in it than Mrs Gradgrind herself”).

The narrator also chooses to present the town with an accumulation of details; in particular, he describes it using a metonymy: he speaks about the bricks (details) in order to present the city. In addition, the atmosphere of the description is given by the numerous references to colours like red (bricks) and grey (smoke, ashes), that convey the idea of an anonymous and unattractive town. Indeed, even if the narrator appeals to the sense of sight, the colours seems to be unnatural: they indirectly underline the artificiality of the town. In addition, the comparison of the town with the “painted face of a savage” also creates the idea of an uncivilised city. All in all, the all extract seems to evoke the idea of artificiality and lack of civilisation of Coketown (also through images like the image of serpents, symbols of sin).

In addition, the description brings to light the idea of standardisation: beyond not being attractive, the town seems also to be a monotonous repetition of streets and buildings where the inhabitants seem to be all the same. This aspect is conveyed by the repetition with variation of the expression “like one another” (“very like one another”, “more like one another”, “equally one another”) that creates a climax that evokes the idea of standardisation. The idea is also highlighted by the insistent use of the word “same”, and expression like “every day” and “every year” which brings to surface how even time seems to pass monotonously.