Hard Times

Hard Times is Charles Dickens’s 10th and shortest novel and the only one he wrote that has no scenes set in London (though the narrative mentions that Gradgrind spends some time there). By setting the novel in the fictitious northern city of Coketown, Dickens can portray the social conditions in the industrialized parts of the country that the Industrial Revolution affected. Dickens satirizes the ecological, economic, and social problems caused by industrialization. Satire is the use of irony, exaggeration, or humor to expose or criticize an issue, either with an individual or within a community. Dickens uses satire in describing the Industrial Revolution, the beliefs of the wealthy men who profit from it, and the lies they tell each other to justify their power. The narrative portrays working-class men like Stephen Blackpool, however, as moral, upstanding, and—fundamentally—poor. They can’t break free from their oppressive social position, no matter how hard they work. Meanwhile, rich young men like Tom and Harthouse indulge their whims and vices without facing consequences. This social satire reveals the inequality of a society that separates the rich from the poor in a physical, moral, and philosophical sense.

Hard Times isn’t the only example of social satire in Dickens’s work. Although the presentation of Coketown is one of his most strident critiques of the Industrial Revolution’s impact on society, similar themes can be found in works like A Christmas Carol or Oliver Twist. In these books, Dickens presents the harsh living conditions of the poor living in Great Britain as well as the oppressive forces that strive to keep them in those positions. Similarly, Dickens wasn’t the only writer satirizing social conditions during this time. Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell was published in 1848, six years before Hard Times, and provides a similarly scathing portrayal of life in an industrialized town in northern England (in this case, Manchester). Novelists such as George Eliot and Thomas Hardy often depicted the poor conditions of working-class life, particularly in contrast to middle- and upper-class characters.