Dickens' Novel Hard Times

This critique of naive realism extends from Gradgrind's classroom (w here(predicate) the children suffer) to Josiah Bounderby's factory (where the workers suffer).

Children and workers alike are meant to be systematically put down by the social, cultural and economic machinery of "realistic" late life. mediocre as Sissy is oppressed by Gradgrind, who tries to strip her of her imagination, innocence, independence, and her in truth soul, so is Stephen Blackpool oppressed by Bounderby, by the soulless realism of the capitalistic factory system, and by the entire depressing macrocosm of the city:

In the hardest working part of Coketown; in the inmost fortifications of that ugly citadel, where Nature was as strongly bricked out as killing airs and gases were bricked in, . . . the whole an unnatural family . . . press[ed] one other to death. . . . Among the multitude . . . called "the Hands---a race

. . . like the lower creatures of the seashore, only detainment and stomachs---lived Stephen Blackpool (Dickens 70).

Again, Dickens leaves no doubt whatsoever that he believes the upstart world's realism is based on beliefs which foster greed, corruption, and exploitation, and try to chat up every private's freedom. He is relentless in trying to entice the reader of the homosexual, spiritual and social destructiveness of this mod realis

Elsen, Albert E. Purposes of Art. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1967.

Dickens himself does non portray the detrimental impact of new-fashioned industrial life in a vacuum. To the contrary, he makes clear that he criticizes the "hard clock" of modern life in order to fight against those hard times in favor of a life which would elevate the individual human being and his or her freedom, innocence, imagination, and spirit. Concluding his novel, Dickens aligns himself with the loveliest of impressionistic works by referring to Sissy's

As Elsen writes, "impressionist painting . . . was think primarily for middle-class homes" (Elsen 288).

A middle-class individual talent take a few hours to read Hard times and major power even whole-heartedly agree with Dickens' critique of the modern city, save this does not mean he or she would want a painting of Bounderby's oppressive factory permanently hanging on the wall of his or her living room. For this reason, many Impressionist paintings, as realistic in style as they certainly are, further portray far more pleasant visions than Dickens' Coketown. Nature is good stifled in Dickens' novel, but in many Impressionist paintings, the pleasantries of nature are given full expression.

The argument here that Impressionistic paintings are generally less critical of the human and social effects of the realism-based life of the modern city does not mean that we find nothing critical whatsoever in those paintings. Edgar Degas' "Absinthe Drinkers," for example, portrays the "psychological isolation of race" (Elsen 286) in the modern city. However, "Degas was not a social critic but, rather, a sharp sociological observer of his time" (Elsen 286). However, Dickens might argue that most realistic portrayals of people in the modern city would inevitably expose the "psychological isolation" of people living in a world dominated by the kind of oppression he describes in his novel.

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