CHARLES DICKENS

1812-1870

Intro

One of England’s favorite novelists 2nd of 8 children Son of a clerk

Father ended up in debtor’s prision Expert character creator Often through exaggeration Focused on: Social abuses

Reluctant revolutionary - conflicted Dim view of soceity

Prisons factories

But sentimental to domestic scenes

“Hard Times”

Highlights social and economic problems of the nation Set in fictitious “Coketown”

Probably a Manchester equivalent Dickens literary side is put at odds with the

reformer in him: Anti-Utilitarian

Did not believe a completely “rationalized” society was possible

Anti- laissez-faire capitalism These two philosophies combined and caused

Contempt for workers by the factory owners Neglect of imaginative development in favor of “the facts”

“Hard Times”

Coketown excerpt: Physical description of the city

Emphasizes: Filthiness Sameness Industrial, machine-like

Churches: 18 different sects All buildings look the same

“pious warehouse of red brick”

“Hard Times”

Fact fact fact Attacks utilitarianism

Everywhere in both the “material” and the “immaterial”

Schools Relationship between the “master” and “man” Everything between “lying in hospital and the cemetery”

Attacks use of statistics/capitalism: “What you couldn’t state in figures” What you could buy at the lowest price and sell for a

profit Did not exist in that philosophy

“Hard Times”

The workers Don’t go to these churches Sunday routine Get drunk Take opium