Charles Dickens●Born in Portsmouth in 1812, he was the most important representative of the Victorian novel;

●Unhappy childhood: his father was imprisoned and he had to work in a factory;

●After the release of his father, his mother kept on making him work in the farm, but then his father rescued him and sent him to a school;

●Then, he found a job at an attorny's, where he learnt about criminality, laws and writing;

●He started his writing career in 1833, publishing a collection of articles about London life and events, called Sketches by Boz;

●After the success of The Posthumos Papers of the Pickwick Club, he started his full-time career as a novelist, though he continued to work as journalist as well;

●He died in 1870, after having given several readings of his works all over UK.

Dickens's masterpieces

●First period: 3rd person omniscient narrator:

●The Pickwick papers (1836);

●Oliver Twist (1838);

●A Christmas Carol (1843);

●Hard Times (1854).

●Late Dickens: 1st person narrator:

➔David Copperfield (1850);

➔Great Expectations (1860-61)

The Victorian novel

Dickens must be considered as the most famous and successful representative of the “Early Victorian novel” - conceived as a source of entertainment for the middle class - whose features are:●The development of a plot, which not only is similar to reality but also focuses itself on the study of society. It becomes a denouncement of its injustices and an attack to the immobilism of high classes and to the effect of capitalistic mentality;

●The setting is mainly urban, because the city is the place of abuses that the author wants to denounce (even though there were examples of coutryside novels);

●The presence of several sub-plots and dramatic turns of events;

●The narration is ruled by an omniscient narrator who provides his comment in an objective way, in a sort of direct dialogue with the reader, who directly distinguishes what is 'right' from what is 'wrong';

●The intense study of characters' personality and inner mentality;

●Retribution (of the protagonist) and punishment are to be found in the final chapter, where all the adventures and events are explained and justified;

●The presence of a didactic and moral aim;

Dickens's novel's characteristics

Dickens's style➢The narrator

➔Early Dickens's novels, in their study of the appalling conditions of the city, provide a 3rd

person omniscient narrator, who studies and observes (through his critic eye) the society around him.

➔In novels like David Copperfield and Great Expectations, the narrator becomes 1st person: this strategy permits to study the inner part of his protagonists in a vision that will bring to the development of the modern novel. Here, the autobiographical aspect is even more present than in other novels, and is represented through the idea of progress as a mere illusion for his low-middle class characters.

➢A tragicomic style

✔The mix of comic and tragic elements is given by the presence of a strong sense of humor and a sharp irony in the narrator's comments that describes the dramatic conditions of life of poor people and the misadventures of the characters.

✔The happy ending contributes to transmit the reader a wider sense of comedy, even if Dickens wants to convey the disillusion of the Victorian values.

✔About the language, it was accessible to all the social classes, above all the middle class, which was the main target of his novels.

Oliver Twist (plot)Oliver Twist is a poor boy of unknown parents (his mother died after the childbirth); he is brought to a workhouse: theconditions are inhuman, since children starve and suffer and Mrs. Mann, the supervisor, takes all the money for her.After the day of his ninth birthday, he is severely punished (lashed and segregated) for having Asked more food.After other squallor experience, he is later sold to an undertaker as an apprentice (his sad and dark face would be ideal forfunerals!). After a fight against another boy, Noé, Oliver is punished again, but he manages to flee to London.

Once in London, Oliver is starving. He can't take any food since he is broke. After 7 days of hunger, he is rescued by a boyof his age, John Dawkins, who buys some food for him. John introduces Oliver to a an old jewish man, Fagin, who offershim accomodation. The old man is with other children and makes them play odd games. The aim of all this games is alwaysthe same: taking some objects...secretely. Oliver has fallen into the hands of a gang of pickpockets.

During his first theft with John in a market, he is accused by an old man and captured. With the help of the witness of theowner of the stall where the man has been stolen, Oliver is declared innocent and set free. The man who has been stolen,a rich middle-class man called Mr. Brownlow, decides to adopt Oliver, in nasty conditions and undernourished.After a period of happiness, in order to prove his loyalty, Oliver is charged to bring some books to the book seller. But Olivernever goes back: he has been kidnapped by the gang (with the help of Nancy the prostitute) that fear he could saysomething to the authorities.

Fagin punishes Oliver and, with his friend Mr. Sikes, forces him to commit another theft in a house, where Oliver is shot andleft in a moat. Wounded, Oliver knocks the door to ask for help and is assisted and visited by a doctor.Oliver finds the compassion of all the inhabitants of the house and, after telling his entire story, but can't come back to Mr.Bronlow's house since he moved to another place. Oliver is, then, adopted by Mr. Mayley, the owner of the villa.Meanwhile, Fagin knows everything about Oliver's new life and plots to have him back, but Nancy, the prostitute, who haspity for Oliver, warns Rosa (Mr. Mayley's daughter) about the risks Oliver would have. Though, Nancy is spied and Mr.Sikes after having found out her plan, kills her brutally.The authorities investigate and Fagin is arrested. Mr. Sikes, trying to escape from the roof with a rope, dies hung. With thehelp of Mr. Bronlow, Oliver is safe and finds out his noble origins and his kin to Rosa and lives with Mr. Bronlow, havingmoney from the inheritance.

Oliver Twist (plot analysis)●Oliver's (mis)adventures

One of the most negative characters in the novel:she manages the orphanage which hosts Oliverand make children suffer violence and starvationto earn money. She represents the cruelty andthe longing for money of Victorian London.

Mrs. Mann

He is a coffin-maker for whom Oliver worksas apprentice. His wife and Noah, his seniorapprentice, took an instant dislike for Oliverwho, soon, decides to flee away.

Mr. SowerberryTwo characters representingLondon's criminality: they lead agang of pickpockets and instructthem to steal down the street. Billis the cruellest one: he kills evenhis fiancée, Nancy the prostitute,because she tried to protect Oliver.Fagin Bill Sikes

Mr. Bronwnlow

Both him both Mr. Mayley are wealthy upper-middle class menand are pitious with Oliver, since both of them adopt him. Mr.Bronlow always believes in Oliver's innocence along the story

Oliver

Oliver Twist (analysis)●The invocation of a more equal society.●With this novel, depicting the low and middle strata of society, Dickens seems to direct his invocation of a more equal society to the upper-middle class (represented by Mr. Brownlow and Mr. Maylye), the only class who can change the situation and can aid poor people.●Dickens's denoucement of the squallor of English society and its capitalistic mentality rejects Marx's idea of revolution in favour of a reformism that wouldn't demolish capitalism but would improve life conditions of low classes..

●The characters and their name●Most of the characters in the novel have a fictional and calculated name that expresses a feature of them.●Mrs Mann is not the most motherly person; Mr. Sowerberry's name is due to the bitter experiences Oliver would prove (“sour berries”); Mr. Grimwig's name has a clear connection with the word “grim”.●The massive employment of irony, besides, intensifies the idea of the tragicomic tone of the novel.

●Themes➔London: the setting of the novel is also one of the main themes, since it is the representation of the entire society, through the world of the workhouses, its insensible inhabitants and the microcosm of the criminal world, but also through the presentation of Victorian middle-class.

➔Poverty and social injustice: connected to London, we have the description of its poverty and its squalid conditions. Poverty is described in its vivid and plural manifestations (from the workhouses to the family died and buried of starvation in an early chapter).

➔Workhouses: it is a sub-theme connected with poverty. Here, the residents (as Oliver bears witness) suffer for starvation but also for abuses of any kind. The idea upon which the workhouses were founded was that poverty was the consequence of the laziness of the poor people and the dreadful conditions would inspire the poor to improve their own conditions. Yet, workhouses provided no means to alleviate poverty and but only abuses from the official individuals.

Hard Times (plot)BOOK THE FIRSTIn a squalid industrial town named Coketown, a rigid and dark-eyed headmaster, Mr.Thomas Gradgrind, has founded a school where his theoriesabout the importance of facts and statistics are taught, through the person of the teacher Mr. Choakumchild.Mr. Gradgrind's children, Louisa and Tom, are raised following the same theories and aren't allowed to have immaginative entertainment, butjust practical thoughts. A rich industrialist and banker, Mr. Bounderby, always visits Gradgrind's house and gives advice to his wife (a pallidand unlively woman who had a terrible childhood, sorrounded by drunkers and poor relatives) and to him: first of all, he suggests expellingSissy, whose family have a circus, from the school for her “bad” influence on Louisa. But Sissy has been left by her father and so, Mr. Gradgrind,sure that he could grow her with his own mentality, decides to adopt her, despite Bounderby's doubts.As time passes by, Sissy is bad at school and Mr. Gradgrind tries to convince her to look after his wife, whereas Tom works as an apprentice atBounderby's bank. Louisa would marry Bounderby soon. Even if a little puzzled to marry a much older man, at the end she accepts, also withthe influence of her brother.

BOOK THE SECONDA new character is introduced in the text: it's Mr. Harthouse, a wealthy and young man, who makes the acquaintance of the Bounderbies tospend his feelingless time. He speaks with Tom, who, drunk for the wine Mr. Harthouse has offered to him, tells the truth about their life:Louisa has married Mr. Bounderby just for his economic position and to allow her brother a career in his bank. This will bring Mr Harthouseto try to seduce her.Touched by the chasing of Stephen Blackpool (an honest worker with an ill wife) from Coketown because of his refuse to be Bounderby's spyin the union of workers, Tom decides to rob Bounderby's bank to help Stephen. The only suspect is Stephen who has been seen whilewandering outside the bank during the night before leaving Coketown.After understanding that Tom is guilty for the robbery, Louisa receives a letter that informs her that her mother is about to die. She immediatelycomes back to her parents' house to assist her and she realizes that her younger sister Jane looks happier than she was, with the influence ofSissy.In a wood, Louisa meets Mr. Harthouse who declares his love for her but she doesn't manifest her feeling for him. Then, she meets her fathertelling him that his education has ruined her life and collapses on the floor, while her father is desperate and self-reproaches.

Hard Times (plot part 2)BOOK THE THIRDAssisted by her father and Sissy, Louisa recovers but no longer returns at home. Sissy goes to Mr. Harthouse to tell him that she won't seehim again, so he leaves Coketown angrily. Bounderby, after the rage for Louisa's matter, blames Stephen for the robbery and looks for him.Rachel, Stephen's lover, tells him to come back to clear his position, but he won't, in spite of his reassurance. After some days, he is foundinto an old mining pit, death-injured. He dies seeing a bright star in the sky, while they try to rescue him. Then, no-one sees Tom, and Louisahas her suspect confirmed: Tom had robbed the bank, so he has escaped. He is intercepted, but, with the help of Sissy and her relativesof the circus, he succeeds in fleeing to Liverpool to set sail to America.

THE ENDThe final chapter of the novel is a sort of epilogue.➢Mr. Bounderby will die in 5 years in the streets of Coketown;➢Mr. Gradgrind will stop to search facts and will devote his life to➢faith and charity;➢Louisa will never marry again but will find relief on Sissy's➢numerous offspring;➢Tom will regret his ostility towards his sister but will die abroad;➢Sissy will live happily with an happy marriage and a lot of children➢ to whom she will teach her ideals of faith, charity and thoughts.

For further information:http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/hardtimes/https://www.shmoop.com/hard-times-dickens/summary.html

Hard Times (characters)

Mr.Gradgrind

He is the first character introduced in the story, described in his mechanizedand monotone attitude.In the first few chapters, he expounds his rational philosophy of self-interestthat has brought him financial and social success. He is the personificationof the spirit of Industrial Revolution, treating people as machines.However, in the course of the novel he realizes, through the unhappy life ofhis children, that his education system is not perfect, and with Louisa's help,he will become a wise man.

LouisaGradgrind

She is different from the other feminine characters, Rachel and Sissy, whoembody the Victorian traits of sensitivity and compassion. This is due to herfather's education, which represses her emotion and make her behavereasonably: she will marry Bounderby just for this reason.However, in the second part of the novel, though unfeeling, she is able todistinguish between right and wrong and, under Sissy's guidance, shestarts learning to express her feelings and starts to be charitable.

Mr.Bounderby

Josiah Bounderby represents the Society introduced by capitalism inits worst aspects. He pretends to be a self-made man, but he isn't, sincehis mother appears in the text and declares his decent and education asa middle class man. He is wealthy and represents the middle class whichhas got rich with capitalism and that has supplanted aristocracy(represented through the figure of Mrs. Sparsit, his servant). Depictinghim as hypocrite and selfish person, Dickens implies that Bounderby useshis power irresponsibly, creating inequalities between people.

Hard Times (characters part 2)

StephenBlackpool

Sissy Jupe

TomGradgrind

He represents the lower class, living in restrictions and poverty.He refuses to join the workers' union, thinking that strike is nota way to improve workers' situation (as Dickens thinks). Throughhis figure, Dickens wants to convey the idea that industrializationthreatens to compromise the employee's and the employer'sintegrity. His death must be considered as a martyr's death:after a life of costraint and suffering he is destined to a betterafterlife.

If we compare him to Lousa, he reacts to his father's stricteducation in a different way: he becomes hedonist, selfishand attracted to money to rob a bank and to encourage hissister to an unhappy marriage.In the end, he will redeem and after his escape to America,he will wish to see his sister again.

She embodies the typical Victorian femininity, bringing Louisa todiscover her own sensitiveness and feelings. Besides, sherepresents the creativity and wonderment of the circus, which isthe perfect counterpart of Mr. Gradgrind's philosphy. She will beone of the most important characters in the resolution of the plotand in the metamorphosis of Gradgrind and Louisa.

Hard Times (analysis)●The structure●The novel is divided in three sections and each book isdivided in three chapters:➢Book the First → SOWING: it shows the seeds planted by Gradgrind/Bounderby education;➢Book the Second → REAPING: it reveals the harvestingof the seed, like Louisa's unhappy marriage and Tom'scriminal ways;➢Book the Third → GARNERING: it gives the details and the end of the story.

●Dickens's goals1)Illustrating the dangers of allowing humans to become like machines, suggesting that without compassion and imagination, life would be unbearable: this is clear through the story of Louisa. In this context, fiction – which cannot be excluded from life – is represented through the circus and the character of Sissy.2)Another goal is a denouncement towards the capitalism's greed and the treating of the workers through the evil character of Bounderby. This also seems to claim the difference in morality between characters of dissimilar social status: people from lower classes seem naturally devoted to a more moral life.

●Themes➔The Mechanization of Human Beings. The adoption of industrialization menthality threatens to turn human beings into machines by compelling the development of their emotions and imaginations. This suggestion comes forth through the actions of Gradgrind and Bounderby: as the former educates the young children of his family and his school in the ways of fact, the latter treats the workers in his factory as emotionless objects that are easily exploited for his own self-interest. Consequently, their fantasies and feelings are dulled, and they become little machines that behave according to these rational rules.➔The Opposition Between Fact and Fancy. Hard Times not only suggests that fancy is as important as fact, but it continually calls into question the difference between fact and fancy. As a novelist, Dickens is naturally interested in illustrating that fiction cannot be excluded from a fact-filled, mechanical society.

➔The effects of social class on the morality of an individual. Stephen's honesty and Rachel's caring actions are qualities not shown in people from higher classes, but among hard working individuals who are exploited by the uncaring factory owners such as Bounderby.