Leggere. Hard Times. Charles Dickens. carla aira

Transcription

1 Leggere Hard Times Charles Dickens carla aira

2 The Victorian Period Historical Background Queen Victoria, daughter of the Duke of Kent ( ) came to the throne of England at the age of eighteen (1837) and succeeded in restoring the image of the monarchy with her wisdom, gaining the respect of her subjects with her private life - an adored husband, Prince Albert, and nine children. Her pattern of life was ruled by sobriety and hard work, in a word, by " respectability". As a consequence the Victorian Period was based more on exteriority than on spiritual values, on conformism and, often, on hypocrisy. As to political and social life, England lived a period full of changes and extensions in every field. Queen Victoria died in Her son Edward came to the English throne trying to follow his mother s steps. Social Achievements - The Parliament had to face the problems of the workers with a series of Acts (The Factory Act, The Ten Hours' Act; The Mines Act; The Public Health Act) to improve the working conditions, limit the hours of work and the exploitation of the children and women. In 1884 the Third Reform Bill enlarged the suffrage to all male workers. Foreign Policy Ireland found his leader In C. Parnell that demanded the Home Rule in 1880, but it was not approved till after the First World War In 1887 Queen Victoria became Empress of India and the Empire enlarged its dominions to Australia, New Zealand, Ceylon, Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong, Gibraltar, Malta, Cyprus and parts of Africa. In the Boer War burst out in Orange and Transval In the dispute on the borders between Russia and Turkey originated the Crimean War, during which Florence Nightingale founded the Red Cross. Literary Background Under the reign of Queen Victoria, literature developed thanks to the improved ways of communication and a new printing system; it became a means to confute ideas and reveal thoughts. This period can be divided into three stages Early Victorians Fiction: the writers identified themselves with their own age; they wrote long books published in serial installments and structured every episode as a plot. They tried to attract the masses with suspense and the appeal to the sensational. Their motto was to make them (the readers) wait, cry and laugh. Main authors: C. Dickens ; W. Thackerey; The Brontë Sisters. Poetry: The poets at first followed the Romantic way of writing, but soon they reflected a sense of uneasiness. They developed the Dramatic Monologue in which a persona reveals his thoughts and feeling unconsciously to a silent listener. Main authors: Lord A. Tennyson and R. Browning. Mid Victorians (or Anti Victorian Reaction) Fiction: a sense of dissatisfaction and rebellion, caused by new scientific and philosophic theories (Darwin's Origin of the Species) pervades this period. The realism of the works mirrors the clash between man and environment, illusion and reality, leading to Naturalism: man is no longer responsible for his actions since they are

3 determined by forces beyond his control. The writer's task is to record events objectively, without comments. Main Authors: George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans ) and Thomas Hardy. Poetry: The writers followed J. Ruskin's theories ( ) against the massification and the materialism of the society; The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood proclaimed a return to simplicity and nature as an escape from this world, idealizing and beautifying the reality. Main authors: D. G. Rossetti and his sister Cristina. Late Victorians Fiction: The writers searched for an escape "travelling" in their self and putting in evidence the contrasts between classes and races and the contradictions of colonialism. Aestheticism brought to the extreme every attempt to escape from the real world supplying a way to avoid frustrations and uncertainties, reacting against Utilitarianism and moral restrictions, and breaking the social conventions by means of free imagination. Main authors: R. L. Stevenson (wrote about the duality of man); R. Kipling (dealt with the problem of colonialism) and O. Wilde (was the mouthpiece of Aestheticism) Poetry: Aestheticism was fervent among the poets followers of the Rossettis, but the most original voice was the one of an isolated poet, G. M. Hopkins, who combined lyric passion with his true religious faith and used a musical and sensuous language, identifying matter and form. Drama: The stage had suffered a long period of sterility due to the lack of new ideas and to the audience's requests. The public, in fact, demanded amusing comedies, great effects and famous stars. The rebirth of the 1890s occurred thanks to the influence of French and Russian playwrights that focused their attention on the psychological study of the characters, in particular, of women. From Norway, instead, came the new form of drama written by H. Ibsen that analyzed the social world and used the retrospective method. Main authors: O. Wilde and G. B. Shaw.

4 Charles Dickens ( ) - life and works Charles Dickens was born at Landport, Hampshire. His father is a clerk in the Navy Pay Officer at Portsmouth. The family soon moves to live in London. Charles is unusually precocious child His father debts become urgent and the family has to economise Charles is going to school, but when his father is imprisoned the child has to earn his living in a blacking factory working from morning till night. In 1824 he goes back to school because family affairs seem to improve, but soon decides to go to work in a lawyer s office. Then he begins to work as a parliamentary reporter He publishes Dinner at poplar Walk and starts writing for the Monthly Magazine He publishes Sketches by Boz and joins the staff of the Morning Chronicle, a daily newspaper with a high reputation. In the same year the publishers Chapman and Hall commission him a text to be published monthly. Dickens writes the first instalment of Pickwick Papers. He marries Catherine Hoggard, the daughter of his editor Oliver Twist appears Nicholas Nickleby is published: it is about cruelties on children He publishes Barnaby Rudge, an historical novel on crimes and violence and The Old Curiosity Shop Dickens goes to America. When he returns he publishes American Notes the writer begins a series of Christmas Books with A Christmas Carol (till 1848) Martin Chuzzlewit is published. (1844). It is about slavery and materialism. Dickens spends most of his time abroad, in Italy and France He publishes Pictures from Italy The novel Dombey and Son appears. He publishes the first instalment of David Copperfield, an autobiographical work Bleak House is published. It is a novel of social criticism. He starts helping the Italian refugees The author writes Hard Times, A tale of Two Cities, Little Dorrit, Great Expectations and Our Mutual Friend. All of these novels are pervaded by a sense of depression and stress. Dickens in this same period stars suffering from lameness that is the first sign of the paralysis. His nervous strain becomes excessive and he never recovers from the shock of a railway accident. However, he goes on travelling to Paris and America, giving lectures on his works Dickens attempts his first mystery story, Edwin Drood, but collapses and does not finish it the writer dies and is buried in Poet s Corner, Westminster Abbey.

5 Hard Times (1854) Plot Thomas Gradgrind, a wealthy, retired merchant in the industrial city of Coketown, England, devotes his life to a philosophy of rationalism, self-interest, and fact. He educates his oldest children, Louisa and Tom, according to this philosophy and never allows them to entertainment. He founds a school and charitably takes in one as a student, the kind and imaginative Sissy Jupe, after the disappearance of her father, a circus entertainer. As the Gradgrind children grow older, Tom becomes a dissipated, self-interested boy, and Louisa struggles with deep inner confusion, feeling as though she is missing something important in her life. Louisa marries Gradgrind s friend Josiah Bounderby, a wealthy factory owner and banker much older than her age. Bounderby continually boasts his role as a self-made man abandoned by his mother as an infant. Tom is apprenticed at the Bounderby bank, and Sissy remains at the Gradgrind s home to care for the younger children. In the meantime, an impoverished Hand (term used to define the lowest laborers in Coketown s factories), Stephen Blackpool struggles with his love for Rachael, another poor factory worke r. He is unable to marry her because he is already married to a horrible, drunken woman who disappears for months and even years at a time. Stephen visits Bounderby to ask about a divorce but learns that only rich people can obtain them. Outside Bounderby s home, he meets Mrs. Pegler, a strange old woman with a mysterious devotion to Bounderby. James Harthouse, a wealthy young sophisticate from London, arrives in Coketown to begin a political career as a disciple of Gradgrind, who is now a Member of Parliament. He immediately takes an interest in Louisa and decides to seduce her helped by Mrs. Sparsit, a fallen aristocrat who works for Bounderby. The Hands, exhorted by a union spokesman named Slackbridge, try to form a union. Only Stephen refuses to join because he feels that a union strike would only increase tensions between employers and employees. He is sent away both by the other Hands and by Bounderby because Stephen refuses to spy on them. Louisa, impressed with Stephen s integrity, visits him before he leaves Coketown and helps him with some money. Tom accompanies her and tells Stephen that if he waits outside the bank for several consecutive nights, he will help him. Stephen does so, but no help arrives, so he decides to leave Coketown, hoping to find agricultural work in the country. Not long after that, the bank is robbed, and Stephen is suspected. Mrs. Sparsit sees Harthouse declaring his love for Louisa, and Louisa agrees to meet him in Coketown later that night. However, Louisa instead goes to her father s house, where she miserably confides to Gradgrind that she is married to a man she does not love. She collapses to the floor, and Gradgrind begins to realize the imperfections in his philosophy of rational self-interest. Sissy, who loves Louisa deeply, visits Harthouse and convinces him to leave Coketown forever. Bounderby, furious that his wife has left him, makes every effort to capture Stephen. When Stephen tries to return to clear his good name, he falls into a mining hole called Old Hell Shaft. Rachael and Louisa discover him, but he soon dies. Gradgrind and Louisa realize that Tom is really responsible for the bank robbery, and help him to leave England with the circus performers. They are nearly successful, but are stopped by Bitzer, a young man who went to Gradgrind s school and who embodies all the qualities of the rationalism that Gradgrind once taught him. However, Tom escapes from England after all. Mrs. Sparsit, anxious to help Bounderby find the robbers, introduces Mrs. Pegler, a kn own associate of Stephen Blackpool, to Bounderby, thinking Mrs. Pegler is a potential witness. Mrs. Pegler is really Bounderby s loving mother, whom he had abandoned. Five years later, he will die alone in the streets of Coketown. Gradgrind gives up his philosophy of fact and devotes his political power to help the poor. Tom realizes the error of his ways but dies without ever seeing his family again. While Sissy marries and has a large and loving family, Louisa will never again marry and will have no children, but will be loved by Sissy s family.

6 Sources Socio-historical sources Dickens wrote at a time of intense change in London and this change can be seen in the progress of his novels. His descriptions of nineteenth century London permit the reader s to experience the sights, sounds, and smells of the old city. Victorian London was the largest, most spectacular city in the world. While Britain was experiencing the Industrial Revolution, its capital was both collecting the benefits and suffering the consequences. In 1800 the population of London was around a million souls and increased to 4.5 million by Perhaps the biggest impact on the growth of London was the coming of the railroad in the 1830s which dislocated thousands and accelerated the expansion of the city. The price of this explosive growth and domination of world trade was great squalor and filth. Houses - The houses of the upper and middle class were built near areas of unbelievable poverty and rich and poor lived together in the crowded city streets. The chimney pots were polluting with coal smoke and in many parts of the city raw dirt flowed into the Thames. Pickpockets, prostitutes, drunks, beggars, and vagabonds of every description add to the colorful multitude. Sanitary conditions - Personal cleanliness was not a big priority. Until the second half of the 19th century London residents were still drinking water from the Thames. Several outbreaks of Cholera in the mid 19th century, along with The Great Stink of 1858, when the disgusting odor of the Thames caused Parliament to stop, brought a cry for action. The link between drinking water and the incidence of disease slowly oppressed the Victorians. The law - The Metropolitan Police, London's first police force, was created by Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel (hence the name Peelers and, eventually, Bobbies) in 1829 with headquarters in what would become known as Scotland Yard. The old London watch system, in effect since Elizabethan times, was then abolished. The Poor - In 1834 the parliament enacted the New Poor Law. The new law required parishes to group together and create regional workhouses where assistance could be applied for. The workhouse was little more than a prison for the poor. Civil liberties were denied, families were separated, and human dignity was destroyed. Autobiographical sources Dickens, because of the childhood trauma caused by his father's imprisonment for debt and his consignment to the blacking factory to help support his family, was a true champion to the poor. He repeatedly pointed out the atrocities of the system through his novels. Setting Coketown - Dickens is, under the influence of Carlyle, an enemy of Victorian utilitarianism, he rejects the principles on which an industrial society is based: money and individualism. In Hard Times Dickens describes an industrial town Coketown as an expression of the capitalistic system: its colours are unnatural and artificial - like the painted face of a savage-; from the waters of the river come a terrible stink caused by industrial refuses; the machineries and the chimneys produce a awful noise and the movement of the piston of a steam engine is compared with the movement of the head of an elephant in a sort of madness. Dickens introduces an idea of alienation: man is identified with the product and even with the machine that produces this; the machine causes a lack of identity. Dickens shows how the system determines the life of people and criticizes the alienation caused by mass production: persons go out and in at the same hours, they do the same work and for them every day is the same as the last and the next.

7 Characters Thomas Gradgrind - A wealthy, retired merchant in Coketown, England, later a Member of Parliament. Mr. Gradgrind supports a philosophy of rationalism, self-interest, and cold, hard fact. He describes himself as an eminently practical man, and he tries to raise his children Louisa, Tom, Jane, Adam Smith, and Malthus to be equally practical, preventing them from developing their imaginations and emotions. Louisa - Gradgrind s daughter, later Bounderby s wife. Louisa feels disconnected from her emotions and alienated from other people. Louisa vaguely recognizes the failure of her father s system of education, but she cannot actively invoke her emotions or connect with others. She marries Bounderby to please her father, even though she does not love her husband. Indeed, the only person she loves completely is her brother Tom. Thomas Gradgrind, Jr [Tom] - Gradgrind s eldest son, then apprentice at Bounderby s bank, Tom reacts to his strict upbringing and becomes a dissipated and egoist young man. Although he appreciates his sister s affection, Tom cannot return it entirely he loves money and gambling even more than he loves Louisa. Josiah Bounderby - Gradgrind s friend, later Louisa s husband., Bounderby is always speaking about his sad childhood and his ability as a self made man: he has become a banker and factory owner in Coketown, rich and powerful. In reality, he was grown up by devoted parents: Dickens wants to call into question the notion of social mobility in nineteenthcentury England. Cecelia Jupe - The daughter of a clown in Sleary s circus. Sissy is taken in by Gradgrind when her father disappears. Sissy is the opposite of Louisa: while Sissy is imaginative and compassionate, Louisa is rational and, for the most part, unfeeling. Sissy embodies the Victorian femininity that counterbalances mechanization and industry. Through Sissy s interaction with her, Louisa is able to explore her more sensitive, feminine sides. Mrs. Sparsit - Bounderby s housekeeper, who goes to live at the bank apartments when Bounderby marries Louisa. Once a member of the aristocratic elite, Mrs. Sparsit is a selfish, and dishonest woman, who tries to ruin Bounderby s marriage to marry him herself. Mrs. Sparsit s aristocratic background is emphasized by the narrator s frequent allusions to her Roman and Coriolanian appearance. Stephen Blackpool - A Hand in Bounderby s factory, Stephen loves Rachael but is unable to marry her because he is already married to a horrible, drunken woman. A man of great honesty, compassion, and integrity, Stephen maintains his moral ideals which are similar to those approved by the narrator. Rachael - A simple, honest Hand, Rachel loves Stephen Blackpool and represents domestic happiness and moral purity. James Harthouse - A sophisticated and manipulative young London gentleman, he comes to Coketown to enter politics as a disciple of Gradgrind, simply because he thinks it might alleviate his boredom. In his constant search for a new form of amusement, Harthouse quickly becomes attracted to Louisa and resolves to seduce her. Mr. Sleary - The proprietor of the circus where Sissy s father was an entertainer, he hides Tom Gradgrind and helps him flee the country. Mr. Sleary and his troop of entertainers value laughter and fantasy whereas Mr. Gradgrind values rationality and fact.

8 Bitzer - Bitzer is one of the successes produced by Gradgrind s rationalistic system of education. Initially a bully at Gradgrind s school, Bitzer later becomes an employee and a spy at Bounderby s bank. Bitzer almost stops Tom from fleeing after it is discovered that Tom is the true bank robber. Mr. McChoakumchild - The unpleasant teacher at Gradgrind s school. As his name suggests, McChoakumchild is not fond of children, and suffocates their imaginations and feelings. Mrs. Pegler - Bounderby s mother, she makes an annual visit to Coketown to admire her son s prosperity from a safe distance. Mrs. Pegler s appearance uncovers Bounderby s fraud. Mrs. Gradgrind - Gradgrind s weak wife, who constantly tells her children to study their ologies and complains that she ll never hear the end of any complaint. Although Mrs. Gradgrind does not share her husband s interest in facts, she lacks the energy and the imagination to oppose his system of education. Commentary Dickens s main aim in Hard Times is to show the dangers of mechanization, suggesting that without compassion and imagination, life would be unbearable. Hard Times suggests that nineteenth-century England s adoption of industrialization threatens to turn human beings into machines by limiting the development of their emotions and imaginations. Mr. Gradgrind believes that human nature can be measured, quantified, and governed entirely by rational rules and his school attempts to turn children into little machines whose fantasies and feelings are dulled. Dickens underlines the importance of fancy and continually calls into question the difference between fact and fancy. Also women are re-valued: Dickens suggests that as women possess compassion, moral purity, and emotional sensitivity, they can counteract the mechanizing effects of industrialization. Besides the author contrasts mechanical or man-made time the clock in Mr. Gradgrind s study - with natural time, or the passing of the seasons - three titles of the books are Sowing, Reaping, and Garnering and allude to agricultural labor and to the processes of planting and harvesting in accordance with the changes of the seasons. C. Dickens uses symbols to better underline his points of view. The staircase represents Louisa who is going to ruin her reputation forever. The Pegasus Arms is the name of the local inn and the mythological winged horse Pegasus represents a world of fantasy and beauty from which the young Gradgrind children are excluded. The smoke serpents which come out of the factory chimneys are the effects of industrialization and represent the moral blindness of factory owners like Bounderby: the smoke becomes a screen that prevents from noticing the workers miserable poverty. Fire is thus both a destructive and a life-giving force; it is the fire of passion of Louisa s secret fantasies and it is the fire that keeps the factories running, providing heat and power for the machines. Adaptations 1915 film directed by Thomas Bentley 1994 TV series Notes Thomas Carlyle ( ) Scottish philosopher, essayist and historian whose works mirror the scientific and technical changes which threaten the Victorian idea of order and the disillusion due to the social conflicts of the period. Utilitarianism philosophy theorized by Jeremy in the XVIII century based on the idea that all that is useful is satisfactory and gives pleasure, reducing pain.