Coketown - 1972 Words

HARD TIMES ASSIGNMENT DISCUSS: Dickens’ Coketown is not a city, rather a stage for the workings out of Gradgrind’s philosophy. Considering the above sentence examine the construction of the city in Hard Times. Coketown is quite literally the ‘town of coke’, the raw material used to convert iron to steel and indirectly the foundation of the ‘steel/industrial revolution’. It is critical to analyze the name of the city for Dickens’ Hard Times is a satirical caricature on the condition of England in the 19th century. Dickens uses language as a powerful tool to put across his points or rather his ‘facts’. The inhabitants of Coketown have only one function, namely to work. Coketown is a city that feeds no needs besides what is useful there†¦show more content†¦At the beginning of the chapter the city is compared to Mrs. Gradgrind: [The city] had no greater fancy in it than Mrs. Gradgrind herself. While this imparts to the town the qualities of a living being, therefore turning it into something even more threatening, on the other hand it seems to highlight that Mrs. Gradgrind just like her husband degrades herself to something ugly and loath some because of the lack of imagination. Further Coketown is likened to savages, which shows that Coketown is alien to but contrariwise also part of the system: It was a town of unnatural red and black like the painted face of a savage. Coketown can be seen as a colony - a place that is exploited for the needs of the colonizers. The factories are the places where the labour of Coketown is subjugated. There tedious work is carried out; the machines are compared to elephants: the piston of theShow MoreRelated Comparing Brontes Wuthering Heights and Dickens Coketown1228 Words   |  5 PagesComparing Brontes Wuthering Heights and Dickens Coketown      Ã‚   Throughout British Literature, compositions created by honored literary artists reflect current dominant lifestyles. The differences in prevailing environments are visible when comparing Emily Brontes Withering Heights and Charles Dickens Coketown. Bronte reveals the wild unbinding freedom available though country living predominate in the late 17th and early 18th century, whereas Dickens explains the disheartening effects of industrializationRead More The Plot - Coketown is a grimy, smelly industrial town in northern1272 Words   |  6 PagesThe Plot - Coketown is a grimy, smelly industrial town in northern England, its houses and skies blackened by smoke from factory chimneys. One of its leading citizens is Thomas Gradgrind, future member of Parliament and governor of the local school. The Plot Coketown is a grimy, smelly industrial town in northern England, its houses and skies blackened by smoke from factory chimneys. One of its leading citizens is Thomas Gradgrind, future member of Parliament and governor of the localRead MoreThe Role of the Circus Folk in Hard Times by Charles Dickens1617 Words   |  7 PagesThe Role of the Circus Folk in Hard Times by Charles Dickens The role of the circus is both complex and simple it is in itself a contradiction; it has been placed within the novel to add another dimension to the story of Coketown but also to show how fragile human nature can be. 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The chosen theme from my interpretation above can be put into perspective with Charles Dickens’ novel Hard Times where he exposes Coketown to stand for the negative aspects of industrialism and the mechanization of human beings. In the description we see the monotonous work with the same work, pavements, hours etc. which results in mechanization of the workers and sometimes madnessRead MoreCharles Dickens Hard Times For These Times1074 Words   |  5 Pageswhat you are!† (16). This depriving childhood is not a childhood. Like a piece taken out of a train track, Gradgrind takes a vital piece out of his son and daughters’ lives, blinding them. However, all things fancy cannot be erased from the lives in Coketown. â₠¬Å"It is known, to the force of a single pound weight, what the engine will do, but not all the calculators of the National debt can tell me the capacity for good or evil, for love or hatred, for patriotism or discontent† (71). Dicken’s narration