Hard Times

1
Hard Times

• And the Battle Between Fact and Humanness
• You Shall Never Fancy.

2
The Industrial Revolution or Evolution

• Began in the mid-1700s and lasted until the
  mid-1800s.
• The Industrial Revolution or Evolution had a
  profound impact on England as a whole regardless
  of its speed.

3
The People That Fuelled IndustrializationThe
Hands

• The Revolution widened the gap between the
  Haves and Have-Nots through a system of
  unfair hiring practices, minimal wages, and no
  working-class representation in Parliament.

4
Hands Begin to Organize

• The early 1800s experienced the formation of
  unions. Mr. Slackbridge in Hard Times speaks out
  against Coketown because Bounderby claims he had
  a much harder life than the next and the Hands do
  not deserve luxuries that he was robbed of.

5
Jeremy Bentham, Mr. Thomas Gradgrind, and the
Philosophy of Utilitarianism

• Jeremy Bentham introduced the Principle of
  Utility which had a profound effect on the
  English government.
• Mr. Thomas Gradgrind in Hard Times embodied this
  philosophy. He used it in his personal life on a
  daily basis and also in his professional life as
  an educator and as a Member of Parliament.

6
Cecilia Jupe and Humanness

• Cecilia Jupe, or Sissy as she was intimately
  known in Hard Times, was Mr. Gradgrinds foilshe
  represented everything he worked to oppress,
  which was abstract notions such as imagination
  and emotion.
• Embodiment of humanness, which in the context of
  this novel is everything a human is that cannot
  be reduced to a simple fact.
• Sissy was the unlikely hero of the Gradgrind
  family her symbol in the novel was the only
  thing the Gradgrinds turned to at the end.

7
Mr. Josiah Bounderby of Coketown is Vanquished
(Oh Snap) , Well Almost

• The end of the novel reveals that Bounderby was
  not as hard-up as he claimed to have been. This
  disclosure unraveled his entire character (but
  not his power) because he prided himself as being
  the lad who pulled himself up by his bootstraps.
• Being a self-made man was often his justification
  for not compromising with the Handsif he had the
  strength to start in the gutter and end up as a
  lord of the smokestacks without any help, then
  why should he have mercy on his spoiled
  laborers?
• Personal integrity and ethics were not valued in
  Hard Times because caring was costly and time was
  money.

8

• ?Oh fantastical fortunes and whimsical
  fairiestheir paths happen upon each other more
  oft than one can recall in long times past. ?