Dickens' View of Change: Regarding Education and Industrialization - Essay Example

Dickens view of change: regarding education and industrialization Views of change Charles Dickens views of change regarding education and industrialization of his times are brilliantly described in his book, Hard Times. Here, he has used his characters as billboards to showcase and prove this point of view. Each character is a bit extreme in the book's plot, specifically meant to drive the point home. It does not allow the reader any space to entertain doubts regarding the message Dickens wanted to spell out regarding the society he was living in. Extreme contempt. He hated the hypocritical way the wealthy aristocracy imposed their attitude on those who were poor. And he hated the way the rigidity of the education system, which was robbing the children, their childhood and potential to grow into complete human beings. In some ways, 'Hard Times' if for Charles Dickens what 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' was for Harriet Beecher Stowe, an instrument to bring out the ugly reality in the open and display its weaknesses and evils. He has however, not given the reader any solutions. He was satisfied with the creation of a vivid expose, which not only demonstrated his disapproval and disdain towards the falsehood and double standards of the society but also highlighted the terrible consequences such trends caused. Dickens feels that the society's obsession with wealth is above moral principles, above spiritualism, above everything else; this by itself spells doom for humanity itself. The industrialization where workers are exploited and de-humanized combined with the narrowness of the education system creates a stifling and decadent society, overall. Dickens wants the readers to first recognize the evils that the industrialization and rigid education system throw up; for this he very strongly contrasts his characters that represent each faction. The negative people are Mr Gradgrind who is a man obsessed with facts and does not tolerate sentiments and 'wonder' and his school is strictly based on facts and statistical deduction; Mr Bounderby who is a self-made made rich man with no principles or moral scruples and only one aim, i.e. creating more wealth. They represent the obsolete education system and the wealthy aristocracy on whose shoulders a decaying society rests. The good people are Louisa Gradgrind, Sissy, Stephen and Rachel; however, each is helpless to fight or influence the evils of the society. Each is trying to cope and fails. It is evident that Dickens wants the reader to understand that without the heart tempering it any ongoing process is a lost cause. Dickens uses even the backdrop of the book to sustain his statement. He has drawn the picture of the industrial town, in an ugly gray color, representing not only the pollution, but also the depressed state of the people working therein: In the hardest working part of Coketown; in the innermost fortifications of that ugly citadel, where Nature was as strongly bricked out as killing airs and gases were bricked in; at the heart of the labyrinth of narrow courts upon courts, and close streets upon streets, which had come into existence piecemeal, every piece in a violent hurry for some one man's purpose, and the whole an unnatural family, shouldering, and trampling, and pressing one another to death; in the last close nook of this great exhausted receiver, where the chimneys, for want of air to make a draught, were built in an immense variety of stunted and crooked shapes, as though every house put out a sign of the kind of people who might be expected to be born in it; among the multitude of Coketown, generically called 'the Hands,' - a race who would have found more favour with some people, if Providence had seen fit to make them only hands, or, like the lower creatures of the seashore, only hands and stomachs (Book 1,Chapter 10) 2. Education: The education system as described by Dickens in the book, is highly inadequate for nurturing and promoting the growth of a complete and confident individual. It is rather a system, which stunts mental growth by narrowing its confines only to hard facts and statistics, excluding their context, application and implications. It forbids the children to use their most powerful tools, their imagination, inquisitiveness for processes that went behind and beyond the hard facts and curiosity to ask why, what, and how. Dickens aptly proves his point in the conversation between Louisa and her father, When she was half a dozen years younger, Louisa had been overheard to begin a conversation with her brother one day, by saying 'Tom, I wonder' - upon which Mr. Gradgrind, who was the person overhearing, stepped forth into the light and said, 'Louisa, never wonder!' (Book 1, Chapter 8) And then, reinforces it with explanation, as well as the boast of an educator saying that he was able to block the imagination of a child completely: Herein lay the spring of the mechanical art and mystery of educating the reason without stooping to the cultivation of the sentiments and affections. Never wonder. By means of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, settle everything somehow, and never wonder. Bring to me, says M'Choakumchild, yonder baby just able to walk, and I will engage that it shall never wonder. Dickens believes that the exclusive focus of the education system on facts and figures actually stunted the emotional and mental development of the children. 3. Industrialization Dickens shows open contempt for the industrial towns and their culture. He is very empathic towards the workers live in extreme unsanitary conditions, under poverty and neglect. The dehumanization of the workers in evident from the term he uses for them in the book, "'the Hands,' - a race who would have found more favour with some people, if Providence had seen fit to make them only hands, or, like the lower creatures of the seashore, only hands and stomachs" Also aptly highlighted by Dickens is the great gap between the wealthy and worker classes. The workers are projected as beings who cannot have any ambition for a better life, or hope for emotional satisfaction. Mr Bounderby, who is the epitome of all negativity of the aristocratic class, represents what the wealthy would think of the expectations of 'a hand', 'Now, you know,' said Mr. Bounderby, taking some sherry, 'we have never had any difficulty with you, and you have never been one of the unreasonable ones. You don't expect to be set up in a coach and six, and to be fed on turtle soup and venison, with a gold spoon, as a good many of 'em do!' Mr. Bounderby always represented this to be the sole, immediate, and direct object of any Hand who was not entirely satisfied; It is obvious that Dickens is appalled at the condition of the factory workers. He finds their exploitation disgraceful. However, Dickens does not endorse the unions either. He points towards a society where the higher and lower classes are more seamless, but he does not really show the way to reach such a state. Dickens clearly ties up the lopsided education system to the marginalized way of thinking of the wealthy. The fact that people were trained to think of nothing but self-gratification based on statistics and practical data, makes them unable to emote and take good decisions. The contempt and exploitation by one class for the other is promoted here by the appalling education system. Industrialization per se does not come out as a bad idea; however the exploitation and lack of feelings towards the industrial workers, their neglect and misery is heavily condemned. To sum up, Dickens criticizes heavily both the education system and the heartlessness of the industrialization of his times. He proves through the evolution of his characters that teaching which are based on only "fact, fact, fact" are ineffective and actually spell doom both at personal and professional levels of the individuals thus trained. References: Dickens, Charles "The Hard Times" Read More