Analysis of Dickenss Hard Times - Essay Example

  English Literature ic and Modern)  Jan. 21, Essay about Dickens’s Hard Times Hard Times written by Charles Dickens is published in 1854. The book is about the English society and it highlights about the social and economic problems of the times. Hard times as the name denotes depicts the life of the struggle of many individuals and how these struggles changed them  from the person they used to be. All the characters in the novel go through a difficult time and all the characters have a surprisingly complex character foundation. The characterization of each and every character is given a realistic foundation and these characters think and react to their struggling situations as most of us would. All these attributes of characterization gives the character a life and it allows us (the reader) to relate to their life struggles, triumphs and decisions. Most of the characters in the novel exemplify a realistic quality and each of them represents a different social division. There are several characters in Hard Times, who, as a result of unexpected revelations, undergo dramatic changes in the way they are perceived by other characters and by the audience. These dramatic changes are influenced by their life experiences, hardships and their environment. One of the characters which stand out in the novel is Josiah Bounderby who is bound by his past life and because of these revelations and he undergoes dramatic changes in the way he is perceived by other characters and by the audience.     Josiah Bounderby is one of the central characters “Hard Times” and is a two dimensional character. He is a business associate of Mr. Gradgrind. He is married to Mr. Gradgrinds daughter Louisa who is 30 years his junior and their marriage turns out to be a loveless marriage devoid of love and understanding between the two. He is a wealthy merchant, banker and a businessman. He is full of himself and is completely devoid of human feelings. He is a big loud man who brags about himself and gives frequent lectures about the difficulties and poverty he faced growing up. He also often brags about the fact that he is a self made man. He is reluctant to change and is not repentant for any of the lies that he has told to anyone in the past. Even though he is a self man he brings destruction upon himself through his lies. His tale of unhappiness through his love marriage, his childhood and his embarrassing death in a public place stem from the way he choose to live his life doubled with the harsh system of training and Utilitarianism. Josiah Bounderby spends his time giving lectures to other people about life, boasting about being a self – made man. He employs many of the central characters of the novel and claims that he hails from a humble origin to a position of power and wealth. He is a callous, self centered man who frequently introduced himself to others, “I am Josiah Bounderby of Coke town” (Dickens 22). He takes pride in himself for being a self made man and his introduction to other often prefaces the heartbreaking story of his childhood poverty and hardships. He portrays himself as a man of determination and disciples from a humble origin to impress others. Dickens’s portrays Bounderby as a greedy, egoistic individual. He represents everything that is wrong in the Victorian society. He does not give an insight into the crafter of a new industrial age, but takes advantage of the suffering and hardships of the time. To make him looks like a self made, he often cooks up stories about his childhood, “‘my mother left me to my grandmother,’ said Bounderby; ‘and, according to the best of my remembrance, my grandmother was the wickedest and the worst old woman that ever lived. If I got a little pair of shoes by any chance, she would take ’em off and sell ’em for drink. Why, I have known that grandmother of mine lie in her bed and drink her four-teen glasses of liquor before breakfast!’” (Dickens 21). This attitude of Bounderby represents the social changes during the Victorian age which is characterized by industrialization and capitalism. In an industrialized, capitalist society, birth and bloodline no longer determined the social hierarchy but, wealth determines a person who holds power in the society. Due to this change of society, he takes great pleasure in the fact that he perceived himself as a self made man. He also takes great delight in the fact that Mrs. Sparsit has become his servant. He does not want to reveal himself to the other characters about his real life situation. He uses his wealth and power irresponsibly and this results in the muddle of relationship between the rich and the poor. Bounderby becomes rich at the expense of others through his impressive stories about his hardships and even describes himself ‘as a maggot in a nut’. He does not understand the human nature and fails to bond with anyone in the novel. He also thinks that all the workers are lazy people who want to live a life of luxury without working. He is completely devoid of human feelings and fails to understand human compassion.                   Mr. Bounderby portrays himself as a “self made man” and often tells the stories of how he was born in a ditch and how he spends the first ten years of his life living as a vagabond. “His pride in having at any time of his life achieved such a great social distinction as to be a nuisance, an incumbrance, and a pest, was only to be satisfied by three sonorous repetitions of the boast” (Dickens 16). He is a selfish person and even ditched his own mother and made her pretend that she is nor his mother. He does not want anyone to know about his true past and do everything in his power to keep his past as a secret. He maintains that he fought is way up to the position that he is holding and “I was determined, I suppose. I have been a determined character in later life and I suppose I was then. Here I am Mrs. Gradgrind, anyhow, and nobody to thank for my being here, but myself” (Dickens 15). Everyone takes his words and admire him for being in a position that he holds despite all his hardships in life. But, his tales about his hardships and his lies are uncovered by his mother Mrs. Pegler. She tells her side of the story and reveals the truth about his son. She did not abandon his own son nor did he work his way up from obscurity. The truth about his past life greatly affect the way his peers looked at him as he can no longer have the status that he enjoys. He lose the admiration of his peers  as his stories about fighting the way up from a ditch makes people admire and respect him as a determined man. He tries fervently to uphold his image, but when his mother reveals the truth about his upbringing, it destroys him. One of the many reasons why he lied about his upbringing is because it gives him the advantage over his workers. As a self –made man, he can berate his workers when they complain about the conditions in his factory. But, when he loses his power as a hard working, self made man, he loses control of his workers as he can no longer berate them the way he used to. This makes him more vulnerable to other characters as proves himself to be a liar and a coward who is ashamed of who he really is. “Bounderby is living proof of the discountinuity of the other apostles of great expectations in Hard Times, Bounderby is totally exposed in the eyes of the reader, who may well leave the novel with a renewed sense that the future need not be permitted to undermine the rights of the present – and must not be thought separate from the present” (Marlow 110).             Bounderby is exposed as a liar and a hypocrite by his own mother. After the revelation of the truth about his life, he loses his grip in life and he went down from being a proud arrogant man to a lonely man. The truth turns his life upside down as everyone turns against him. Five years later, he dies alone in the streets of Coke town with no one to take care of him. It seems like a complete irony when he dies on the street as he always lies about his origin. His hypocrisy is also revealed to the other characters when his true identity comes out of the closet. Josiah Bounderby is bound by his past life and because of these revelations and he undergoes dramatic changes in the way he is perceived by other characters and by the audience. He cannot reclaim the same position that used to hold when people took his word to bible. It completely ruined his reliability and his image. In other words, “the exposure of Bounderby displays the utilitarian convictions destructed” (Dickens) of the Victorian age. Work Cited Dickens, Charles. Hard Times. Forgotten Books. 1854. Web. 22 Jan. 2012. Dickens, Charles. Hard Times. Accessible Publishing Systems PTY, Ltd. 2008. Web. 22 Jan. 2012. Marlow, James E. Charles Dickens The Use of Time. Associated University of Presses, Inc. 1994. Web. 21 Jan. 2012. Read More