The tone of Hard Times is witty and sympathetic. The narrator oscillates between a funnier, more satirical mode when discussing utilitarianism and its adherents (Bounderby, Gradgrind), and a more empathetic, even sentimental tone when discussing the victims of the ideology (Louisa, Sissy, Rachael, Stephen, etc.).
The narrator consistently mocks figures of authority. Consider how the book mocks Gradgrind’s ascension to the role of a Member of Parliament in Book 1, Chapter 14:
Time [...] made him Member of Parliament for Coketown: one of the respected members for ounce weights and measures, one of the representatives of the multiplication table, one of the deaf honorable gentlemen, dumb honorable gentlemen, blind honorable gentlemen [...] to every other consideration. Else wherefore live we in a Christian land, eighteen hundred and odd years after our Master?
The narration mocks the corrupt and hypocritical institution of the government, which is metaphorically deaf, dumb, and blind to anything other than facts and figures (“representatives of the multiplication table”). Presumably, the “weights,” “measures,” and figures are profit-based, given that the law in Dickens’s Coketown so heavily disenfranchises workers to the enrichment of the elite. The next line (“wherefore live we in a Christian land”) mimics the tone of a politician’s speech. The line points a finger at hypocritical claims to Christianity and moral superiority on the part of the upper classes, who live in comfort on the backs of working people.
One good example of the more sentimental turn the narrative takes when dealing with the powerless and marginalized is the passage describing Stephen’s death in Book 3, Chapter 3. After falling down the Old Hell Shaft, Stephen is found critically injured:
[...] finally the bucket with the two men holding on at the sides–a sight to make the head swim, and oppress the heart–and tenderly supporting between them, slung and tied within, the figure of a poor, crushed, human creature.
Stephen’s discovery and death, including a long, emotional monologue as he clasps Rachael’s hand, lasts several pages. The language in this description itself tells the reader how to feel about Stephen’s condition (it should “make the head swim” and “oppress the heart”), and emphasizes how a life of toil culminating in this tragic incident has rendered Stephen a “poor, crushed, human creature.” The system, represented here by the symbol of the Old Hell Shaft, has literally and spiritually crushed Stephen so that he no longer resembles a man, but merely a pitiable “creature” with human traits. The length and attention given to this scene, and to all scenes documenting how dehumanizing and destructive life in Coketown is, suggests the importance to the narratorof empathy and compassion with working people.
The tone of Hard Times is witty and sympathetic. The narrator oscillates between a funnier, more satirical mode when discussing utilitarianism and its adherents (Bounderby, Gradgrind), and a more empathetic, even sentimental tone when discussing the victims of the ideology (Louisa, Sissy, Rachael, Stephen, etc.).
The narrator consistently mocks figures of authority. Consider how the book mocks Gradgrind’s ascension to the role of a Member of Parliament in Book 1, Chapter 14:
Time [...] made him Member of Parliament for Coketown: one of the respected members for ounce weights and measures, one of the representatives of the multiplication table, one of the deaf honorable gentlemen, dumb honorable gentlemen, blind honorable gentlemen [...] to every other consideration. Else wherefore live we in a Christian land, eighteen hundred and odd years after our Master?
The narration mocks the corrupt and hypocritical institution of the government, which is metaphorically deaf, dumb, and blind to anything other than facts and figures (“representatives of the multiplication table”). Presumably, the “weights,” “measures,” and figures are profit-based, given that the law in Dickens’s Coketown so heavily disenfranchises workers to the enrichment of the elite. The next line (“wherefore live we in a Christian land”) mimics the tone of a politician’s speech. The line points a finger at hypocritical claims to Christianity and moral superiority on the part of the upper classes, who live in comfort on the backs of working people.
One good example of the more sentimental turn the narrative takes when dealing with the powerless and marginalized is the passage describing Stephen’s death in Book 3, Chapter 3. After falling down the Old Hell Shaft, Stephen is found critically injured:
[...] finally the bucket with the two men holding on at the sides–a sight to make the head swim, and oppress the heart–and tenderly supporting between them, slung and tied within, the figure of a poor, crushed, human creature.
Stephen’s discovery and death, including a long, emotional monologue as he clasps Rachael’s hand, lasts several pages. The language in this description itself tells the reader how to feel about Stephen’s condition (it should “make the head swim” and “oppress the heart”), and emphasizes how a life of toil culminating in this tragic incident has rendered Stephen a “poor, crushed, human creature.” The system, represented here by the symbol of the Old Hell Shaft, has literally and spiritually crushed Stephen so that he no longer resembles a man, but merely a pitiable “creature” with human traits. The length and attention given to this scene, and to all scenes documenting how dehumanizing and destructive life in Coketown is, suggests the importance to the narratorof empathy and compassion with working people.
