HT:Question

Because Mrs. Sparsit’s metaphorical staircase most likely represents societal accomplishment and we’ve seen Louisa “fall” from it, is it possible Dickens wants to prove that in society during this time period often times the villains would triumph over the good? If this is true, was this triumph for the bad hearted only a result of how harsh the social expectations in Coketown were?

HT:Analysis

Throughout both book one and book two the audience gets to know Mrs. Sparsit and her unrelenting nature to make her hierarchy known. It is ironic in itself that Mrs. Sparsit comes from a wealthy aristocratic family but finds herself working as a housekeeper for somebody else because of the hard times. However, as book two continues we see her grow to have feelings for Mr. Bounderby and resent Louisa because of her relationship with Hearthouse. In book two, chapter ten, Mrs. Sparsit’s staircase, we see Dickens satirizing greed and snobbery through Mrs. Sparsit’s detestation towards Louisa described through a metaphorical staircase in which she sees Louisa traveling downwards on and eventually falling off. “Much watching of Louisa, and much consequent observation of her impenetrable demeanor, which keenly wetted and sharpened Mrs. Sparsit’s edge”(195) This wetting and sharpening of Mrs. Sparsit’s edge only further proves her distain and envy towards Louisa and her “impenetrable demeanor” Mrs. Sparsit goes on, “She erected in her mind a mighty staircase, with a dark pit of shame and ruin at the bottom, and down those stairs, from day to day, hour to hour, she saw Louisa coming. It became the business of Mrs. Sparsit’s life, to look up at her staircase, and to watch Louisa coming down.” (196) Dickens uses Mrs. Sparsit’s jealousy of Louisa, a girl who is technically socially below the significant family Mrs. Sparsit comes from, to comment on the greed developed by her throughout book two. “to look up at her staircase, and to watch Louisa coming down.” The fact that the metaphorical staircase was referred to as “hers”, belonging to Mrs. Sparsit, this only proves that she wants the life Louisa is living for herself so she is consequently watching, you could even say enjoying, Louisa’s downfall from her societal place. Chapter ten concludes with this passage, “Hushed in expectancy, she kept her wary gaze upon the stairs; and seldom so much as darkly shook her right mitten (with her fist in it), at the figure coming down.”(199) To solidify the satirical commentary Dickens is making he ends the passage with a final moment of Mrs. Sparsit, a supposedly high class woman, waiting for Louisa to fall from her social rankings only to act with greed and out of envy so she can take Louisa’s place.

HT:Appreciation

 Nor could any such spectator fail to know in his own breast, that these men, through their very delusions, showed great qualities, susceptible of being turned to the happiest and best account; and that to pretend (on the strength of sweeping axioms, howsoever cut and dried) that they went astray wholly without cause, and of their own irrational wills, was to pretend that there could be smoke without fire, death without birth, harvest without seed, anything or everything produced from nothing(138)

HT: Appreciation

There was an air of jaded sullenness in them both, and particularly in the girl: yet, struggling through the dissatisfaction of her face, there was a light with nothing to rest upon, a fire with nothing to burn, a starved imagination keeping life in itself somehow, which brightened its expression. Not with the brightness natural to cheerful youth, but with uncertain, eager, doubtful flashes, which had something painful in them, analogous to the changes on a blind face groping its way. She was a child now, of fifteen or sixteen; but at no distant day would seem to become a woman all at once. (19)

HT:Qustion

How does Dickens use Bounderby's character to criticize the society? What does he represent and what does the final revelation of his true upbringing reveal about Dickens' critique?

HT:Reference

The Importance of Being Earnest not only shares the purpose of satirizing Victorian Era life, but it also shares common thematic messages. In Importance, Wilde explores marriage and society’s pressures regarding marriage. Gwendelon’s courtship, or at least the advice given to her by Lady Bracknell who reflects the societal beliefs at the time,  parallels Louisa’s marriage to Bounderby. Marriage here is used as a vehicle for social mobility which is a trend seen in Importance. Louisa finds herself pressured to marry Bounderby by Tom and her father who are motivated both by Bounderby’s wealth and nature. Importance also satirizes the Victorian Era’s strict societal code of behavior. This is similar to Hard Times’s commentary on a fact-driven society, void of fancy in that both societal codes promote strict societal adherence which is demonstrated in the pronounced segmentation of social classes in Hard Times.

HT:Analysis

In Hard Times, great lengths are taken to portray dreary Coketown as dark, colorless, and as lifeless as possible.  This pattern extends to the inhabitants of Coketown, whose very life seems to be drained from them, leaving only pale and “imminently practical” population. In line with this universal pattern in the text, any mention of appearance is accompanied by the colorlessness of their complexion. However, Dickens breaks this pattern in chapter nine of the second book (187-194) where Louisa finally returns to her childhood home to be at her mother’s deathbed.  The news is brought to Louisa by Bitzer who is only described as the pale boy and who—without any imagination—defined a horse in the first book.  Bitzer is the prime example of the threat that Dickens believes accompanies the utilitarianism seen in Coketown—mindless unthinking and lifeless individuals—and is comparable to the sickliness that seemed to continually drain the colorless dying Mrs. Gradgrind.  While the bleak monotony is present throughout the text, it is particularly poignant in this scene in order to draw a stark contrast to the youngest Gradgrind, Jane, who was raised by Sissy.  To Louisa’s wonderment, when comparing Jane to herself, she realizes that Jane has “a better and brighter face than hers had ever been”(193).  Raised by Sissy, (who always had more life and color about her) Jane posses a similar vibrancy and life demonstrated in Sissy and lacked by the rest of the Gradgrids and the town’s pale inhabitants.  Jane is clearly meant to stand out from the other well educated individuals with her brightness—a clear incongruity to the otherwise bleak town.  In any other town, the pale and lifeless individuals would seem incongruous while those like Jane and Sissy would seem the norm.  Dickens’ satire is therefore two-fold, with reversal of the norms demonstrated through complexion, and with Jane starkly standing out from the created set of norms in Coketown.  By creating this contrast, Dickens can point to the flaws of the society through the sickliness that is the norm in the town, while simultaneously pointing to the benefits of free thinking, using Sissy and Jane as the model.

HT:Analysis

“He lighted a candle, set out his little tea-board, got hot water from below, and brought out in small portions of tea and sugar, a loaf, and some butter, from the nearest shop. The bread was new and crusty, the butter fresh, and the sugar lump” (Dickens 153). 

Dickens uses the satirical technique of incongruity in his novel Hard Times to show that the impoverished in Coketown are better off than most. This is specifically shown when Stephen invites Mrs. Pegler over for some tea. He sets her out a wide spread with “new and crusty” bread, “fresh” butter, and a sugar “lump” (Dickens 153). New, crusty, and fresh give the reader a sense that the bread and butter were recently bought, when if Stephen was as bad off as Dickens want us to believe he would not have been able to purchase them after just getting laid off. Also sugar lumps were very expensive for the time, in fact the most expensive form of sugar. Because Stephen is of such a low class he should not be able to afford such a luxury. This incongruity is used by Dickens in this passage to show that things in Coketown are not as bad as they appear. Despite the fact that Stephen is of lower class he is still able to afford expensive things, this shows the bright side to being in an industrial town, even the lower class, the worst of the worst, are doing better than most would believe. Overall this only adds more into the conflict of whether or not industry is good or bad, a concept that Dickens uses satire to develop throughout his novel. On top of this it also illustrates the kindness that is present in the lower class that is not there in the higher class. Stephen, despite having just been laid off is willing to lay out his best spread in order to accomadate Mrs. Pegler, while Bounderby does not offer Stephen anything when he calls him in to discuss the union, and eventually fire him in the prior chapter. 

HT: Analysis

Dickens uses satire in book 2 to critique the relations between the lower class represented collectively by the union and the upper class which consists of Bounderby specifically but it also includes Louisa, Gradgrind, and Mrs. Sparsit. In Chapter 4, the extremely outspoken voice of the union, Slackbridge, points his finger at the upper class saying, “Oh my friends and fellow-countrymen, the slaves of an iron handed despotism…we must rally round one another as One united power, and crumble into dust the oppressors that too long have battened upon the plunder of our families, upon the sweat of our brows, upon the labour of our hands, upon the strength of our sinews, upon the God-created glorious rights of humanity.(136-137)” This extremist voice is used to exaggerate the working man’s plight. For instance, Slackbridge compares the upper class and its power through industry to despotism and its oppressive nature on the people. On the other hand, in chapter 5, the overly aristocratic voice of Bounderby exaggerates the viewpoint of the upper class. For instance, Bounderby refers to the workers as “pests of the earth” and he also says, “ You had better tell us at once, that that fellow Slackbridge is not in town, stirring up trouble the people to mutiny; and that he is not a regular qualified leader of the people: that is, a most confounded scoundrel. (145)” Here Dickens exaggerates the evils of the lower class through Bounderby maligning the mutinous band of rebels that dare rise up against the upper class. Through exaggeration of both viewpoints, Dickens may be conveying the frivolity of both sides of the spectrum. Thus, his viewpoint is most likely expressed through Stephen who believes that the upper and lower class should mend their relations, though through his actions he only ends up being ostracized from both parties.

HT: Reference

Here’s a link that demonstrates one of the targets of satire, the element of utiliarianism, in Hard times.

http://schriftman.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/john-stuart-mill_utilitarianism_jacob-schriftman.jpg