As I read the excerpt from Hard Times describing smoky, sooty, smelly Coketown, I felt the heavy heart of the miserable laborers walking the streets like robots with blackened, monotone faces, past brick buildings, smokestacks, and loud machinery. I saw the workers as meaningless cogs in the wheel of Coketown, disconnected from humanity, and painfully aware of their bleak futures.
In contrast was the pompous attitude of the gentlemen in power who were filled with their own self-interests as they scorned the dregs of society, seemingly immune to their suffering. I liked the sarcastic, mocking tone with which Dickens described them.
Although this short piece was more a description of the town than the people, I formed moral judgments about the characters. I got a sense of the social issues and inequality in Cokestown. I felt compassion for the workers. The depressing darkness used to describe the town, carried over into my feeling for the people.
I think that Dickens was pointing out what was wrong in Coketown and he was rooting for the underdog. This is similar to the liberal sentiments of Wollstonecraft and Paine when they wrote about the French Revolution. Dickens was disturbed by the imbalance in society between the leaders and the workers. I had to remind myself to not be so influenced by Dickens point of view as to diminish the importance of this time of industrialization in history. Overall, I came away with a feeling of gloom and unhappiness. This piece was aptly named.
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2 comments:
Brenda,
Good comments on Dickens's Coketown description. I particularly like your connection to the Romantics. However, you don't quote or discuss any specific passages from the text, relying instead on paraphrase. I realize it can be difficult to transition from talking about poems to discussing prose, but it still requires close attention to the text.
Hardtimes most definitely gave you somewhat of a visual as to what the citizens of the town went through. I can only imagine leaving work after a hard day and still having to deal with the smoke, soot, and horrible smells. Yes, you do feel a sense of sadness for the workers but they had no choice. It ticked me off more to read about the well to do gentlemen. Dickens spoke of them enjoying the finer things in life.
I totally agree with you on the social issues and inequality. The descriptive details about the town and gave you a visual picture of the social life of the people. I felt sorry for them just as I have for majority of the readings concerning the differences in the social classes. This story bothered just as much as when I am looking at TV and see the homeless children with no food and little to no clothing. It was sad.
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