Charles Dickens e Hard Times, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica Charles Dickens e Hard Times e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! CHARLES DICKENS Charles Dickens was born in England in 1812 from John and Elizabeth Dickens. He was the second child of 8 sibilings. He had an unhappy childood since his father was imprisoned and he had to work in order to pay the debts of the family. At the age of 12 he was put to work in a factory for 11 hours. At 15 he worked as an office boy for a lawyer and by 1832 he became a very successful shorthand reporter in the parliament. So he got to know many parliamentarians and he could understand politician very well (as a category). During this period he also worked as a reporter for a newspaper and he adopted the pen name 'Boz'. Later he married Catherine Hoghart and had many children, and at the same time his carrier as a novelist brought him a lot of money. He did two important things: 1)He could afford the house his father had poined at during a walk when he was a child. 2)He founded a special home, the Urania Cottage, in 1846, for fallen women → prostitute, poor women, mothers outside marriage ecc. he gave them dignity back (he was a feminist). Dickens started a full-time career as a novelist, producing works of increasing complexity, but he also continued his journalistic activities. Some of his masterpiece are 'A Christmas Carol', 'Oliver Twist' and 'David Copperfield'. This works dealt with problems like children's explotation and poor people's conditions. He became very popular and at the time everyone could recognized him in the street, and he also used to attend public readings in theaters. He was buried in Westminster Abbey → symbol of his fame. Curiosity: he was an obsessive-compulsive → he used to rearrange his hotel forniture and had to sleep with his head pointing north. CHARACTERS He wrote many novels and collection of stories, they all have an humanitarian imprinting. The main characters of Dickens's stories were from the lower classes. Characters were caricatures, because his aim was to arouse the reader's interest by exaggerating the protagonists. He wanted to make people laugh without losing the moral of the actions narrated. Basically he wanted people to be aware of what was happening in the society of that time, even through irony and sarcasm. Dickens was always on the side of the poor, the outcast and the working class. Children were often the most important characters in Dickens's novels since they were seen as an example and a model of behaviour. A DIDACTIC AIM Dickens wanted to spread awareness about the social problems of the time, without offending his middle class-readers. So he wanted the upper classes to know about their poorer neighbours. STYLE AND REPUTATION The style is simple because he wanted people to understand what he'talking about. He used an effective language with extremely graphic description (something that you could imagine) ''HARD TIMES''- CHARLES DICKENS PLOT This novel in set in an imaginary industrial town named Coketown. One of the main characters is Thomas Gradgrind, an educator who believes in facts and statistics (so he's extremely rational). He founded a school where his theories are thought and students are not called by their names, but by numbers like a prison. Gradgrind educated his two children, Luisa and Tom in the same way, so by repressing their imagination and feelings since everything needs to be rational. He marries her daughter Luisa to Josiah Bounderby, a rich banker of the city that is 30 years older than the girl. Luisa of course didn't want to marry him, but she didn't want her brother to lose the job at the bank, and the marriage proves to be unhappy. Tom didn't care about the bank at all, he was lazy, selfish and robbed his employers. At first he tried to blame an honest workman, Stephen Blackpool (he's the only honest among the adults), but he's finally discovered and he's obliged to leave the country. Stephen Blackpool will be in trouble 2 times: 1)When Tom blamed him → even if at the end is proven innocent 2)When his boss asked him to spy his coworkers. The boss understood that he was the only honest, but when Stephen refused he had to leave the city. At the end of the novel Gradgrind undestrands the damage he has caused to his children and students: he changes his mind but it's too late because he already lost the love of his children. So he gave up his narrow-minded, materialistic philosophy. SETTING Coketown is an example of a real industrial city during the Victorian England. It's a place where people live hard lifes and it's full of factories, smoke and pollution. There's this strange atmosphere that isn't nice, it's almost like hell. All the factories, houses, buildings and even people are the same. House were made of red bricks, but a red that you couldn't even see because it was all covered from pollution. The factories owners actually see the dust covering the building but they were proud of it because it was a symbol of productivuty. To someone it may symbolized productivity, to others it may just be depressing. STRUCTURE Hard Times is divided in three sections, they take their names from agriculture 1. ''Sowing'':it's the first book and it's related to the educational system of Gradgrind and Bounderby 2. ''Reaping'': it's the second book and it's related to Louisa's unhappy marriage, Tom's criminality and Stephen's rejection from Coketown 3. ''Garnering'': it's the third and last book and it's related to Gradgring's certainties about education that starts to fall down CHARACTERS Utilitarianism is seen both in Gradgrind and Bounderby. They treat people as if they were objects who must be educated to productivity. They have to be like little machines, where productivity is quantified by numbers. Gradgring believes that human nature can be measured entirely by reason. Dicken's aim is to criticize british educational system of the time, in the wich they made children just learn facts and numbers. In that way they feel dohumanised and they will grow up in a perfect way for the industrial society.