DICKENS HARD TIMES - MR GRADGRIND - COKETOWN, Dispense di Inglese

Scarica DICKENS HARD TIMES - MR GRADGRIND - COKETOWN e più Dispense in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! HARD TIMES PLOT: This novel is set in an imaginary industrial town named Coketown. Thomas Gradgrind, an educator who believes in facts and statistics, has founded a school where his theories are taught, and he brings up his two children, Louisa and Tom, in the same way, repressing their imagination and feelings. He marries his daughter to Josiah Bounderby, a rich banker of the city, 30 years older than she is. The girl consents since she wishes to help her brother, who is given a job in Bounderby's bank, but the marriage proves to be unhappy. Tom, who is lazy and selfish, robs his employer. At first he succeeds in throwing the suspicion on an honest workman, but he is finally discovered and obliged to leave the country. In the end Mr Gradgrind understands the damage he has caused to his children and gives up his narrow- minded, materialistic philosophy. SETTING: The fictional city of Coketown stands for a real industrial mill town in mid-19th-century Victorian England. It is a sort of brick jungle: the machines of factories are like mad elephants, and their smoke looks like serpents. This place of hard facts' and 'hard lives' seems to be turned into some kind of magical but hellish land. All the buildings, which are covered with soot coming from the coal burnt in factories, are the same. However, nothing seems to bother the mill owners. They seem to be proud of the polluted air of Coketown. To some, the black residue that wraps up the town may symbolise productivity and industry. To others, it may just be depressing. STRUCTURE: Hard Times is divided into three sections, or books, and each book is divided into separate chapters. 1. Book One  ‘Sowing’  shows us the seeds planted by the Gradgrind/Bounderby education: Louisa, Tom and Stephen Blackpool. 2. Book Two  ‘Reaping’  reveals the harvesting of these seeds: Louisa's unhappy marriage, Tom's selfishness and criminal ways, Stephen's rejection from Coketown. 3. Book Three  ‘Garnering’  is linked to a dominant symbol – instability – which is no longer the solid 'ground upon which Mr Gradgrind's system once stood. CHARACTERS: The philosophy of Utilitarianism comes forth largely through the actions of Mr Gradgrind and his follower Bounderby: as the former educates the children of his family and his school through facts, the latter treats the workers in his factory as emotionless objects that are easily exploited for his own self- interest. Mr Gradgrind believes that human nature can be measured, quantified and governed entirely by reason. Indeed, his school tries to turn children into little machines that behave according to such rules. Dickens's primary aim in Hard Times is to illustrate the dangers of the teaching method called ‘object lesson’, originally conceived as a method of education arising from children's own experiences and suited to their particular stage of development, but distorted in its introduction to English schools. There, form acquired more importance than subject matter, leading to lessons where humans were actually dehumanised. MR GRADGRIND Hard times is very based on materialism. • Utilitarianism reflects the necessity to reach happiness, but as an economic, material achievement; • Materialism was the attitude of society to stress the material gain and neglect a spiritual condition. • It's a critique to materialism: human beings are reduced to machines in order to produce material goods. Because materialism is one of the most important topics in his work, the very fundamental particle of materiality is matter: we can see materiality in the characters, in fact the two protagonists are extremely materials. Mr Gradgrind, presented through his voice, tries to educate his pupils in a material way: education meant depriving children of their critical ability, giving them only one possible of capability. His attitude was to grind (ITA: frantumare) intellectually his children: he was given this name with a critical intent. In this work one of the most aim of education was to level children in order to make them measurable: whatever education was, it should be measurable, in terms of quantity. • The education system would not develop the mind of individual: notions were important, not interpretations. They had to get used to the materiality around them. • This work is famous because it really represents a critique to materialism. • Mr Gradgrind grinds the intellectual gradient of his children. He's presenting his idea of teaching, a very basic education principle: depersonalising individuals is his aim, in order to have uncritical individuals who can only interpret facts, because only facts are fundamental in life, therefore they are the only important thing. Facts = measurable notions. Children are considered as vessels ready to be filled with notions. • He's depriving children of their sentimental side: he has no tenderness to his pupils. • From line 7 Dickens starts describing the situation: concentration on the character's look, that is not so much objective. • It largely relies on some characteristics, adjectives relevant to this character (they are simply presented). Whatever refers to this man is square as a brick, the fundamental particle of matter, of building ( building society on visible accomplishments.): exaggeration was a typical stylistic trait of Dickens. • Voice restarts in line 23. Gradgrind: Grad/grind: - Grad  grade, graduate, - Grind  reduced in powder Physical aspect: - Squared face, finger, coat, legs, shoulders; - A wall as forehead; - Hair = trees; - Dictatorial voice Facts  knowledge of reality/materialism/utilitarianism/positivity/productivity/pragmatism (Bentham, Locke and Epicurus)