Criticism And Utilitarianism In Hard Times By Charles Dickens

Hard Times is a novel written by Charles Dickens which judge the English society and tells us about the social and economic pressures of the 19th century. Hard Times is a Victorian novel and is very realistic. Victorian novels bring about realism in literature. Dickens novels are realistic depiction of Victorian society like class consciousness, rapid urbanization, poverty, child labor etc. Dickens talk about love, aspiration, human passion and Hard Times is a novel written by Charles Dickens which judge the English society and relationships in his novels and they usually have a strong moral message. Victorian age is a period of peace and prosperity since no major wars happened however the flipped side of Victorian era was very ugly.

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Thomas Gradgrind, one of the main character represents utilitarianism within the novel. He is obsessed with facts alone; he does not want any kind of entertainment and recreation as he considers it useless and a waste of time. But one do need recreation and some sort of excitement in one’s life like the circus as he is a human being and not a machine. Gradgrind raises his children Tom and Louisa to learn facts and nothing else, no entertainment, no fancy, no circus. He is obsessed to and devote his life to the study of basing actions and opinion on reason and knowledge rather than believing on religious practice and belief or emotional respond and feelings. Thus, his son Tom turn into a hedonist and egoist, he became a gambler and a thief while his daughter Louisa become emotionally stunted and became too full of herself that she is unable to connect with …show more content…
Louisa was married to the old Josiah Bounderby and never again married after he married him. Thomas Gradgrind let his daughter marries Bounderby as he thought it would be good for her, he was considering the facts only and the profit she sold get in term of materials without considering the emotions of Louisa. Even Louisa was accepting to marry old Bounderby as she has no lover, also she tries to see everything numerically maybe through science or through statistical solutions and to consider life only on Utilitarian terms because she was taught like that, she is a woman of knowledge and knows the numerical values of thing but fails to consider her emotions and feelings. And her brother Tom who she considers most important in her life tells her that it would profit him if she marries