Hard Times: The Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution was a period of many things for many Britons, but most importantly it was a period of mechanization, mass production and the creation of a working and middle class that divided the nation. The substitution of machine labor for muscle labor led to a sweeping, relatively rapid change in the way of life throughout Britain. Productivity grew and standards of living grew along with it. However, this led to many questioning whether the increase in the standards of living actually meant a better quality of life and the answer to it is subjective to who is being asked. Charles Dickens, a significant, prolific author and reformist of the period, criticized the apparent “progress” of the Industrial Revolution and his novel Hard Times called attention to the deterioration in moral values, exploitation, deprivation and oppression that befell not only to the working class, but affected the middle and upper class …show more content…
It is evident from theorists such as Edmund Burke, that tradition was an important aspect of British culture and society. In Reflections on the Revolution in France, Burke proposed that men are supposed to be constrained by the tradition of their forbearers and ill-considered reforms are dangerous. Such prominence of tradition and the past resulted in some reluctance and hesitation to accept this new idea of an industrialized nation. James Kay, a doctor from Manchester, argues the hardships of factory labor and its effects, stating “prolonged and exhausting labor continued from day to day, from year to year is not calculated to develop the intellectual or moral faculties of man… he becomes reckless [and] disregards the distinguishing appetites and habits of his species” (The Past Speaks, 155). Dickens would agree with this viewpoint, as Hard Times shows a lack of balance in the industrialized nation and the ways in which utilitarianism inversely relates to human quality of