It caused also a lot of if not a complete destruction and disorder on the lives of masses of people. However, these issues of the industrialization, and other sub-issues, which might seem less important in the eyes of some writers and historians, were the mere interest of many writers and thinkers. Among them, some are realists, such as George Meredith, Thomas
Hardy, Charles Reade and George Borrow, and others are satirists and social reformers as
William M. Thackeray, Benjamin …show more content…
And then, even though Hard Times is a fictional piece of writing, it may be more realistic than fictional.
This chapter is devoted to Dickens‟s Hard Times since the mechanization of human being during the industrial revolution through Hard Times is the core of this work. In this chapter, and according to the theme, it is better to give at least hints about the life of Charles
19
Dickens, his works and experiences, because he lived the period of the industrial revolution.
And then, to shift to critically analyse the issue of mechanization at the level of school ( education), and factories, that is the mental and physical mechanization of people which turns them into zombies.
A. Dickens; his life, works and experiences
Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was a self-made man, who raised poor and succeeded to reach fame and to establish a happy life. Despite the obstacles he encountered, he could overcome them. After his parents‟ financial support declined, he left school to work in a shoe blacking factory in London to sustain his life at the age of eleven. Afterwards, when his family had established itself, he joined the school again. His education allowed him to …show more content…
Some people say that Dickens has a very “hypersensitive imagination” (Westland 118), and the Victorians were “extremely sentimental” (119), but this might be explained as a result of the industrial revolution and its impact on the inner side of
Dickens and his people. This is why the industrial revolution came as a turning point in the social history of England, which brought new feeling and way of thinking that began to change just by the beginning of the Victorian age. Where, the domination of Church and religion started to decline.
20
The decline of religious domination remarked in the decline in the number of church goers and chapels. Those who did not attend were mainly the members of the working class.
And this phenomenon began in the towns of industrial areas (Harrison 124). This was a very striking aspect of change brought by industrialization.
Dickens‟s witnesses and experiences for social realities of his time were his main source of his inspirations. His Sketches by Biz (1836) about London life is a set of successful collected essays from his readings of the novels and journalism of the eighteenth century. He wrote many novels starting by The Pickwick papers (1836-37) to end with Mystery of