The Worst Hard Times Chapter Summary: Exploring Socioeconomic Struggles

Introduction

In Hard Times, the townspeople of Coketown experience a time of increasing industrialization. Each individual citizen of Coketown experiences this differently. Some people benefit quite well, while others work very hard for very little. Others struggle to just stay alive. The community of Coketown and the characters are impacted by the changes seen with industrialization. Each character has been influenced or impacted by these changes. Hard Times is a great title for this book, and it tells what the characters of this book deal with hard times.

Body

Industrialization and Its Impact

The increasing industrialization seen in Hard Times was the result of the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution was the beginning of factories and mass production (Wilson, 2016). This turning point in history made towns flourish and brought more jobs to towns. Coketown was one of these towns hit by increasing industrialization.

With the factories also came pollution. During the day, when the factories were running, the town was filled with smoke. The roads lined with black bricks were red at one time but were changed because of the smoke (Dickens, 25). Even the water suffered from the smoke and dirt.

Besides the increasing industrialization, the town also ran on utilitarian principles. Even though the town was gray from the smoke, the town's people's outlook was black and white, with no gray areas (Crisp, 2016). The town thrived on facts and left no room for wondering. Each character in the book was impacted by the increasing industrialization and the utilitarian ways differently. The poor seemed to suffer the most, as did any poor in any town. The working class in Coketown had to work hard for what little money they made. The rich, as in most cases, stayed rich but still had their own trials to deal with.

Character Analysis

Sissy was born into a rather poor family. Her mother died giving birth to her, and her father was a clown in the circus. Sissy and her father traveled quite a bit with the circus, and it was difficult for Sissy to get educated. She started attending Mr. Gradgrind's school in Coketown. After Mr. Bounderby and Mr. Gradgrind found out who she was, they wanted to remove her from the school because they thought she was a bad influence on Louisa. Mr. Bounderby and Mr. Gradgrind told Sissy she could stay at the school and live with Mr. Gradgrind but could not see her father anymore. She decided, with tears in her eyes, that the best thing was for her to attend school so she could have a better future. She attended school for quite a while and lived with Mr. Gradgrind.

The increasing industrialization of Coketown impacted Sissy because if the town had not flourished, the school might not have been built, and therefore, she would not have received much of an education. Without industrialization, there might have been a small school, but not one that had the standards of the school Coketown had.

Sissy's social aspect was changed when she entered the Gradgrind's household. Before she lived with the Gradgrinds, Sissy's social circle consisted of her father and the people of the circus. After moving in with the Gradgrinds'sGradgrind, her social status climbed, and she became only a couple of steps under the upper class of Coketown.

After changing how she lived and who she lived with, Sissy rose educationally, socially, and economically. This all stemmed from the increasing industrialization of Coketown. The circus that Sissy's father was a part of might not have stopped within Coketown if it had not been industrialized because there might not have been much to the town without it.

Adaptation and Resilience

Stephen Blackpool was a worker in the mill in Coketown. He had to work very hard for what little he had. Stephen lived in a one-room place. He was married, and after being married for a short while, his wife took up drinking and became a drunk. He could not take it any longer and sent her away but gave her money when he could. He was good friends with a woman named Rachel. They ended up falling in love despite his already being married. His wife returned after five years of being gone. She stayed a short time and left again.

Stephen desperately wanted to be rid of his wife and did not want to be married any longer to her. He went to talk to Mr. Bounderby about getting a divorce. Mr. Bounderby told him that he could not get a divorce because he was poor. The only people who could get a legal divorce were rich people because it cost so much money for the whole process.

Stephen ended up losing his job and knew no one else in town would hire him because once someone loses their job in a small town, such as Coketown, no one else can hire him because of his previous employer. He ended up leaving town and fell into the Old Hell Shaft. Rachel and Sissy found him, but he died on the way back to town.

Stephen was impacted by the increasing industrialization because it gave him work. With his job, he was classed as the working class. Without the job, he would have been in the poor, non-working class. His social aspects consisted of other working class and poor class people. He was also stuck in a marriage that he no longer wanted because of his social and economic aspects. The working class usually did not have any education, as was the case with Stephen Blackpool. After he lost his job, his social and economic status took a great hit, ending in his death.

Louisa Gradgrind was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Gradgrind, who owned and ran the school in Coketown. Louisa attended her father's school and was raised under strict circumstances. As with the other students in the school, Louisa was taught just the facts. She was only to know and think facts. Louisa did not even know "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." She was to not know this because it was not considered facts. Once, Louisa and her brother, Tom, were caught watching the circus and got into trouble because they were not allowed to watch or partake in something like the circus. Another time, Tom and Louisa were caught by their mother, Mrs. Gradgrind, speaking of wondering about things. They got into trouble for this as well because they were not allowed to wonder. Wondering does not hold any facts. Louisa marries Mr. Bounderby, a man who is thirty-some-odd years older than her. She is miserable with him and falls for another man, Mr. Harthouse. Louisa ends up moving back in with her parents and stays there for good. Mr. Harthouse was sent out of town, never to see Louisa again.

Louisa is upper class because, after the increasing industrialization, her father started the school and is wealthy. Louisa got married because it was expected of her, and she married whom her father wanted her to, despite her feelings. People in the upper class, like Louisa, still had it hard, just in different aspects than other people.

In other aspects, such as education, Louisa is quite educated mainly because her father runs the school. People of the upper class usually have more education than the lower class people. In the social aspect, Louisa tends to socialize with other people of the upper class. Louisa sees the underclass people differently from herself. In the second book, chapter six, Louisa refers to the working class people by saying, "She knew of their existence by hundreds and thousands." By referring to the working class as "them," she sees herself as better.

Conclusion

The increasing industrialization had a great effect on Coketown and its inhabitants. It gave many people jobs and a chance to live at least a little better. The increasing industrialization also made the rich more rich and powerful. Hard Times is about people adapting to the new way of life, mass production. Coketown was a prosperous town that saw many trials of each individual in it, despite their class.

References

1. CRISP, ROGER. (2016). 'Taking Stock Of Utilitarianism.' Utilitas 26.3 (2014): 231-249.
2. Dickens, C. (2007). Hard Times. New York, NY: Penguin.
3. Wilson, D. C. S. (2016). 'Arnold Toynbee And The Industrial Revolution: The Science Of
4. History, Political Economy And The Machine Past.' History & Memory 26.2 (2014): 133-161.  

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