Hard Times

Charles Dickens was a prominent British writer who published sixteen novels and seven short stories. Critics and other authors of that time considered him the greatest writer of the Victorian era, distinguished by his Christian content and criticism of poverty, social class structures, and the injustices of British society. Hard Times is one of his most famous novels, which, in an industrial England, presents a contrast between the ways of thinking and acting of factory and financial company owners and those of the workers. Another group is also reflected: the self-employed, represented by circus workers. This is an extremely interesting dramatic novel, in which the powerful teacher and entrepreneur, Mr. Thomas Gradgrind, along with his business partner, Mr. Josiah Bounderby, who are ruthless "capitalists" and refuse to grant better benefits to unionized workers, suffer many setbacks and even betrayal by those close to them. In this regard, the lawmaker James Harthouse destroys the marriage between Louisa (daughter of Mr. Thomas Gradgrind) and Mr. Josiah Bounderby. Also a son of Mr. Thomas Gradgrind finds himself involved in a robbery of Mr. Josiah Bounderby's bank and the murder of one of the suspects. Certainly, these are difficult times for everyone involved, and in this industrial chaos, it seems that society is heading toward ever-increasing uncertainty, where principles and moral values are being lost. Even Mr. Thomas Gradgrind, being such a strict school teacher, doesn't know what to do when his married daughter has a secret affair with a member of the Parliament, and his son is about to be imprisoned for the bank robbery. Surprisingly, the solutions come from a poor girl he despised, nearly expelled from school, and forced to leave the circus after the disappearance of her father, the clown, demonstrating that members of the business, aristocratic, and academically well-educated elite don't necessarily know how to govern neither are the most capable of addressing society's needs. Hard Times is a profound and dramatic Victorian novel in which things don't go as expected...