Attacking Modern Economics and understanding Utilitarianism as a Paradox in Charles

Dicken’s ‘Hard Times’.

‘Hard Times’ is a Novel written by Charles Dickens, it was published in 1854. The Novel is
divided into three separate books, the first book is “Sowing” and the second book is “Reaping”,
the third book entitled “Garnering”. ‘Hard times’ is one of Dickens’ strong social critique and it
suggests several social developments and ideas, it also portrays his philosophy on values, values
where all men are equal. It is in a way a satirical critique of the society and uses humor and
caricature to criticize socialism, industrialization, and urbanization and Utilitarianism in the
Victorian society.

In Hard Times, Dickens vividly portrays an industrial polluted town. He gives a town the name
of ‘Coketown’ this fictional Coketown is symbolic of the rapidly urbanizing society due to
Industrialization. Coketown is described as an “ugly citadel, where nature was strongly bricked
out as killing airs and gases were bricked in” (Hard Times: 54).

This essay will discuss how Utilitarianism was abused in the realms of Victorian educational
system as well in the Victorian Social System. The Utilitarian Education System in Coketown is
corrupted as it overemphasizes the logic of mind at the expense of logic of heart. The educators
in this education system should implant in the young and impressionable minds of students
nothing but facts their main motive was to pump these young students full of facts and root out
everything else out of them. Thomas Gradgrind the head of the school (educational institution)
believes in the functionality of no sensical approach and to him these young students are nothing
but pitchers “ to be filled so full of facts”. According to him students should forget everything
about arts, for the outcomes of human imagination are harmful for them. Mr. M’choakumchild
the teacher, the pawn of Mr. Gradgrind which he uses to stuff the young children full of facts is
able to choke out the imagination from the minds of those young students. Mr. M’choakumchild
has stuffed the head of Bitzer a young student full of facts and he is in the end rendered devoid of
any human affection and imagination.

Dicken in his novel criticizes the educational system because he believed that the educational
system of the Victorian society was applying the same set of rules to all the children and in doing
so the entire education system is embarking upon a crusade so as to rob the young students off of
their individuality. Such a mindless teaching and emphasis on just factual knowledge will rob
these young children of their private aspirations, expectations , innovations and most of all of
their hopes.
The social unrest in the Victorian society is manifested in different ways throughout the novel,
with the growing population there was a threat of crime , the Victorian law is not efficient
enough to catch the culprit and the laws were unequal for people belonging to the different strata
of the society. The social unrest in the Victorian society threatened every being existing inside
the society, this social unrest also lead to the alienation of the individual from the society in
which he lives and exists. The story of the character of Stephen Blackpool is symbolic of the
story of all the honest working-class labourers who are forced to fend for the misdeeds of the
employers and fund-managers and in the end they are ostracized and excluded from their jobs,
the jobs for which they have been alienated from their homeland.

The law of the Victorian society is that these self described Economic-Utilitarian Agents like
Bounderby seeks to maximize their gains and profits and their own happiness without the regard
of happiness of others, the problem with this widespread Utilitarianism is its hardness and
inhumanity.

The entire population of coketown is divided into two classes the Bourgeoisie who are factory
owner, bankers etc, and the poor section of the society which comprises of the laborers and the
so called “Hands” are known as the Proletariat. It is the social injustice Dickens is trying to
attack through his novel for he understands that these Victorian Political parties and the Trade
Unions wants to crumble into dust the hopes and aspirations of the working class people. All that
these Trade-Unions and these Political parties are trying to do is to just to find another tool to
Institutionalize the superiority of the Rich over the Poor. The Novel portrays how the masses of
Coketwon of whom Stephen Blackpool is symbolic of, are stuck between two devilish forces;
The Cruel Management represented by the character of Joshua Bounderby and the Trade-Unions
represented by Slackbridge, the result of being churned between these two cruel and devilish
forces is the banishment of Blackpool from his hometown, he is denied the love of his beloved
Rachel and in the end his alienated death. Thus it can be inferred that Dickens is trying to
critique the social inequalities and the corruption in the institutions. He through his novel is also
trying to question the fact that poverty is like an epidemic in the Victorian Society and it is a vice
that the representatives of the society should accept and the economically prosperous should do
something so as to help these poor people whose future has been left bleak by the rapid
urbanization and Utilitarianism in the society , Dickens also questions the notion that the Rich
feels no responsibility towards the poor people, instead of helping each other Victorian man is
left devoid of what is humane.
Works Cited

 Dickens, C. (1854). Hard Times. London: Penguin Books.