Dragos Petre Professor James Brown 4 September 2011

Fact and Fancy Different but Alike

The differences between fact and fancy constitute the main theme of Hard Times. As the title suggests, heavy industrialization leads to the mechanization of thinking and strips life of its joys. The author implies that imagination and kindness should be a counterbalance to this process, but he acknowledges that both fact and fancy are necessary to the development of the individual and even suggests that the concepts cannot ultimately survive separately from one another. On the other hand, at a symbolical level, the author signals the differences between fact and fancy by attributing certain rational features to men and making women supportive and imaginative, in accordance to the Victorian ideas of femininity. Mrs. Grandgrinds lack of femininity and Sissys father inability to commit to raising his daughter have disastrous results for the children. Mr Grandgrind believes that human nature can be measured, but he is surprised by his own daughter, both when she disobeys him and visits the circus and when she tells him that she was not happy in her marriage and was close to losing her honor because she preferred another man, and especially when she declares that she is confused about her feelings because of his teachings:

This night, my husband being away, he has been with me, declaring himself my lover. This minute he expects me, for I could release myself of his presence by no other means. I do not know that I am sorry, I do not know that I am ashamed, I do not know that I am degraded in my own esteem. All that I know is, your philosophy and your teaching will not save me. Now, father, you have brought me to this. Save me by some other means!'He tightened his hold in time to prevent her sinking on the floor, but she cried out in a terrible voice, 'I shall die if you hold me! Let me fall upon the ground!' And he laid her down there, and saw the pride of his heart and the triumph of his system, lying, an insensible heap, at his feet. On the other hand, Sissy was raised in an environment that encouraged her to develop her sensitivity, yet her father leaves her and she would have been probably lost without Mr. Grandgrinds guidance. In this respect, Louisas younger sister, Jane, is the happiest of the three Grandgrind children because she was raised both by her father, who emphasized facts and by Cecilia who always stressed the importance of imagination. When Louisa visits her mother after getting married to Mr. Bounderby, Mrs. Grandgrind tells her daughter that she considers Jane to be very much like Louisa. Still, Louisa notices the differences between her and her sister and realizes that Sissys influence is the reason why Jane is a lot happier than herself: Louisa had relinquished the hand: had thought that her sister's was a better and brighter face than hers had ever been: had seen in it, not without a rising feeling of resentment, even in that place and at that time, something of the gentleness of the other face in the

room; the sweet face with the trusting eyes, made paler than watching and sympathy made it, by the rich dark hair. The only character that claims to be successful by relying on cold facts only is Bounderby, but the author exposes him as a liar by introducing his loving mother. Bounderbys childhood is a recurrent motif, the character proudly claiming that he was abandoned by his mother and supported himself, through hard work and being cold: I know what I am, and the exact depth of the gutter I have lifted myself out of, better than any man does. Facts cannot exist in their purest form since human perception is involved in observing those facts, and it is always subjective. When the gentleman officer talked to the children in the class about how one should not use wallpaper with horses since horses dont normally live on walls, he makes an affirmation that could be interpreted in a double way: What is called Taste, is only another name for Fact. On the one hand, he could be saying that taste should be controlled by a sense of reality or that the outer world is only an image for each individual, in other words, a matter of his taste. Nevertheless, the author suggests that fact and imagination are strictly connected, in spite of their essential differences. The same paradox is obvious throughout the novel because the author describes cold, sterile processes vividly, for example: Indeed, as he eagerly sparkled at them from the cellarage before mentioned, he seemed a kind of cannon loaded to the muzzle with facts, and prepared to blow them clean out of the regions of childhood at one discharge. He seemed a galvanizing apparatus, too, charged with a grim mechanical substitute for the tender young imaginations that were to be stormed away. On the other hand, the author underlines the differences between fact and fancy by contrasting the women who bring love and soothe with the men, who are more focused on facts.

In school, Cecilias imagination is opposed to Blitzers mechanical thinking. To Cecilias inability to define a horse, the boy answers with a concise, scientifical description: 'Quadruped. Graminivorous. Forty teeth, namely twenty-four grinders, four eye-teeth, and twelve incisive. Sheds coat in the spring; in marshy countries, sheds hoofs, too. Hoofs hard, but requiring to be shod with iron. Age known by marks in mouth.' Thus (and much more) Bitzer.. The author suggests that Sissy was not able to define a horse, although she had seen a horse and Bitzer probably had not, because she could not resume the essence of a horse in a definition, she had to describe it. Also, Sissy is the one who encourages Louisa to connect to others and raises Gradgrinds youngest daughter in the spirit of love and imagination. Another woman, Rachel, provides comfort for Stephen whenever he becomes depressed about his job as a Hand. Mr. Grandgrind, on the other hand, builds all his philosophies on solid, cold facts and raises his children consequently, denying them any tender light of Fancy. As Kate Flint considers: Louisa and Thomas, his two children and protgs of his factual regime, live broken and embittered lives culminating in a showdown between ideologies. The fact that Mrs. Grandgrind is impassible and her children do not have a model of femininity could also account for them not being able to express their feelings and their constant sadness: Mrs. Gradgrind, a little, thin, white, pink-eyed bundle of shawls, of surpassing feebleness, mental and bodily; who was always taking physic without any effect, and who, whenever she showed a symptom of coming to life, was invariably stunned by some weighty piece of fact tumbling on her. Furthermore, the author presents a case of a man who was not practical enough, a fact that has serious consequences on his child, too. Sissys father abandones her although he was described

as a sensitive man who was fond of his girl: 'Because those two were one. Because they were never asunder. Because, up to this time, he seemed to dote upon her,' said Childers. In Hard Times Dickens displays the differences between fact and fancy and proves that these concepts are linked and should not be forced independently on an individual. The failure to expose a child to both these concepts triggers a dreary life for that child and renders him incapable of feeling. Although Mr. Grandgrind takes pride in raising Louisa in the spirit of facts, the girl is ultimately unhappy and, being unable of making decisions based on love, accepts a marriage proposal because her father considers it the only rational thing for her to do. Also, she is helpless when confronted with a young man who declares her his love. As Kate Flint puts it: Their imploding marriage, aided by the arrival of Harthouse, a thrill seeking subscriber to the school of fancy and, likewise, lack of control. As the situation devolves, the ways of logic and the ways of the heart clash.

Bibliography: Dickens, Charles. Hard Times. England: Penguin, 1994. Print. Flint, Kate. Fact vs. Fancy: A too often overlooked classic. Epinions.com, 30 Dec 1909. Web. 4 Sep 2011.