Blog 5

One of the things that stood out to me while reading Hard Times were the fairy tale analogy’s that were used to describe Coketown. Coketown was described as a “Fairy Palace” (79). Mrs. Sparsit also “considered herself, in some sort, The Bank Fairy. The townspeople who, in their passing and repassing, saw her there, regarded her as the Bank Dragon keeping watch over all the treasures of the mine” (107). It is interesting how Dickens described Coketown with analogies and imagery that is related to fairy tales because the town was based solely on facts. When Sissy talks about the stories she would read to her father Mr. Gradgrind is not pleased because they are fairy tales. Because he references fairy tales it is almost showing that what is seen, “Facts alone are wanted in life” (7). Shouldn’t be the only thing used. It definitely shows that contrast of facts versus imagination: but Dickens shows with his imagery that he believes that imagination outweighs facts.

Another thing I found interesting was the character James Harthouse. He is the one character that is both facts and imagination. He is the only character that bases his decisions on himself and what he wants, instead of facts or imagination—he is the character in the middle of all of it. He is also the character that I see as the most knowledgeable. When Harthouse first meets Bounderby, Lousia, and Tom he is not fooled by anyone. The entire time he seems to know Bounderby and Tom’s true character. Even though the reason he gets Louisa to turn on Tom for his money problem is not for Louisa’s benefit but for himself, he still sees that Tom is not a good person. Harthouse is the one character throughout the book that seems the most human: his actions follow his own personal benefit. He was also the character that first started calling Tom “the welp”. When Hathouse first meets Louisa and is introduced to her one of the first things he thinks is, “This vicious assumption of honesty in dishonesty—a vice so dangerous, so deadly, and so common—seemed, he observed, a little to impress her in his favour”” (123). When I read this quote, I saw it as saying that Louisa has people in her life that are both honest and dishonest: but neither has had an effect on her and she either doesn’t notice when they are, or she doesn’t care. Harthouse is the one character that sees everyone for who they truly are, when everyone else is in the dark. It’s interesting that of all the characters he is the one that is the one that sees everyone’s true character. I think it is because he is the only one from the outside of both Coketown and the circus: also because he has been known to flit from place to place and he has had more life experience than people who base everything only on facts and also people that base everything only on imagination. Harthouse’s character shows that you need both facts, imagination, and life experience to be successful and maybe the combination of facts and imagination lead to people wanting to find that life experience--like Harhouse.

My blog is a bit scatterbrained, but for the things I talked about, they are things I still struggle with completely grasping. I absolutely loved reading Hard Times. I haven’t read a Charles Dickens novel and it reminded of how much I love his style of writing. His use of repetition and parallel structure is a breath of fresh air.