Satire in Charles Dickens' Hard Times

Name: Lahcen Azroual

Research Proposal

Indeed; Satire is a genre of literature in which vices, follies, and

shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of
shaming individuals, government or society itself, into
improvement. Most importantly, satire's greatest purpose is often
constructive social criticism. My favorite Victorian novel Hard
Times is a Juvenal satirical literary work.  Most significantly,
perhaps, it is a satire of the values on which industrial society is
based. This paper will examine how satire is constructed as a
social criticism in Charles Dickens' Hard Times, besides tackling
the impact of embracing industrialization in society and how this
would, in turn, inhibit humanity and turn them into machines,
stunting their emotional and intellectual development. I will also
answer the two questions: How satire as a literary genre is
manifested in Charles dickens hard times? And how does Charles
dickens represent the society and its suffering from the aftermath
of the industrialization? It is worth mentioning that Dickens' novel
seems to represent a traditional stage between his satire on
particular aspects of society and his more general, and gloomier,
depiction of its wrongs. Dickens was a great entertainer, but he
was also a passionate critic of his times. His journalistic training,
combined with his extraordinary powers of observation, enabled
him to create in detail a panoramic picture of the age which he
lived.