CHARLES DICKENS

Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812 in the United Kingdom. At the age of 10 he
moves with his family to London where he will attend school. In 1824 the father ends up in
jail due to debts.
At the age of 12, Dickens found work as a clerk in a factory where he glued labels onto shoe
cleaning products. Two years later he was hired to work in the legal department of a lawyer.
Here he meets various human figures from all types of social classes such as: prostitutes,
poor, rich, drug addicts, etc.... In fact, in his novels he inserts and describes the people he has
really
met and who have stuck with him.
In addition to them Charles Dickens has tried various experiences such as: prison, work in
the streets, work house, poor living conditions, life as a poor man and playing in the street
with
poor people.

THEMES
In his works we have a gallery of characters comparable to that of Shakespeare in which he
reflects their way of dressing, their behavior and habits, the difference in language according
to their land of origin (we can understand this thanks to his descriptive capacity).
It did not consider the solutions taken by the establishments dating back to the Victorian Age
system to be right.
As we can see, in fact, in his works the main themes dealt with are poverty, social injustices,
injustices at school, the suffering of the mass, conflicts between social classes and
education / instruction.
Characters belonging to Victorian society could evolve or undergo a change. For Dickens, on
the other hand, characters who belonged to the middle- class or upper class were considered
stereotypes and all had the same attitudes.
His characters were universal, meaning they could be anywhere at any time.
They were unforgettable because of their gestures and behaviors.

WRITERS
Charles Dickens was also in a period in which the writer had become, since the Augustan
Age, a real profession.
They were conditioned by the public reading their works because they aimed to please the
public by always paying attention to the topics covered because among the readers there
were also minors. Writers, like Charles Dickens, denounced society by displaying the
conditions to
which it was reduced.
However, they could not give a solution to the problems that arose for this, they were
limited to a simple complaint.

COKETOWN
Coketown is an industrial city (or city of coal) built in red brick which, however, has lost its
color becoming gray due to smog and pollution from inventions and industries.
The smoke that comes out of the chimneys is described as a snake crawling through the air.
Dickens says the city is like the painted face of a native.
An unidentifiable liquid flowed in the stream channel that stank as hell.
This city was always noisy where everything was shaking.
The pistons of the steam engines worked so monotonously (up and down) that they looked
like the head of an elephant in a state of sadness.
The streets and buildings were all the same without differences and made from the same
material, in fact the prison could be a school or even a hospital and so on.
The president, Choke Child, to make people equal decides to stifle their creativity, deeming it
useless.
In fact, the children did not have a personal name but only a name chosen on the spot based
on their appearance or characteristics.
The orphans, on the other hand, were assigned names following the alphabet (such
as A, B, C, etc. ..).
The girls flattered the people who gave names to children calling them "poets".
There are two main themes of this piece:
1) We find the repetition of the same actions performed by the inhabitants and not.
Everything is based on the utilitarian philosophy which consists in satisfying as many
people as possible thanks to the practicality of these facts
(minimum effort, all based on facts).
2) Dickens realizes this: the Victorian school was based on the principles of utilitarian
philosophy. Everything was judged according to its usefulness and practicality.

UTILITY PHILOSOPHY
Utilitarian philosophy bases its principles on everything that is useful, everything is judged
by its practical value.
It wanted to promote the material happiness of all people with minimal effort.

HARD TIMES
Dickens writes this work against utilitarian philosophy.
The work is set in Cocktown, an industrial city located in the industrial part of England. It is
built around two major themes:

The novel is set in cocktown, an industrial city in the industrial part of England, the novel is
built around two major themes: Factory system humanity and the principles of utilitarian
philosophy.

Plot: In difficult times, a teacher named Tomas was a person who only believed in facts. It
rejected imagination and creativity.
His children attend a school whose principles are based on utilitarian philosophy. Tomas
forces his daughter to marry a rich man who works in a bank.
When he discovers that his son is stealing his brother-in-law's money, Tomas realizes the
damage that utilitarian philosophy, also applied to the upbringing of children, had caused.