University of Los Andes

Faculty of Humanities and Education

School of Modern Languages
English Literature

Both man and nature displaced by industrialisation in Charles Dickens'

1854 "Hard Times
By Leonardo Santiago
E-mail: leonardodx@yahoo.com

As we read Charles Dickens' 1854 "Hard Times", we can observe there are in there
many relevant social issues concerning the irregularities that faced the 19 th century working
class as well as the increase on the deterioration of the natural environment during the same
historical period, since agriculture means of production were replaced by industrial ones.
Thus, the setting of the novel shows marked differences on social status in that there was a
deep gap between riches and the poor class, apart from rejection against the proletarians
and their children, and environmental pollution together with unhealthy working conditions
in the face of a very capitalistic labour system. Whit this in mind, we aim to reflect how
both man and nature were displaced by industrialization in England during the Victorian
Era, as it is demonstrated on one of the characters from the novel, Stephen Blackpool, as
well as by taking into account some of the many references Dickens does about the polluted
Coketown, the place in which he sets his literary work.
Initially, it is very important to make account about the way Dickens presented this
topic as he did it in a very realistic way in that he attempted not only to describe 19 th
century England in terms of socio-environmental issues, but also because with his work he
protested against the wrong way mainstream along the economical system were
transforming the country in a very negative way. In fact, despite in the half of the 19th
century certain labour movements arose in England, some of them having novels of the
kind of Dickens' as revolutionary manifestos, the true is that the bills did not solve those

problems as activists pretended to, mostly because the conditions of the working class and
child labour were still very bad. Thereby, we may see that those proletarian movements
failed in their objectives, especially because most of those groups were conformed by poor
uneducated people who either knew to read nor about law. This is why "when a bill was
passed stipulating that children under nine could not work in the textile industry, this in no
way applied to other industries, nor did it in any way curb rampant teenaged prostitution"
(Miller, nd.). Hence, Dickens' novel serves to understand some main important events of
19th century European history, because his novel sprouts from a very realistic soil and this
aspect gives to the work significance in terms of historic importance.
Hence we can appreciate this reality in the character of Stephen Blackpool, a man
about 50 years old who worked as a weaver at Josiah Bounderby's textile factory. He
constitutes the best example Dickens' uses to present the labouring conditions that the
working class faced at the Dickeans England. According to the novel, Blackpool had spent
his life without any other purpose than working in the factory. This limitation not only sets
him apart from society as a normal citizen, but also drives his marriage to failure. Thereby,
his absence from home limits him to manage his relationship in an appropriate way.
Moreover, his wife, whose name is not revealed in the novel, has serious alcoholic habits,
taking place for constant discussions that picture both characters as frustrated while living
in a dark room with scarce settings and supplies, what symbolises how emotionally
hopeless they feel inside themselves in the middle of a purposeless life. This can be seen as
Blackpool is described in chapter 11, in the first book, The Way Out: "Stephen came out of
the hot mill into the damp wind and cold wet streets, haggard and worm, () taking
nothing but a little bread as he walked along, towards the hill on which his principal
employer lived" (Dickens, 1854, p. 59). Hence, as in Blackpools personal life, we come to
understand how these economic events in history brought many relevant social changes that
lead to give rise to laws in favour of workers to protect their rights in favour of the
preservation of society.
In addition to this, even though Dickens does not make a direct remark on any
health reform as such, his novel underlies certain features that are related to that. That is to

say, among the many factors that are involved in the novel, health turns into relevant since
working at a factory supposes it might be a healthy place to work in, but things look very
disappointing in Bounderby's factory as well as in the general landscape and social
environment of Coketown. This is showed in the following quote, found at the beginning of
the second book, chapter 5, Men and Masters: "A rapid ringing of bells; and all the
melancholy-mad elephants, polished and oiled up for the day's monotony, were at their
heavy exercise again" (Dickens, p. 5). In this case, we dare to say that both the bells and
melancholy symbolise a kind of process that accelerated the rhythm of activities and set
workers under constant pressure, stress and weariness.
Moreover, throughout the same character, Blackpool, Dickens also questions other
aspects behind the misery of the working class. That is to say, far from what we have
already mentioned about Blackpool, in that he was condemned to work incessantly, there
were other negative events in his life. One such example can be read in the second book, at
chapter 8, Explosion, when the robbery of the bank takes place and coincides with the trip
Blackpool does to leave the town after he resigned as weaver. The thing is that this situation
makes him become unfairly suspicious about the robbery and he has to return to Coketown,
but in his way to the town he has an accident that ends in the cause of his death. Thus, by
Blackpools attitude in the face of the problem, since he accepts to return and prove his
innocence, and due to the wrong judgment, Dickens criticises those negative views from
the high class towards the proletarians and the need to create and reform the law in favour
of the working class. Moreover, the conditions in which Blackpool dies lead us to picture
very well what Miller (nd.) affirms in that the attempts of 19th century English working
movements "continued to be a large and generally disgruntled working class, wanting and
slowly reform and change" throughout the whole century.
Apart from this, we also find the problem concerning the deterioration of nature and
the problems it causes to workers and Coketowners in general. Dickens shows much about
this problem, probably as a metaphor to describe London at that time, especially because
there are many references about the town as a very dark place, which is constantly covered
by billows and gas clouds formed from the industrial chimneys as well as air drafts with
heavy oil and gas smells. To exemplify this, we take the following quote from the second

book, chapter 1, Reaping: "The whole town seemed to be frying in oil. There was a stifling
smell of hot oil everywhere" (Dickens, p. 92). Thus, the novel shows how nature in
Coketown is being displaced by industrialisation, because there is not interest on protecting
the ecosystem. Historians say that this consequences in London started even in the 18 th
century with cholera and health scares that "paved the way for cleaner water (...) and major
works, such as drainage and slum clearance, were put in the hands of the Metropolitan
Board of Works" (Robinson, 2011).
Additionally, Dickens goes even deeply since he criticises the damage factories are
causing to the ecosystem in the town, but he also refers to the grotesque way in which the
factories infrastructure affects the whole beauty of the place. What is more, according to
some parts of the novel, he seems to make the reader conscious about how awful this
industrial phenomenon was turning more and more, because they have this problem of
pollution, now infrastructure that hides the beauty of the natural environment that
surrounded the town and noise pollution as well. We read this in the second book, chapter
12, The Old Woman: "Machinery slackened; throbbing feebly like a fainting pulse; stopped.
The bell again; the glare of light and heat dispelled; the factories, looming heavy in the
black wet night -the tall chimneys rising up into the air like competing Towers of Bable"
(Dickens, p. 67). In this way, Dickens constructs an all-angle photograph that shows the
whole problem of pollution in Coketown, a real critter that has been devouring the planet
since then.
Moreover, it is very important to mention that, as in Dickens', all these social events
in British history served for inspiration of many other interesting novels of the kind of
"Hard Times." In fact, the discontent towards industrialisation encouraged the conformation
of the industrial novel genre. That is to say, this genre "grew out of a profound realignment
of public consciousness, brought about by the urban and industrial changes at the beginning
of the nineteenth century" (James, nd., p. 544). Hence we may find Benjami Disraeli's 1854
"Sybil, or the Two Nations" as another British author who approached this problem about
labouring conditions of the working class in England, though his main purpose was more
than generating consciousness about it, to generate a social movement in favour of the
working class. Elizabeth Gaskell's 1848 "Mary Barton" and Charles Kingsley's 1849 "Alton

Locke" are two other examples that explore misery on the working class at the time as well
as social injustice against workers from industrial employers (Diniejko, 2010).
Finally, it is necessary to mention the reasons why we wanted to talk about this topic
lay on the fact that we think these issues, presented above, are much related to some
worldwide current events. That is to say, despite we have this novel heritage in that those
literary works still may warn people on the damage that industrialisation has been causing
since the 19th century, it is true that reforms in both labouring system and environmental
campaigns have not reached changes as we may expect from a 21th century civilised world.
In this way, we did not pretend to present in this work the world as a chaotic place, but we
all have known about the news on the resent nuclear disaster that took place in Japan, the
constant nuclear threats from South Korea and irregularities from some countries like the
United States who do not respect international protocols that prevent from pollution, and
this is very significant since those facts are very negative aspects that are produced from
modern industrial means of production. Thus, with all these things in mind, we believe that
"Hard Times" still does much sense even many decades after the time Charles Dickens
wrote it.

References
Dickens, C. (1854). Hard Times. Retrieved http://pinkmonkey.com/dl/library1/dic04.pdf.
Diniejko, A. (2010). Condition-of-England Novels. Retrieved from
http://www.victorianweb.org/genre/diniejko.html.
James, L. (nd.). The Nineteenth Century Social Novel in England. Encyclopedia of
Literature and Criticism. Cardiff: University of Wales (pp. 544-533). Retrieved
from http://webdelprofesor.ula.ve/humanidades/anderzon/materias/materiales/THE
%20NINETEENTH%20CENTURY%20SOCIAL%20NOVEL%20IN
%20VICTORIAN%20ENGLAND.pdf.
Miller, I. (nd.). The Victorian Era. Retrieved from
http://www.victoriaspast.com/FrontPorch/victorianera.htm.
Robinson, B. (2011). London: "A Modern Babylon." Retrieved from
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/london_modern_babylon_01.shtml.