How does Dickins use satirical techniques to reveal a message about the Industrial Revolution?

 Some Mouthwatering Quotes

"Cultivate in them, while there is yet time, the utmost graces of the fancies and affections, to adorn their lives so much in need of ornament; or, in the day of your triumph, when romance is utterly driven out of their souls, and they and a bare existence stand face to face, Reality will take a wolfish turn, and make an end of you." Book 2, Chap. 6

 "As he now leaned back in his chair, and bent his deep-set eyes upon her in his turn, perhaps he might have seen one wavering moment in her, when she was impelled to throw herself upon his breast, and give him the pent-up confidences of her heart. But, to see it, he must have overleaped at a bound the artificial barriers he had for many years been erecting, between himself and all those subtle essences of humanity which will elude the utmost cunning of algebra until the last trumpet ever to be sounded shall blow even algebra to wreck. The barriers were too many and too high for such a leap." Book 1, Chap. 15

"Strange as it always is to consider any assembly in the act of submissively resigning itself to the dreariness of some complacent person, lord or commoner, whom three-fourths of it could, by no human means, raise out of the slough of inanity to their own intellectual level, it was particularly strange, and it was even particularly affecting, to see this crowd of earnest faces, whose honesty in the main no competent observer free from bias could doubt, so agitated by such a leader." Book 2, Chap. 4

"Mr. Gradgrind greatly tormented his mind about what the people read in this library: a point whereon little rivers of tabular statements periodically flowed into the howling ocean of tabular statements, which no diver ever got to any depth in and came up sane." Book 1, Chap. 8

"She went up to the house, keeping within the shrubbery, and went round it, peeping between the leaves at the lower windows. Most of them were open, as they usually were in such warm weather, but there were no lights yet, and all was silent. She tried the garden with no better effect." Book 2, Chap 11

Womens Role in Society

Throughout the text, some women are portrayed as being a positive influence upon society (rachael, Sissy), while other women are portyrayed as having a negative influence (Mrs. Sparsit). Analyze the role of women in Hard Times, and Dickens feeling of womens role within society.

Fire in Fahrenheit 451

Just as fire is a significant metaphor in Hard Times, it is also a large part of Ray Bradbury's classic Fahrenheit 451.

This ubiquitous symbol can be subject to a myriad of interpretations, which is evident in these two texts. While Dickens uses fire to represent an individual's (particularly Louisa's) spirit and livelihood (or lack thereof), fire in Fahrenheit 451 is a purely destructive element: it destroys knowledge, and ultimately, the complexities of humanity. Although fire serves two almost completely opposite functions in these novels, they are related in that--whether it is for good or for evil--both authors acknowledge the sheer power of fire as a catalyst of change.

Fire and Imgination

"The answer was so long in coming, though there was no indecision in it, that Tom went and leaned on the back of her chair, to contemplate, from her point of view, and see what he could make of it.

'Except that it is a fire,' said Tom, 'it looks to me as stupid and blank as everything else looks. What do you see in it? Not a circus?'"

 

Fire, since the start of book one, has been indicative of imagination and an inner yearning for more knowledge. Mr. Gradgrind in his classroom tries to remove each students individuality and fill them full of facts; he also attempts to remove this metaphorical "fire" from his children, but Louisa, his daughter, still attempts to fill herself with this forbidden knowledge. Throughout the novel Louisa finds comfort in staring into the fire which always seems to envelope her, the quote above shows this by saying "the fire which so engrossed [Louisa]."Her ability to look into the fire and learn more about herself reveals that Mr. Gradgrind failed in removing Louisa's individuality, and she can still use her imagination, represented through her understanding of the fire. However this is different for Tom, who for most of the novel obeyed the laws from his father. Thomas lacked the capacity to be creative because he questioned Louisa's logic when looking into the fire, "'Except that it is a fire,' said Tom, 'it looks to me as stupid and blank as everything else looks. What do you see in it? Not a circus?'" Toms inability to understand Louisa's connection to the fire reveals that he lacks imaginations since he has only followed the ideals of his father. The use of fire through Hard Times reveals the ability to a be creative and imaginative, harness by Louisa and lost in Tom.

Chapter 3

 

"There was an air of jaded sullenness in them both, and particularly in the girl: yet, struggling through the dissatisfaction of her face, there was a light with nothing to rest upon, a fire with nothing to burn, a starved imagination keeping life in itself somehow, which brightened its expression."

With its natural powers to change and destroy, fire is accented repetetively throughout the storyline.  Though the city of Coketown and its inhabitants are portrayed to be nothing more than dry or morose, sticking to nothing but "facts", Louisa, on the contrary, is a standout character, depicted as wholly separate to society, having the drive of "fire" within her, able to blossom from society and reform it as she does. But though her hunger of individualism, her fire, is vividly shown in the beginning of Book One, it is also evident that it is held back, just potential sparks with no kinder, a"fire with nothing to burn". This strife is caused by her father, Mr. Gradgrind, who constantly attempts to hold back Louisa's drive, thus constricting her individualism."

Fire in The Hunger Games

Fire is often used as symbol of reform and transformation; in the hunger games, a reform of the oppresive government - in Hard Times, a reform of the eduction system to a new creativity and thought focused form of education. Katniss, a symbol of the revolution to take place within her world, wears a dress during the "prelims" of the games that is covered in flames. Not only do the games transform Katniss into a symbol of hope to oppressed districts, they create a leader in Katniss, who, in later books, leads a revolution against the Capital. In both Hard Times and the Hunger Games, Fire is used as a symbol of change- by destroying the old to make room for the new.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2sXXG3tTaI

"The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled."-- Plutarch

How does this relate to Hard Times? (And/or, to what extent do you think teachers today treat the mind like a fire/vessel?)

The Power of Fire

"The seizure of the station with a fit of trembling, gradually deepening to a complaint of the heart, announced the train. Fire, and steam, and smoke, and a red light; a hiss, a crash, a bell, and a shriek; Louisa put into one carriage, Mrs Sparsit put into another: the little station a desert speck in the thunder-storm."

Rather than passively observing the fire as she did in Book One, Louisa has now internalized the fire for her own benefit. It is her fuel, as it is the train's. Dickens lists the elements that comprise the train's arrival in quick succession to create a chaotically layered image which mirrors Louisa's emotional state. Fire transports her to her final destination, to confrontation, to her emotional destruction. Steam--a byproduct of fire--is especially significant here, because it represents Louisa's once-dormant emotions building inside of her: an internal force, ready to burn whomever it is unleashed upon. Her breakdown at the end of Book Two is Gradgrind's karmic retribution for repressing her fire for so long; however, because he is burned by the fire he once extinguished, he ultimately reforms his character.

DISCLAIMER: If Google brought you here because you're doing an assignment like this: this is not a credible source. At all. Have fun suffering through Hard Times ("suffering through hard times"<---Lololol) with only whatever Google is showing you. :D
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(Would a credible source end a blog post with :D? Nope.)

Explosion

 "Louisa and Mr. Harthouse strolled out into the garden, where their voices could be heard in the stillness, though not what they said. Mrs. Sparsit, from her place at the backgammon board, was constantly straining her eyes to pierce the shadows without. 'What's the matter, ma'am? ' said Mr. Bounderby; 'you don't see a Fire, do you?'"(emphasis mine).

Fire, which has served as a symbol of imagination during the entirety of the text, is again highlighted in the chapter, "Explosion"; using Louisa as a symbol of an internal fire. Bounderby, a man who has devoted himself to the removal of "fancies", has spent his life seeking to remove this inner fire from all individuals. Because of this eternal search, the irony of Bounderby asking Mrs. Sparsit if she sees a fire, when in reality she is watching Louisa and Mr. Harthouse, suggests that Louisa's inner fire is being searched for so it may be put out - just like how a literal fire would be - by Bounderby. Also, the description of Mrs. Sparsit trying to "pierce" the characters, again hints at the idea that what is being searched for, is within the characters, and beyond casual observation. The description of the characters as shadows, something without light, is also symbolic of the characters outwardly appearance of being fact based. Despite this appearance as a shadow, the inner light within Louisa remains, even if it is being slowly snuffed out by Bounderby. Because of the enduring nature of Louisa's inner fire, Dickins is suggesting the one's creativity cannot be shunned within a person forever, because regardless of all attempts, this inner fire will burn on, even when trapped within the shadows of one's life.