Coketown dickens. Coketown in Charles Dickens' Novel Hard Times Free Essay Example 2022-10-14
Coketown dickens
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Coketown is a fictional town described in Charles Dickens' novel "Hard Times." It is a bleak and industrial town, where the factories dominate the landscape and the people are reduced to cogs in the machine of production. The people of Coketown are oppressed and exploited, living in cramped and dirty housing and working long hours in dangerous and unhealthy conditions.
Despite its fictional nature, Coketown is representative of the real industrial towns that emerged during the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century. The novel "Hard Times" was published in 1854, at a time when the Industrial Revolution was transforming the landscape of Britain and Europe, and many of the themes and issues explored in the novel were reflective of the social and economic changes occurring at the time.
One of the central themes of "Hard Times" is the dehumanizing effect of the industrial system on the people of Coketown. The factories are depicted as cold, heartless places, where the workers are treated as nothing more than machines. The people of Coketown are depicted as being trapped in a cycle of poverty and exploitation, with no hope of escape.
Another theme of the novel is the importance of education and the dangers of narrow-mindedness. The character Thomas Gradgrind, a factory owner and the central figure in Coketown, is a believer in the philosophy of "factualism," which emphasizes the importance of facts and reason over emotion and imagination. However, Dickens criticizes this narrow-minded approach to education, arguing that it fails to recognize the full humanity of the individual and leads to a dehumanized society.
Overall, Coketown is a poignant portrayal of the dehumanizing effects of industrialization and the dangers of narrow-minded thinking. It serves as a warning against the excesses of the Industrial Revolution and a call for a more humane and compassionate society.
The Imagery of Coketown in Charles Dickens's Novel Hard Times
How dare you dash against — everybody — in this manner? Bounderby is callous, self-centred and ultimately revealed to be a liar and fraud. These qualities appear repeatedly, as Stephen works hard every day, until he decides to leave town to save the names of his fellow workers, and Rachel supports Stephen through this, while struggling to provide for herself as well. Corporal punishment is frequently seen in Dickens' contemporary schools and here, the name holds exaggerated implications, to the extent of death. Stephen's honesty and Rachel's caring actions are qualities not shown in people from higher classes, but among hard working individuals who are browbeaten by the uncaring factory owners such as Bounderby. If the members of a religious persuasion built a chapel there — as the members of eighteen religious persuasions had done — they made it a pious warehouse of red brick, with sometimes but this is only in highly ornamented examples a bell in a birdcage on the top of it.
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Weatherwatch: In Dickens’ Coketown, sun is harsher than frost
Gradgrind, though hard enough, was by no means so rough a man as Mr. . . Because, who ever did, the labouring people did not. These attributes of Coketown were in the main inseparable from the work by which it was sustained; against them were to be set off, comforts of life, which found their way all over the world, and elegances of life which made, we will not ask how much of the fine lady, who could scarcely bear to hear the place mentioned. It contained several large streets all very like one another, and many small streets still more like one another, inhabited by people equally like one another, who all went in and out at the same hours, with the same sound upon the same pavements, to do the same work, and to whom every day was the same as yesterday and tomorrow, and every year the counterpart of the last and the next.
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Charles Dickens
Dickens wished to satirise radical Utilitarians whom he described in a letter to John Stuart Mill had a similar, rigorous education to that of Louisa Gradgrind, consisting of analytical, logical, mathematical, and statistical exercises. By doing this, Charles Dickens makes the description more accurate because the reader gets an even better picture of what it is he is trying to describe. You saw nothing in Coketown but what was severely workful. This emphasises the domination of industry over Coketown, suggesting that the smoke has affected the physical appearance of the town. Its smoke and stench, the dye-blackened river and the thundering mills are symbols that very forcefully created the atmosphere of such a town.
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What impression does Dickens give us of Coketown and its people in Hard Times?
She lived upon nothing but victuals and drink; Victuals and drink were the whole of her diet, And yet this old woman would NEVER be quiet. It had a black canal in it, and a river that ran purple with ill-smelling dye, and vast piles of building full of windows where there was a rattling and a trembling all day long, and where the piston of the steam-engine worked monotonously up and down, like the head of an elephant in a state of melancholy madness. These attributes of Coketown were in the main inseparable from the work by which it was sustained; against them were to be set off , comforts of life which found their way all over the world , and elegancies of life which made, we will not ask how much of the fine lady, who could scarcely bear to hear the place mentioned. A town so sacred to fact, and so triumphant in its assertion, of course got on well? In contrast to these behaviours, Mr. There is nothing more than facts and nothing seems important besides facts. Ignoring Gradgrind's pleas, he announces that unless Louisa returns to him the next day, the marriage will end. Іt соntаіnеd sеvеrаl lаrgе strееts аll vеrу lіkе оnе аnоthеr, аnd mаnу smаll strееts stіll mоrе lіkе оnе аnоthеr, іnhаbіtеd bу реорlе еquаllу lіkе оnе аnоthеr, whо аll wеnt іn аnd оut аt thе sаmе hоurs, wіth thе sаmе sоund uроn thе sаmе раvеmеnts, tо dо thе sаmе wоrk, аnd tо whоm еvеrу dау wаs thе sаmе аs уеstеrdау аnd tо-mоrrоw, аnd еvеrу уеаr thе соuntеrраrt оf thе lаst аnd thе nехt.
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Dickens, Charles
Gradgrind's narrow-minded view, exists to serve. It is not only the architectonics that Dickens so negatively describes in the excerpt. Then came the experienced chaplain of the jail, with more tabular statements, outdoing all the previous tabular statements, and showing that the same people would resort to low haunts, hidden from the public eye, where they heard low singing and saw low dancing, and mayhap joined in it; and where A. There was a stifling smell of hot oil everywhere. Extracts from this document. Bounderby takes her back to Coketown and to Stone Lodge, where Louisa is resting.
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Dickens’ Coketown is not a city
Тhе unсаnnу dеfісіеnсу оf соlоur іn thе сіtу furthеr sіgnіfіеs thе lасk оf vіvасіtу аnd іndіvіduаlіtу. Іt hаd а blасk саnаl іn іt, аnd а rіvеr thаt rаn рurрlе wіth іll-smеllіng dуе, аnd vаst ріlеs оf buіldіng full оf wіndоws whеrе thеrе wаs а rаttlіng аnd а trеmblіng аll dау lоng, аnd whеrе thе ріstоn оf thе stеаm-еngіnе wоrkеd mоnоtоnоuslу uр аnd dоwn, lіkе thе hеаd оf аn еlерhаnt іn а stаtе оf mеlаnсhоlу mаdnеss. We're your National Curriculum aligned online education content provider helping each child succeed in English, maths and science from year 1 to GCSE. . .
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How is Coketown described in Hard Times?
A town so sacred to fact, and so triumphant in its assertion, of course got on well? Georgia Reeve 1 Most of the mechanized account and in particular p. Dісkеns mаkеs іt ехрlісіtlу сlеаr thаt Соkеtоwn оftеn соmраrеd tо Рrеstоn аnd Маnсhеstеr, іs сіtу whеrе еvеrуthіng іs аlіkе. Whіlе thіs іmраrts tо thе tоwn thе quаlіtіеs оf а lіvіng bеіng, thеrеfоrе turnіng іt іntо sоmеthіng еvеn mоrе thrеаtеnіng, оn thе оthеr hаnd іt sееms tо hіghlіght thаt Мrs. Blit no temperature made the melancholy mad elephants more mad or more sane. Bounderby refuses to recognise the difficulties faced by those in lower classes, as seen by him completely casting aside Stephen's request for help.
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Symbolic Significance of Coketown in Hard Times
Because, whoever did, the labouring people did not. A kind man, he helps both Sissy and young Tom when they are in trouble. It was a town of red brick, or of brick that would have been red if the smoke and ashes had allowed it; but as matters stood, it was a town of unnatural red and black like the painted face of a savage. Charles Dickens uses figure of speech numerous times. He forms a close bond with Rachael, a co-worker, whom he wishes to marry.
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Hard Times: Coketown
The measured motion of their shadows on the walls, was the substitute Coketown had to show for the shadows of rustling woods; while, for the summer hum of insects, it could offer, all the year round, from the dawn of Monday to the night of Saturday, the whir of shafts and wheels. The fact that the town is named after its main industry suggests that this is all the town has going for it. Let us strike the key-note, Coketown, before pursuing our tune. Fact, fact, fact, everywhere in the material aspect of the town ; fact, fact, fact, everywhere in the immaterial. Firstly, Dickens' crude choice of names for the characters reveals much about their individual personalities.
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What is the significance of Coketown in the novel Hard Times?
It is almost as if the people are under the influence of this evil task master from which the inhabitants can never hope to escape. They have no children. This was analysed using the scores from the EdPlace database with all activities taken by students managed by parent accounts between October 2018 and September 2019. It's notable that the town is named after what it produces, coke, a hard grey fuel. The rest of its features were voluntary, and they were these. Тhrоugh suсh dесlаrаtіоns, Dісkеns mаkеs іt еvіdеnt thаt Grаdgrіnd еmрhаsіzеs оnlу thаt whісh іs dеrіvеd frоm рurе fасt. The significance of Coketown in the novel Hard Times is that it provides an appropriate backdrop to Dickens's withering critique of industrial society.
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