Hard_Times

Hard Times The novel “Hard Times” written by Charles Dickens is a reflection of the changing ideas established during his time. Dickens’ characters essentially are personifications of changing ideas in psychology and political thought. Each one of his characters represents a different principle and its relationship to the general public. Both Stephen Blackpool and Thomas Gradgrind, Jr. for the most part characterize ideas of significant philosophers around the time of Dickens. Stephen Blackpool represents the abused worker, suffering under capitalism as expressed by Karl Marx. Blackpool symbolizes the oppressed working class of the 19th century in Dickens’ novel Hard Times. He is exposed as a sincere, hard-working weaver employed by the factory proprietor and proclaimed “self-made man” Josiah Bounderby. Through the course of the plot, Blackpool is found to have suffered many trials in life together with a matrimony to a drunk and the ill-fated love of a woman he cannot wed. He is even unwanted and disliked by his own class because of his denial to join an union with his fellow factory workers due to his belief that the trade union rebel is a fake prophet. In the end he defends the employees against thoughtless words blackpool, times, hard, tom, worker, pg, bounderby, marx, louisa, life, himself, been, time, out, love, even, dickens, stephen, poor, one, found, everything, after, work, tom, society, sister, once, novel, labor, ideas, guilt, end, education, class