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“Dicken’s Hard Times begins in a classroom of facts and concludes in the circus of fancy. In a well-organized and coherent essay, discuss the significance of this shift of the setting to the theme of the novel. “
The theme of Fact and Fancy features prominently within Hard Times, reflecting a debate of major concern for Dickens and his peers during their era in Victorian England. Fact and Fancy can be seen as antagonistic concepts that compete by means of Dickens' characters who personify them, most notably the Gradgrinds for “Team Fact” and the Jupes for “Team Fancy”. As fathers, Gradgrind and Mr. Jupe could hardly be more different, and the same can be said of their respective daughters, Louisa and Sissy. The Gradgrinds are all business and formality; the Jupes are free spirits. So why the controversy?
Dickens feared that the facts of Utilitarianism could be destructive without the help of fancy. The novel reveals that these concepts can lead to the delusion of people. The main characters of the novel realize that their education of facts only deepens their misery and dejection; some of them become emotionally starved, and the conclusion is that they meet a different fate because of their futile efforts to acquire the education of Utilitarianism. When the characters of the novel are represented in this way it is obvious that Dickens is emphasizing the destruction of this theory of teaching. Dickens represents the philosophy of facts and fancy in his novel, and it is the main theme of Hard Times.
Gradgrind’s school attempts to turn children into little machines that behave according to such rules. Dicken is interested in illustrating that fiction cannot be excluded from a fact-filled, mechanical society. Dicken try to explain the dangers of allowing human to become like machines suggesting that without compassion and imagination, life would be unbearable.
Gradgrind’s children, however, grow up in an environment where all flights of fancy are depressed and they end up with serious social malfunction as a result. Lousia feels precisely this suffering when she returns to her father's house and tells him that something has been missing in her life, so much so that she finds herself in an unhappy marriage and maybe in love with someone else and unable to connect with others even though she has to desire to do so.on other hand, Tom becomes a hedonist who has little regard for others.
'People must be amused, Thquire, somehow,' continued Sleary, rendered more pursy than ever, by so much talking; 'they can't be always a working, nor yet they can't be always a learning.' (1.6.103)
Sleary here summarizes another key point of the novel – everyone needs an escape from everyday drudgery. human beings cannot just spend his life working which means that we should strike a balance between work and enjoying life.
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