Jan 19, 2012 06:32 PM
8196 Views
Ideas of 1854 were influenced by the ideas of the previous fifty years. In Hard Times Dickens attacks utilitarianism. He makes Gradgrind force his daughter Louisa to marry Bounderby. Gardgrind measures the situation by reason because he is a discipline of Bentham.(Jeremy Bentham is a thinker who influenced the thinkers of early 19th century. He taught that the test of an action(by a man, or a nation) was the extent to which it promoted 'the greatest happiness of the greatest number'. If you put self-interest first, you could usually justify your actions on these terms.
Further, from Bentham people inherited the idea that the different self-interests of a number of individuals will somehow harmonize and benefit all. So the voice of the reason seems to support every employer who looks after himself and seems to oppose every reformer who cares for the people.) People could see products of mills, mines and factories sent to the ends of earth and rejoice at the evidence of national prosperity. Bounderby is Dickens' s contribution to the slowly growing criticism of the self made man, publicly venerated as a shining example.
All the terms which had provided the vocabulary of those with a moral approach were said to be a superfluous. To put it crudely, conscience has no place in the system of Gradgrind. The Gradgrinds assert that the one thing needful is the application of reason. Dickens seeks to show that they leave out the one thing needful-the old- fashioned belief in right and wrong, the old fashioned place of imagination. Such grave omissions make times hard.
Hard Times is a counter attack that seeks to restore conscience and sentiments. In tracing the story of Grandgrinds he shows what happens when reason is elevated over feeling, when reason is applied as the test of action. He shows the price paid by those who leave out of the life essentials like love and conscience. At the end bot Gradgrind and children looks back in sorrow on unhappiness that could have been avoided; they look in dismay on lost opportunities. If they had not banished love and affection from their lives, they would not have met the ruin: Louisa rejecting the marriage bonds and Tom escaping out of the country with a blame. Few people realize that Dickens that the utilitarians attitude in this story is proved bad by their own utilitarian test. If you measure the pain(widespread and deep) against the pleasure, then the life ruled by reason to the exclusion of sentiments is a failure.
The utilitarian principle finds its exponents and champions in the two leading character of Hard Times, Gradgrind and Bounderby. Gradgrind's theory of education is an offshoot of his utilitarian attitude of life. He emphasizes the importance of facts, and fails to attach any importance to feelings and emotions. He proceeds on the calculations that two and two makes four and nothing over. He addresses Sissy as'girl number twenty: no other identification is fits in Grandgrind's system. Like Grandgrind, Bounderby is another embodiment of Utilitarianism. He is a man devoid of sentiments. His action was promoted by self interest.
Gradgrind is hoisted with his own petard, when Bitzer confronts him with harsh arguments that reflects his education and training imparted to him by Gradgrind himself. In this scene Gradgrind realizes finally the value of conscience and sentiments, but it is too late. His theories and hard facts have already ruined the life of Louisa and Tom. The tables are turned . Sleary, whom Gradgrind rejected in the beginning, ultimately becomes his teacher and makes him him understand the value of love. Sleary is and embodiment of sympathy, fellow- feelings and love as against Bitzer's belief in self-interest.
In this way Hard Times is a novel that pricks the bubble of Utilitarianism and Laissez-faire.
