Hard Times †Charles Dickens Essay -- English Literature

Hard time Charles daemon argue the theme of education in Hard TimesCharles Dickens was a great author of the 19th Century and his books ar recognised and love nation wide. Many people understand themeaning to his books, as they are not just plain fiction. In the novelHard Times Dickens intensely criticises the British system ofeducation and how it has evolved over the old age the 19th Centuryphilosophy of Utilitarianism. Dickens believed this system was afailure, as it changed childrens minds and morals, and it is thisnovel that he attempts to show the horrors that this system hascreated.A prescript was formed by Jeremy Bentham, the eighteenth centuryphilosopher, calculating the greatest acceptable for the greatest number.This theory explained that self-interest was the primary motivating obligate behind all human conduct people strived for pleasure and testedin vain to avoid pain. Bentham advocated a system of calculation cognizeas moral arithmetic. This was used whenever a d ecision had to bemade about a particular choice of sue, be it an respective(prenominal) deed ora law affecting million. The equation was a simple one pleasure vs.pain. If all the factors fell in the billing of pleasure for thegreatest number then the appropriate course of action was adopted.However, it failed to take account of the happiness and well-being ofthose who did not belong to the greatest number. It also presumed thatevery human being on earth prized slide fastener but material values. Thecatastrophes that this pathetic philosophy caused are explored andcriticised by Dickens in the novel Hard Times.The philosophy also emphasised the hard-nosed usefulness of things.This meant that art, imagination, pl... ...ildrens education. The grim pursuit of facts is contrasted with thecolourful and rich life history of the imagination as experienced by thecircus folk. When one of them is subjected to the rigours ofGradgrinds educational philosophy her human nature naturally rejec tsthe attacks made on it Sissy Jupe leans nothing from the artificiallyimposed educative processes familiar in the Gradgrind household. Nut,as we see later in the novel, her own essential excellence isinstrumental in educating those suffering from the inadequacies of theGradgrind philosophy.The children are denied the natural pursuits of childhood much(prenominal) asplay, fantasy, fun and entertainment. They are dead as children andare forced, by Gradgrinds system, to become unnatural children. Theyare therefore without essential qualities needful in adulthood and asof this they become in humane.