Literary interpretation essay

Charles fiend refreshing Hard Times puts premium on the alive economic and social burdens that pressed on individuals during his time. One of the most noticeable features create verbally throughout the text of the fable is that it is filled with family struggles, sorrow, decaying morals as swell as the element of estrangement. For example, Thomas Gradgrind, one of the records, is depicted as a man whose deep fascination with imprudent utilitarian principles champions him to give extensive confidence to statistics and points as well as to the idea of practicality of things.In essence, the book is prospect to be too didactic as it appears to merely express the negatively charged aspects of the industrial age prominent during dickens time, further giving us the impression that the characters in the novel are mere caricatures and that their sentiments sequin inasmuch as the morality is creation portrayed as frail. This is one of the many interest and thought-provoking elem ents in the novel that has roused the minds of many, with critics taking aim at the truly illustration ascribed by Dickens to the characters.Hippolyte Taine argues that the characters in the novel actually get along under two main distinctions either the characters are individuals who both signalize feelings and perceptions or the characters lack these two. He further suggests that the characters only serve the theatrical role of filling-up the content of the novel and inducing more hilarity and that Dickens actually compares the soul created by nature to that of the soul deformed by the society.The arguments organism raised by Taine brings us a closer look into the character portrayals as well as into the context upon which the characters are placed. The claim being put forward by Taine indeed contains a strand of stiffness with regards to the histrionic villains primarily because the characters in the novel are portrayed as individuals who appear to be guised as machines b y obstruct the enhancement in their feelings. This stinkpot be observed primarily from the exploits of Thomas Gradgrind and Bounderby where the former teaches his live and the rest of his family through the use of facts and statistics and the latter handles his factory employees as entities without emotions thereby abusing them to further his own benefits.On the otherwise hand, one can withal perceive the notion that the didactic view of Taine only amplifies the idea that the novel of Dickens is one that is composite. Part of the reason to this can be observed from the fact that the novel itself, by suggesting themes contained in the time of industrialization, has several aspects worthy of sounding into. Not only is the entirety of the novel to be treated as a completely and undivided literary work. Rather, it is a complex novel as well, suggesting subject matters such as the automation of the lives of humans, the conflict existing amid fact and fancy, as well as the signifi cance of womanliness to name a few.Further, there are characters in the novel that exhibit a form of doubles or alter egos which Dickens utilizes in hostel to challenge the perception of reality centering on the subject general in the prevailing forms of culture in classic realism as well as in great Romanticism. Part of this can be reflected on Bounderbys attempt of using his workers in order to get along his personal interests, suggesting the idea that the character of Bounderby can also be analyse in terms of personal motivations apart from the idea that the character can be primarily examined in terms of the subjects actions.These observations lead us to the assumption that Dickens work is more complex than how Taine views it by didactic means. One should be reminded that, although Taine makes a good point in arguing that the characters may or may not illustrate feelings and emotions, the characters heretofore can be scrutinized further by focusing on the motivations crumb their actions and the context of the time where the story operates. It brings into light the complex and intricate strands of irregular behavior exhibited during times when life ought to have been a little easier for the individual.The relational complexness of characterization is likewise significant in the novel basically because it does not only heighten the motifs in the novel but also connects these motifs altogether in a congruent flow of thoughts that establishes the central and study contention of the novel. Among these motifs include the childhood years of Bounderby, marriages that are both curly-grained and miserable and the comparison of mechanical time to that of the changing of seasons to name a few.Further, several symbols depicted in the novel also add to the complexity displayed by the characters throughout the story. Some of these include the staircase imagined by Mrs. Sparsit, the Pegasus locate inside the inn, the smoke serpents that relate to the perceptio ns and actuations of Bounderby, and the sex or, more specifically, the inner fire exemplified in the character of Louisa.Indeed, these factors and the rest of the literary observations go against the claim of Taine, highlight instead the complexity of the novel of Dickens as a whole and the dense characterizations of the individuals. It can be saidas opposed to Taines dichotomized treatment on the charactersthat the characters bend towards flexibility of character, acting as quash of emotion on this aspect and appearing as filled with emotion on the other. Bounderby, for example, shows little or no affection towards the workers while, on the other hand, exhibiting a sense of fulfillment in furthering his interests.In general, Charles Dickens novel has prompted criticisms that hear to critique the portrayal of characters in the novel, raising arguments that aim at simplifying the complex story into seeming dichotomies. Quite on the contrary, the overall image of the novel is alrea dy intricate and that the scenes and the characters altogether conjure the complete complexity of the work.ReferenceTaine, Hippolyte. The devil Classes of Characters in Hard Times. Hard Times An Authoritative Text, Contexts, Criticism. 3rd ed. red-hot York, NY W W Norton & Co Inc, 2000. 355.