Hard Times

Hard Times

The novel Hard Times written by Charles Dickens, is a reflection of the evolving ideas prevalent during his time. Dickens’ characters especially are personifications of changing ideas in psychology and political thought. Each one of his characters symbolizes a different belief and its association to society. Both Stephen Blackpool and Thomas Gradgrind, Jr. particularly characterize ideas of notable philosophers around the time of Dickens. Stephen Blackpool portrays the abused worker, suffering under capitalism as expressed by Karl Marx. Blackpool represents the oppressed working class of the 19th century in Dickens’ novel Hard Times. He is portrayed as an honest, hard-working power-loom weaver employed by the factory owner and proclaimed “self-made man” Josiah Bounderby. Through the course of the plot Blackpool is found to have suffered many trials in life including a marriage to a drunk and the unfortunate love of a woman he cannot marry. He is even shunned and d...