Charles Dickens Hard Times Essay -- Charles Dickens Hard Times Essays

Charles Dickens Hard clockCharles Dickenss novel Hard Times critiques the use of extreme utilitarianism as an acceptable means to governing a society in which citizens are able to lead happy, productive, flourishing lives. Just the facts,nineteenth century English utilitarianism argued, are any one needfully to flourish. Those answers that we can arrive at by way of mathematical, logical reasoning are tout ensemble needed to live a full human life. Hard Times shows however that a just the facts philosophy creates a community inhospitable to the needs of one another, a society n primordial void of human compassion, and one lacking in morality. Underlying the novels argument is the Aristotelian idea that the primary purpose of government is to correctly educate citizens in morality and, consequentially, to cultivate an upright social environment where all are inspired to flourish. How fitting, then, that early in the novel we are introduced to Thomas Gradgrind, educator and owner of the Mchoakumchild school where just the facts are taught and the apotheosis of 19th century English utilitarianism. Although Gradgrind judgment is calculated to be the best way to maximize happiness, in the Mchoakumchild class room it soon becomes clear that its adherents are the most unhappy and illegal in Coketown, even more so than the Hands who suffer from its cruelty indirectly. If the purpose of the severalise is to cultivate moral individuals who are able to flourish together, the state built on utilitarian values inevitably fails. Part of the inadequacy of utilitarianism and its statistical approach to addressing human problems is its objective, mass-quantity view of people. Gradgrinds description alone captures the bewildered nature and col... ...human nature makes for a bare-bones human existence, replete with crime, immorality, greed, and as especially demonstrated in Louisas case, unhappiness. Mr. Slearys compassion gives voice to Dickenss hope for a more unselfi sh perspective on human motivation. His critique concludes that the success of government lies in realistically evaluating humanity in all of its general and idiosyncratic tendencies. As Nussbaum says in her essay, Dickens does not call for a relativistic approach to governance but one more in touch with the realities and complexities of being human. Works CitedDickens, Charles. Hard Times. Ed. Fred Kaplan and Sylvre Monod. New York W.W. Norton & Company, Inc, 2001. Nussbaum, Martha C. The Literary Imagination in Public Life. Hard Times. Ed. Fred Kaplan and Sylvre Monod. New York W.W. Norton & Company, Inc, 2001. 429-439.