Wash Those Dirty Hands: The Context of Hard Times

Matt Binder

HIS 3970

Dr. Key

Coketown

• The descriptions of Coketown as a dirty, unpleasant city are comparable to cities of the time such as Manchester, London, or Ironbridge.

Sissy Jupe and Utilitarianism

• Sissy is the used by Dickens as his voice against Utilitarianism, especially in regards to education.

Stephen Blackpool and Labor• Stephen Blackpool

represents the “plebians” in Victorian Society. Dickens refers to the factory laborers as “the Hands”

The Great Exhibition• The Great Exhibition of 1851 highlighted the British Empire’s magnitude and

dominance over the rest of the world. It also highlighted class division as laborers were put on display with their machines for the upper class to view.

Unionism

• Slackbridge and his fellow union members highlight Dickens’ distaste for unionism among the working class

Gradgrind and Bentham

• Bentham represents the movement called “Utilitarianism” which looked to reform society through Parliamentary legislation

Gradgrind and the Middle Class

• Mr. Gradgrind also represents the emergence of a middle class and professional class identity within English society.

Bounderby and the Nouveau Riche

• Bounderby represents the new upper class of rich businessmen whom, instead of inherited wealth, earned their fortunes through business ventures.

End.

Picture Credits

• http://www.uncp.edu/home/rwb/factory_manchester.gif• http://www.corsetsandcrinolines.com/Tidbits/October2006/ss8.jpg• http://www.lincolnshire.gov.uk/upload/public/docimages/Normal/m/o/

u/Victorianclassroom600x300.jpg• http://www.shiawasseehistory.com/images/corunnaworkers.jpg• http://dickens.stanford.edu/images/Hard%20Issue%206/

preston_strike.jpg• http://lernen.bildung.hessen.de/bilingual/Englisch/sozialkunde/

Englisch/sozialkunde/ost/11_1/fam/Englisch/sozialkunde/Bilder/tea• http://www.charlesdickenspage.com/characters/

harmon_boffins_wilfer-stone.gif• Matt Binder