Hard Times (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Charles Dickens
- First Published: 1854
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Social realism
- Time of Work: Mid-nineteenth century
- Setting: England
- Genres: Long fiction, Social realism
- Subjects: Teaching or teachers, Values, Nineteenth century, Social issues, Education or educators, Mistaken or secret identity, England or English people, Robbery or robbers, Politicians, Reformers, Labor unions, Satire, Victorian era or Victorianism
- Locales: England
Characters Discussed
Thomas Gradgrind, a retired hardware merchant and the founder of an experimental school where only facts and proved scientific laws are taught. A firm believer that “two and two are four, and nothing over,” he is the father of five unhappy fact-finders and the husband of an ailing, dispirited woman quite worn out from the facts of life. While he is essentially a kind and good man, his excessive attention to the scientific and the practical and his total neglect of the imaginative and the speculative make him a kind of bumbling ogre. Through...
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See Also:
Charles Dickens (Cyclopedia of World Authors)Charles Dickens (Censorship)Charles Dickens (Dictionary of World Biography)Charles Dickens (Short Fiction)Charles Dickens (Long Fiction)Charles Dickens (Mystery and Detective Fiction)
See Also:
- - Read the Hard Times text online.
- - For teachers, the Hard Times Lesson Plan.
- - Hard Times summary and study guide in the eNotes.
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