COMMENTAIRE ANGLAIS : Hard Times, Charles Dickens

« His personality arouses the interest and the fear as Sissy’s body languages attests it : “[…] the young girl in a trembling voice […]” (l.27) and “Sissy Jupe thrown into the greatest alarm by this demand.” (l.43).

Moreover, the attention is turned to Thomas Gradgrind because the children answer immediately as the passage (l.65/66) underlines it so much that there is a submission from the pupils.

That is why we can say there is a kind of tyranny which is established.

As a result, this character appears clearly as a taskmaster who takes the control of the school in order to apply his laws. There is a discrepancy between the boys and the girls.

Actually, Thomas Gradgrind’s behavior conveys this impression of opposition because he does not consider the girls as the boys : he calls Bitzer by his name but not for Sissy.

The expression “girl number twenty” replaces her name and it is occurred several times in the text.

Though the sun was present, it does not light up similarly all the pupils.

The ray of the sunlight emphasizes the colour of the hair and the eyes of Sissy whereas it brightens Bitzer’s face : “But, whereas the girl was dark-eyed and dark-haired, that she seemed to receive a deeper and more lustrous colour from the sun when it shone upon her, the boy was so light-eyed and light-haired that the self-same rays appeared to draw out of him what little colour he ever possessed.” (l.55).

The light of the sun seems to liven up Sissy’s features contrary to Bitzer.

It conveys the impression that he is dehumanized because he loses his human characterizes : “His skin was so unwholesomely deficient in the natural tinge, that he looked as though, if he were cut, he would bleed white.” (l.63).

We can may be say that Bitzer is described as a machine because he no longer looks like a human being.

This dehumanization echoes the industrial time. The identity’s death in the text recalls the chapter’s entitled which is : “murdering the innocents”.

Sissy is not called by his name but by “number twenty” and Thomas Gradgrind insists to call her “Cecilia”.

Therefore, her identity and her personality are rejected by the character. The narrator treats the issue of the social backgrounds in the text.

In a way, he criticizes Thomas Gradgrind’s behavior who is a representative of the upper middle class by showing him like an unpleasant person.

For example, the character refuses the job of Mister Jupe as we can notice it thanks to his body languages : “[he] frowned and waved off the objectionable calling with his hand” (l.32).

Thus, he despises his work as we can see it with the use of the negation : “we don’t want to know anything about that, here.” (l.34). To conclude, this extract from Hard Times deals with the social context of the Industrial Time and points out some realities like the submission of the workers in the big owners’ respect, the opposition between the man and the woman… Thus, Thomas Gradgrind embodies clearly the big owners who want to create an empire in order to hold the capital and who dominate the workers.

Moreover, the narrator lampoons the character’s personality with a dark humour tone in order to help the readers to notice the predicament of this period.. »