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

Charles Dickens Hard TimesCharles Dickenss in allegory Hard Times critiques the use of extreme utilitarianism as an acceptable path to governing a society in which citizens argon able to go along happy, productive, flourishing lives. Just the facts,19th century slope utilitarianism argued, are all one needs to flourish. Those answers that we can arrive at by elan of mathematical, logical reasoning are all needed to live a full human life. Hard Times shows however that a in effect(p) the facts philosophy creates a community inhospitable to the needs of one another, a society n primeval void of human compassion, and one lacking in morality. Underlying the novels argument is the Aristotelian concept that the first-string purpose of government is to correctly educate citizens in morality and, consequentially, to turn 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 own er of the Mchoakumchild school where just the facts are taught and the apotheosis of 19th century English utilitarianism. Although Gradgrind intellect 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(prenominal) unhappy and immoral in Coketown, even more so than the manpower who suffer from its cruelty indirectly. If the purpose of the state is to cultivate moral individuals who are able to flourish together, the state built on utilitarian determine inevitably fails. Part of the inadequacy of utilitarianism and its statistical approach to addressing human problems is its objective, mass-quantity realise of people. Gradgrinds description alone captures the disconnected 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 h ope for a more unselfish perspective on human motivation. His critique concludes that the triumph of government lies in realistically evaluating humanity in all of its commonplace 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.