Hard Times By Charles Dickens C
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Dickens, Hard Times
Course Work
Introduction:
Dickens wanted to write a novel which dealt with education and how people used to waste their lives away with facts. In a letter which Dickens wrote to Thomas Carlyle, he said: "Hard Times was written to shake some people in a terrible mistake of these days". Utilitarianism played a large part in the novel. Utilitarianism means an idea (philosophy) suggested by a social reformer called Jeremy Bentham. Bentham believed that an action was good if it helped to bring about the happiness of the greatest number. Dickens also wanted to explain his concerns with the lives of the poor. He wanted to show that the poor felt no one was concerned with their problems, so Dickens wanted to solve this. The opposition between fact and imagination or "fantasy" was also a problem which Dickens wanted to show through Hard Times. Dickens thought that imagination was Important and facts shouldn't rule people's lives. Dickens wanted to show how education used all facts and didn't let children explore their imagination...