6 October 2022
Hello friends, here I am writing a blog on review of the Hindi play based on "Hard Times" by Charles Dickens.
Hard Times
Hard Times:For these time, written by Charles Dickens, was originally published in serial form in 1854. Serialised weekly in Dicken's own publication, Household Words.It is one of Charles Dicken's shortest novels. In this novel Dickens discuss about Industrialism.
→ Time : The middle of the nineteenth century
→ Place : Coketown, a manufacturing town in the south of England
∆ Novel written in 3 parts :
• Sowing
• Reaping
• Garnering
Dickens divided characters of this novel in four groups :
∆ Group 1: Industrialist :
→ Thomas Gradgrind
→ Mrs. Gradgrind
→ Louisa Gradgrind ( Loo)
→ Thomas Gradgrind (Tom)
→ Jane Gradgrind
→ Josiah Bounderby
→ Mrs. Pegler
→ Mrs. Sparsit
∆ Group 2: Circus :
→ Cecelia Jupe
→ James Harthhouse
→ Mr. Sleary
∆ Working class :
→ Stephen Blackpool
→ Rachael clady
∆ School :
→ Mr. Mcchoakumchild
→ Bitzer
The play begins with a conversation between Sutradhar and Nut.They started the play with a song that gives the theme of the play : "कमाल की कहानी ये हैं तो बड़ी पुरानी जी" Charles Dickens take side to working class people not industrial people.
"Now, what I want is Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life."(Hard Times,Book 1, Chapter 1)
In the industrial city of Coketown, Josiah Bounderby is a rich and factory owner and banker. He is friends with Thomas Gradgrind, a rich politician and an education reformer in whose school students only learn about facts. Gradgrind's own children, Tom and Louisa, also grow up in this system. Gradgrind is basically trying to make kids into robots.When a traveling circus show comes to Coketown, one of the clowns abandons his daughter, Cecelia Jupe, there. Gradgrind takes her at his house.
Louisa and Tom grow up. Gradgrind basically gives both of them to Bounderby. Tom works for him as a bank clerk, and Louisa ends up marrying the guy.But, obviously Gradgrind thinks everything is fine.
In Bounderby's factory, a worker named Stephen Blackpool, he leads a pretty sad life.He got married too young to a woman who is now a half-crazy alcoholic. He pays her to stay away from him.
In the factory, all the workers are being organized into a union.Bounderby fires Stephen from the factory.Before he leaves, Louisa gives him some traveling money.Tom in secret asks him to loiter in front of Bounderby's bank for a few nights. After Stephen leaves, Bounderby discovers that the bank has been robbed! Of only 150 pounds.Suspicion naturally falls on Stephen.
Harthouse reveals to Louisa his passion for her and asks her to run away with him. She takes the train to her father's house in Coketown. She tells him she might be in love with Harthouse, confesses that she almost had an affair, and then faints. Gradgrind is shocked, and he finally realizes how much he messed up his kids.
Gradgrind asks Bounderby to let Louisa be a semi-permanent "visitor" at her father's house. But Bounderby is all like, "Actually, no, because you pretty much sold her to me, remember? If she doesn't come back by tomorrow, this marriage is over." Would still have to be married to him legally. She would be totally stuck. Sissy seeks out Harthouse, telling him to leave and never come back.
Sissy Jupe and Rachael are worried about Stephen and try to find him. Tom flees, and Louisa and Gradgrind realize that he is the bank robber. Tom hides as a clown in the same circus where Sissy's father used to work. When Gradgrind confronts him, Tom tells his father that political economy made him into a thief.
To conclude, Dickens’ novel discusses the social impact of the Industrial Revolution and the dehumanization of workers by machines. Much like the repetitive actions involved in working in factories dull the lives of the workers. Finally, Sissy Jupe is arguably the most important character in the novel. Her impact on the Gradgrind family is extreme, as she allows Mr. and Mrs. Gradgrind to recognize that imagination is the key to happiness, not fact.
Thank you…
