Montreal Dickens Fellowship Study Questions: “Hard Times”
November 2, 2021
Chapters 5 - 9
- Dickens often used repetition to make his points. In his description of Coketown, note how this repetition reflects the monotonous and repetitive life and labor of the workers and industrial society. Comment on his description in terms of cleanliness, architecture, temperance, culture and the arts.
- Compare and contrast Mr. Gradgrind and Mr. Bounderby in their reactions toward Sissy Jupe.
- Dickens is a master of personification, a technique in which inanimate objects are given human qualities. Comment on this technique in his description of Sissy Jupe’s home.
- What do you think of Pegasus as a symbol of the “fancy” of the horse show?
- Do you think Dickens’s use of local dialect for the working classes is effective in heightening the contrast between the two worlds that Dickens is comparing?? Does it make a difference to the narrative? Did you Sind it difficult to understand?
- Why do you think Sissy’s father deserted her? Do you think he is a sympathetic character?
- Comment on the popularity of the circus (Shriners), acrobatics (Cirque de Soleil) and horse shows (Cavalia) in today’s society. Are these performers looked down upon today?
- Dickens often portrays the poor as being more saintly and the rich more evil. Do you think Dickens is condescending or realistic in his portrayal of circus folk as uneducated but kinder than other people? Was his opinion of circus performers (and theatre performers in general) coloured by his happy experiences of his youth? Comment on how his readership might have reacted to this.
- Dickens’s nostalgia for a simpler, more pleasant time, must have appealed to those who longed for “the good old days”, before the harsh, complicated realities of the Industrial Revolution took over. In 1854, there seemed to have been a romantic feeling about the past before horses were replaced by train travel, hence the lure of the horse show and what it symbolizes. Comment.
- Why did Sissy leave her “family” at the circus to be brought up by the Gradgrinds? Was it a mistake?
- Comment on Mr. Sleary’s famous words “People musth be amuthed”.... Make the besth of uth not the wuth”
- Compare and contrast Mrs. Sparsit and Mr. Bounderby in terms of their shifts in social status.
- Note the effective use of repetition in this chapter... “Never wonder....”
- Compare and contrast Louisa and Tom. Why are they so different? Do you like Tom?
- Is Dickens showing his gender bias by giving Louisa more imagination than Tom? Do you think girls are more imaginative or emotional than boys?
- Do you think Dickens had his wife Catherine in mind in his portrayal of Mrs. Gradgrind as being weak. She was so completely controlled by her husband that she gave up all responsibility for parenting. Do you think Dickens had insight into how very controlling HE was? He was very bothered by his wife’s passivity and wanted a more equal partner, but did he understand the role his own character played in subduing Catherine, both physically (she had 10 children and several miscarriages) and emotionally?
- Sissy teaches us that statistics are not helpful in improving the suffering of individuals. In condemning utilitarianism for its “ Doing the most good for the most people” and ignoring the needs of the minorities, is Dickens “throwing out the baby with the bath water”? Are not objective studies of statistics important so that change and reform can be implemented? Discuss.
- Comment on the positive inluence that Dickens’s reading had on him as a young boy.