Resumo de Hard Times - Charles Dickens

          Hard Times,
though not Charles Dickens? greatest work, is a definitive piece
nonetheless. It centers on the Gradgrind
family, a factory worker named Stephen, and Sissy Jupe and her circus
?family.? Mr. Thomas Gradgrind is the
teacher at a school who teaches nothing but facts. He discourages imagination amongst his
students and forbids it to his children, Louisa and Tom. One day Thomas discovers his children peeking
into the tent of a traveling circus and sends them home to be punished. Later in the evening, he makes a visit to
Sissy Jupe?s temporary dwelling with his friend Mr. Bounderby. His original intention was to tell Sissy?s
father that Sissy would be better off if she no longer attended school, for she
could not learn facts. Upon entering her
house, Gradgrind finds that Sissy?s father has abandoned her and offers to take
her in to teach her properly. Meanwhile,
young Tom is sent to live with Bounderby who has communicated an intention to
wed Louisa. Old Thomas sits down with
Louisa and asks her if she wishes to marry Bounderby, 30 years her senior. Louisa agrees despite the fact that she does
not love Bounderby.

          The novel
then shifts to Stephen, a factory worker or hand who lives with his unfaithful,
alcoholic wife above a toyshop. Stephen
asks Bounderby, the factory owner, if he can be granted permission to divorce
his wife. Bounderby denies him the
privilege and sends him away. Around
this time, a young man, James Harthouse, arrives in town to work for
Bounderby. He meets Louisa who has gone
to live with Bounderby and seduces her.
When he offers her a chance to run away with him she promises to meet
him but instead runs straight to her father.
She tells him the entire story and admonishes him for the education he
gave her. Bounderby then arrives having
heard about Harthouse?s plans only to discover that Louisa is safe. Shortly thereafter, Sissy Jupe meets
Harthouse to tell him to leave town and never return. He protests at first but then willingly
leaves. Louisa ends her marriage with
Bounderby and remains at her father?s house.
Meanwhile, Tom has stolen money from Bounderby?s bank but the blame
falls on Stephen who had been forced to leave town because he refused to join
the union. He is incommunicado for some
time until Louisa and Sissy discover him in an abandoned mineshaft outside of
town. With the help of some laborers
living in the area, they rescue him and take him back to town to see a
surgeon.

          By this time,
Tom has snuck off to Sissy?s circus to hide from the authorities. Thomas, Louisa, and Sissy find him there and convince
him to board a ship for the Americas. While they are there, a former student of
Gradgrind, Bitzer, arrives and demands that Tom be turned over to him. Gradgrind pleads with Bitzer but the
Gradgrindian teaching remains strongly in the former student who obeys only
reason and refuses to feel sympathy.
With the help of the circus, Tom escapes to America. Here the story concludes with the futures of
each character. Tom dies in America,
Louisa never marries and remains childless, Thomas changes his philosophy, and
Sissy, the moral winner of the story, marries and bears many children who are
safe from the Gradgrindian teachings that scarred so many others.

          This story
examines the different philosophies of Dickens? day, chiefly utilitarianism,
intentionalism, and consequentialism.
Thomas Gradgrind is clearly a consequential utilitarian in that he is
immensely practical and believes that certain actions will produce certain
effects and that is all that exists. He
does not examine emotion, imagination, or intentions; only the material and the
literal interest him. Dickens provided
the perfect foil for Gradgrind in the form of Sissy Jupe, a circus performer
who cannot learn facts because all she focuses on is the individual and their
feelings.

          One major
theme that occurs throughout the book is that of fancy versus fact. The utilitarian characters often dismiss
fancy because it is not a part of the world in which they reside. Conversely, characters such as Sissy Jupe
find it impossible to live in a world without imagination or creativity. Dickens appreciates this and therefore
selects Sissy, the quintessential anti-utilitarian intentionalist to be the
?winner? in this novel.

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