Dickens Analysis Effects in the Bank

Write a detailed analysis of the following extract. Pay close attention to Dickens’ use of techniques and the effectiveness of the form, style and language. Comment upon the context of the passage.

First published in 1854, Dickens’ “Hard Times” was set in mid 19th century Victorian England, at the core of the Industrial Revolution. This revolution caused a radical change both to the working habits of all, and also to the lifestyles of the working classes especially. As factories were being built at an alarming rate, the population in England grew immensely, therefore causing a considerable accumulation of people to inhabit areas in which these factories were built. To this effect, these working classes very often lived in filthy, confined spaces of dreadful condition, not to mention the obscenely low wages which they were paid for working in the new factories. In this way polarisation between the lower and upper classes grew more severe, and social and political issues bred, augmenting this antagonism to an even greater degree. Dickens’ industrial novel refers to the “Condition of England” question posed by Thomas Carlyle, in this degree Dickens’ builds observations on the subject of the social climate in Britain at the time, thus exposing the gulf between the rich and the poor, to observe the start of modern industrial capitalism, and to criticise what he felt to be the detrimental social effects of this revolution on English society in general.

The image of the “shroud” which hangs over the city is a recurring idea in this extract. Dickens’ description of how this “haze” is “impervious” to the sun rays gives the impression therefore that beneath this haze is a world of darkness, as no light can permeate its facade, and subsequently: sadness, heightened by the use of pathetic fallacy in this phrase as not only is light being shut out, but also the metaphorical sense of light i.e.: happiness, this double meaning intensifies this point.  The idea that this haze is a symbol of death, dying, decay and destruction is hereby prevalent, which is fitting, as “Hard Times” is an industrial novel about the social issues caused by the industrial revolution; however some may see this haze as a symbol of productivity and industry-an emblem for the hard work and prosperity of the town’s millers. The idea that this haze is exclusively over Coketown is shown in Dickens’ use of “its own”, giving the impression that Coketown is transcendent from all other influences: a microcosmic civilisation representing English society and all its issues at the time, as nowhere else has a haze quite like this, perhaps representing how no other place in the world has adapted to industrialism quite like England.  Additionally, his use of ”soot” and “smoke”, these being black substances that are released by the combustion of carbonaceous materials in factories, draws connotations to the blackness/darkness and negativity of the industrial revolution. How the smoke in particular was “tending” in all directions and engulfing everything is an emblem of how the industrial revolution encroached all aspects of society and life, winding its way through and forming a “formless jumble”. This is augmented by the repetition of the word “now” as Dickens describes the many directions in which the smoke travelled, therefore intensifying our conclusion that the smoke, or industrialism, is omnipresent in all aspects of life in this town, whether it is wanted or not. The use of adjectives associated to ambiguity and disorder adds to the general feeling of unrest towards the town in the passage, for example: “blur”, meaning something which is obscured or undefined, and “formless jumble” give a sense of inchoate chaos, lacking order and representing how industrialism spread like an epidemic disease: disarrayed and at rapid speed.