Youtube link-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHUgdwyxTF0&feature=related

This blue bird, similarly to sissy, is different fom the rest, and therefore they try and let her know that she doesn't fit in. However in the end the blue bird ends up taking care of them, or hiding them when they have no feathers.

Discussion forum: Why characters got their ending?

At the end of Hardtimes many characters end up getting what they deserve, similar to Karma. “Josiah Bounderby was to die of a fit in the coketown street”, Mrs. Sparsit was doomed to live the remainder of her life with a “grudging, smarting, peevish, tormenting Lady Scadgers”, Sissy became a loving mother, and Louisa learned the things she hadn’t as a child became beloved by Sissy’s Children. However some characters didn’t receive a their deserved ending. The innocent, Stephen ended up dying, Rachael ended up working hard for the rest of her life and caring for Stephen’s drunk widow, Harthouse went off and did terrible things elsewhere and Thomas seeming to have had a change of heart, loving his sister and only desiring to see her face, perished before he was able to come home. Why did Dickens have some characters have the ending they deserved and some got an ending that was undeserved?

Dickens Quote p.10

“You might hope to get some other nonsensical belief into the head of George Gradgrind, or Augustus Gradgrind, or John Gradgrind, or Joseph Gradgrind (all suppositions, non-existent persons), but into the head of Thomas Gradgrind- no sir! (10)

This is the quote I picked and I just really like Dickens style in this sentence. It has so much voice, and feels like the narrator is conversing with the reader. Also its comical because it feels as if the narrator is going off on a tangent, listing names and then explaining how the names aren’t real people. My favorite part of the sentence is definitely the end- “no sir!”. It just adds flavor to the whole sentence and really powers through the point that Thomas has been completely raised on facts.

passage analysis of p.229

As Sissy confronts Harthouse and persuades him to stay away from Louisa, Dickens depicts Harthouse as evil. To begin with, as Sissy begs Harthouse through pure kindness and goodwill towards Louisa, Harthouse “was touched in the cavity where his heart should have been” (226). This idea of Harhouse as lacking his heart supports the idea that Harthouse was leading Louisa down the spiral staircase to her own downfall. Contrastingly Louisa is shown to be a force of good. Louisa tells Harthouse that she comes on behalf of her “commission of love for [Louisa] and her love for me” (225). Dickens use of love to describe Sissy’s actions supports the idea that she is a force of good in the company of Harthouse.  Dickens finishes his passage saying that “moral men” would think that James Harthouse would have a change of Heart, “But it was not so” (229). Though a reader would hope for a change of heart, Harthouse’s change was “not so”. After being defeated by the epitome of good- Sissy Jupe- rather than change in his ways he feels ashamed at his weakness. Therefore though sissy was able to save Louisa from the spiral staircase, Harthouse was to corrupt a man to be saved.

Link to A Christmas Carol

Both Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol and Mr. Gradgrind in Hard Times are initially irritable, socially alienated figures absorbed by some strange obsession. Gradually over the course of these stories they change their attitudes and reform their views. In the story A Christmas Carol, Scrooge is absolutely despises Christmas and has no respect for the people who celebrate it. The only thing that is worth living for in his opinion is money. Just as Scrooge is obsessed with money, Gradgrind wants the city of Coketown to live on “nothing but Facts”. As both texts progress however, Scrooge and Gradgrind come to realize that their lifestyle is only hindering those around them and they have an epiphany of reformation.

Discussion Forum

   After analysis of Mrs Sparsit and Louisa and their descent down the Staircase, what Social and Economic roles do women play in Hard Times? What does Dickens see as “appropriate” and “inappropriate” roles for women in the Victorian society and how does he show this?

Dickens Quote p. 217

“Some persons hold…that there is a wisdom of the Head, and that there is a wisdom of the Heart.” (217)

Passage Analysis p. 197

 

In Chapter 10 of Book 2 we are introduced to Mrs Sparsit’s Staircase and Louisa’s metaphorical desecnt down it. After a long day of performing chores for the Bounderby household, “Mrs Sparsit looked towards her great staircase and saw Louisa still descending”(197), suggesting that she is continuously watching Louisa and waiting for her to mess-up and symbolically fall to the pressures of Victorian society. From this constant stalking of Louisa we can infer that Mrs Sparsit is plotting to destroy Louisa’s marriage to Bounderby. Dickens juxtaposes Mrs Sparsit seeing “Louisa still descending” (197) with Louisa “[Sitting] by Mr. Harthouse…talking very low” suggesting that Mr. Harthouse has a negative influence on Louisa. The fact that Dickens places Mrs Sparsit’s spying session on Louisa and Mr Harthouse next to Mr Harthouse and Louisa “[whispering] together” in the garden, suggests that Dickens is implying that Mr Harthouse is provoking Louisa in descending down the staircase because he is seducing her fully-knowing that she is a married woman.

Dickens Quotes

      “How could you give me life, and take from me all the inappreciable things that raise it from the state of conscious death? Where are the graces of my soul? Where are the sentiments of my heart? What have you done, oh, Father, What have you done with the garden that should have bloomed once, in this great wilderness here? Said louisa as she touched her heart.” (208)

Quote from Dickens

Book 3:

“In the distance one way, Coketown showed as a black mist; in another distance, hills began to rise; in a third, there was a faint change in the light of the horizon, where it shone upon the far-off sea. Under their feet, the grass was fresh; beautiful shadows of branches flickered upon it, and speckled it; hedgerows were luxuriant; everything was at peace”(256).

Dickens Quotes

                     “From the beginning, she had sat looking at him fixedly. As he now leaned back in his chair, and bent his deep-set eyes upon her in his turn, perhaps he might have seen one wavering moment in her, when she was impelled to throw herself upon his breast, and give him the pent-up confidences of her heart. But, to see it, he must have overleaped at a bound the artificial barriers he had for many years been erecting, between himself and all those subtle essences of humanity which will elude the utmost cunning of algebra until the last trumpet ever to be sounded shall blow even algebra to wreck. The barriers were too many and too high for such a leap. With his unbending, utilitarian, matter-of-fact face, he hardened her again; and the moment shot away into the plumbless depths of the past, to mingle with all the lost opportunities that are drowned there.” (99)

Passage p198-199

Book 2, Chapter 2:

Mrs. Sparsit sees the time Louisa spends with Harthouse to be a key to her descent down the staircase. When Louisa was described as “leaning on his arm”, Dickens juxtaposes the phrase with the idea that she was propelling “down, down, down Mrs. Sparsit’s staircase.” Normally, to head downward is symbolic of heading in a doomed direction, and the repetition of “down” suggests that she was continuously headed towards some kind of doom, and that Harthouse was associated with this spiral. But Mrs. Sparsit “always” saw Louisa on a building, “always” heading “down, down, down!” Through this exaggerated use of “always”, Dickens creates a tone of downfall to suggest that Mrs. Sparsit is seeing Louisa’a position be continually degraded; degradation occurs when one being lowered on the scale of honor, and such suggests that the top of the staircase represents the most honorable position and type of person to society. The pejorative view is furthered by her shaking her right mitten “with a fist in it” suggests that Sparsit has become hostile towards Louisa, for a fist is symbolic of a fight or aggression. So in using the views of Mrs. Sparsit, Dickens is suggesting that Harthouse serves as a catalyst to Louisa and brings her down from the society’s ideals.

Disucssion Forum

                     Hard Times is built around a few simple, contrasting thematic ideas. What are some of them, and how do they function in the book? How does Louisa fit among these ideas?

Passage Analysis- pg. 206

Book 2 p.206

                     
           In Book the Second, Reaping, Mrs. Sparsit spends a lot of time examining the relationship between Harthouse and Louisa. She learns that they will be meeting in the forest and goes there to listen to their conversation. After she hears Harthouse confess his love for Louisa and they agree to meet somewhere, she says “Louisa coming out of the house! Hastily cloaked and muffled, and stealing away. ” Mrs. Sparsit imagines Louisa falling “from the lower-most stair, and is swallowed up in the gulf.” (206).  This represents her hope that Louisa will run away with Harthouse and ruin not only her marriage with Mr. Bounderby, but also her reputation. Mrs. Sparsit then says “She elopes!” which shows that she thinks that Mr. Harthouse is directly related to Louisa’s falling.  Louisa does not end up meeting up with Mr. Harthouse, instead she goes to visit her father. Throughout the book, Mrs. Sparsit envied Louisa’s position as Mr. Bounderby’s wife and wanted to benefit from the relationship.  Louisa’s realization that she is in love with Harthouse gave her the strength to confront her father about the way he raised her. Being in love with Mr. Harthouse supports the idea that not everything in society is based on facts, contrary to how Mr. Gradgrind raised her. Louisa’s relationship with Mr. Harthouse helped her become more of an individual and have another perspective on her society in Coketown.

Passage p.124-125

Book 2, Chapter 2:

When Mr. Harthouse was introduced, Dickens continuously uses satirical reversal to expose that he was an abnormal individual. He had been “a cornet of Dragoons” (cavalry) which is so full of action and rushed life, but he “found it a bore.” He had been an “English minister abroad,” meaning that he’d be meeting new people, and having new experiences away from home, yet he “found it a bore.” This reversal, coupled with a parallel structure, is used throughout the passage; an exotic experience or action, like “stroll[ing] through Jerusalem,” would be followed by Harthouse getting bored. But, when he is offered to study statistics, normally a boring subject where the same thing is studied, James was described as “taken by the novelty” of the idea and wanted a “change.”  Though such, Dickens once again uses a reversal to expose that Harthouse is an individual who doesn’t really belong with the rest. Also, Dickens says that “Mr. Harthouse was very happy…to have a pleasure” and that ”Mr. Harthouse would be charmed”; this repetitive use of third person pairs Mr. Harthouse’s speech with his identity, thus suggesting that he cannot think or behave as an individual, but is described as symbolically robotic for being incapable of producing thought himself. This makes him similar to Louisa: another lost, detached soul.