The Gradgrind family is not a loving or affectionate one. The main unhappy marriage showcased by the novel is between Louisa Gradgrind and Mr. Louisa marries him not out of love but out of a sense of duty to her brother, Tom , the only person in the world she loves and who wheedles her into saying "yes" because he works for Bounderby and wants to improve his chances at rising in the world.
Bounderby's intentions regarding Louisa seem a bit creepy at first, but he turns out to mean no harm to her except that he deprives her of any marital affection. The only solution to this bad marriage, once Louisa has escaped the hands of Jem Harthouse , is for Louisa to live at home the rest of her days. She will never be happy with another man or have the joy of children, though Dickens hints she will find joy in playing with Sissy's future children.
Stephen Blackpool , too, is damned to unhappiness in this life as a result of his marriage. The girl who seemed so sweet when he married her many years ago becomes, by a gradual process, a depraved drunk who is the misery of his life. She periodically returns to Coketown to haunt Stephen and is, as he sees it, the sole barrier to the happiness he might have had in marrying Rachael.
Sparsit an elderly lady who lives with Mr. Bounderby for some time was also unhappily married, which is how she came to be Mr. Bounderby's companion before he marries Louisa. No word of a new marriage had ever passed between them; but Rachael had taken great pity on him years ago, and to her alone he had opened his closed heart all this time, on the subject of his miseries; and he knew very well that if he were free to ask her, she would take him.
Gradgrind was extremely discomfited by this unexpected question. Her colour brightened, and she turned to him with a look of interest. But from this day, the Sparsit action upon Mr Bounderby threw Louisa and James Harthouse more together, and strengthened the dangerous alienation from her husband and confidence against him with another, into which she had fallen by degrees so fine that she could not retrace them if she tried.
This minute he expects me, for I could release myself of his presence by no other means. I do not know that I am sorry, I do not know that I am ashamed, I do not know that I am degraded in my own esteem. All that I know is, your philosophy and your teaching will not save me. Now, father, you have brought me to this. Save me by some other means!
Hard Times. Plot Summary. All Themes Fact vs. Pegler Slackbridge. All Symbols The Staircase Pegasus. LitCharts Teacher Editions. Teach your students to analyze literature like LitCharts does. Detailed explanations, analysis, and citation info for every important quote on LitCharts. The original text plus a side-by-side modern translation of every Shakespeare play.
Sign Up. Already have an account? Sign in. The other women in the novel also play an important role in the quality of the home. Sparsit, in contrast to Rachael, is proud and manipulative—because she is motivated solely by self-interest, she has no desire to waste her time bringing happiness to others.
Although Louisa loves her brother Tom, her education prevents her from developing the qualities that Rachael embodies. By depicting women who not only deviate from the Victorian ideal of femininity, but also fail in their jobs as homemakers, Dickens suggests that industrialization threatens to dissolve the boundaries between workplace and home, without the stabilizing force of femininity.
This section of Hard Times depicts two marriages that are unhappy because the couples are badly matched. While Louisa does not know how to recognize and express her feelings, Bounderby is only interested in his own feelings and does not really care about hers. Stephen and Bounderby, the labourer and the mill owner, respectively represent diverse strands. The readers feel sympathy for the former and disgust for the latter.
Stephen is virtuous, honest, and a man of principles and integrity; while Bounderby is full of vanity and deceit. Given the situation of both, Bounderby can pay the amount of divorce as he is rich and can enact a Private Act of Parliament; Stephen cannot as he is poor.
However, Bounderby cannot get divorce as his wife has not committed adultery. Therefore, he can live separately as the Ecclesiastical Court would grant him permission but cannot remarry as the House of Lords would not permit it. Stephen cannot even move to the Ecclesiastical Court as he cannot even pay the requisite amount as he has all the necessary grounds as his wife has committed adultery and is therefore, genuinely to be pitied for.
It is quite evident here, after analysing the characters of both, Stephen and Bounderby, that Dickens pleads more the case of Stephen as he is a real victim despite being honest. As Efraim Sicher writes:. However, Dickens largely appeals for happy married lives as there is no use living with a person when life turns out to be a real hell devouring all happiness. It is for this reason that he dealt with the marriage laws in his Household Words and advocated lenient laws so that not only women but also men could find an escape from an otherwise caged existence.
Abrams, M. New York: W. Adams, James Eli. A History of Victorian Literature. West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, Baird, John D. Blackstone, Sir William. The Online Library of Liberty. Dickens, Charles. Hard Times.
Judith Baxter. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, Kidder, Paulette. Project Muse. Sicher, Efraim. Wagner, John A. California: Greenwood,
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