YEAR 13 26th /29thSept..3rd/6th Oct 2017

These sessions continued the introduction to the first section of Charles Dickens' HARD TIMES. The class considered the question:
What are the key concerns being
explored by Dickens in the FIRST TEN CHAPTERS of HARD TIMES?

Class discussion has explored how Dickens shapes his contempt for the dehumanising nature of industrialisation and his attack on the Utilitarian approach to education. Focus has been placed on the symbolic significance of the Circus and how Dickens uses the Circus to represent the humanising power of the imagination. Students were asked to consider the questions:

• How does the relationship between Louisa and her father compare with the relationship between Sissy and her father?
• To what extent is the experience of the 'hands' of Coketown similar to the experience of the Gradgrind children?
• What kind of world does Dickens want to exist? Why does he present the world of Coketown as being so hellish?
• What is the symbolic purpose of Stephen Blackpool?
• How does Dickens use symbolism to shape meaning and what is the significance of the third person narrative sometimes being hijacked by Dickens and his own personal voice?

 A couple of students have asked for help with the structure of the essay so here is a structure that may be of help for the opening paragraphs:

• The first paragraph could explore how Dickens shapes his contempt for the Utilitarian education system through his presentation of Bitzer, Louisa and Tom. These three characters have all been emotionally abused by Gradgrind's belief in the system of 'FACT' and seem unhappy and, in Bitzer's case, dehumanised. Note how Bitzer 'bleeds white', Louisa has a 'jaded sullenness..a light with nothing to rest upon, a fire with nothing to burn...'Did your father love her?' Louisa asked the questions with a strong, wild, wandering interest peculiar to her; an interest gone astray like a banished creature, and hiding in solitary places...I have been tired a long time.' Louisa is a teenage girl yet seems tired of the world and is blind to the possibilities of being alive..'What does it matter!' Tom is bitter, angry, and resentful. ALL THREE characters are used by Dickens to suggest that the Utilitarian system, or at least Dickens' interpretation of this system, is destructive and harmful.

• These characters and their education is juxtaposed with Sleary's circus. Why is 'people mutht be amuthed' such a key line? This could be linked to Dickens invading the third person narrative with his own voice at the beginning of Chapter 10. Why is it that the circus community display such empathy? How does Sissy's relationship with her father compare with the experience of the Gradgrind children? Sissy and the circus are hugely symbolic. AUTHOR'S AIM? Students might want to consider why Dickens presents Childers, Kidderminster [or Cupid as he is known..significance?], and Sleary as being almost like characters from a children's fairy tale? Why are they such imaginative constucts?

I expect at least FOUR paragraphs and a conclusion..I expect the conclusion to provide an evaluative overview of the first section of the book with at least one quote from a critic to 'glue' your argument together. What kind of world does Dickens value? What is the nature of his protest? Why is he so angry? What kind of social change is he advocating? All these questions need to be considered within the conclusion. Digest the notes that I have provided.

The paragraph structure should be:
OPINION
TEXTUAL REFERENCE
EXPLAIN WHY THE TEXTUAL REFERENCE IS SIGNIFICANT
QUESTION FOCUS/AUTHOR'S AIM

HOMEWORK: Complete the essay. Our next session will consider the significance of the final chapters of the first section.