Romanticism's Core Themes & Dickens' Critique in Hard Times

Romanticism's Core Themes

Romanticism, a philosophical and artistic movement, profoundly influenced science, politics, and literature. It emphasized several key themes:

• Autobiographical Tendency: Exploring the self, often through introspection and a search for identity.
• Existentialism: Questioning existence, purpose, and the meaning of life ('Who am I?').
• Search for Identity: A deep dive into personal origins and the essence of being.
• Nature as Inspiration: Finding divine inspiration and artistic motivation in the natural world.
• Narcissistic Ego: A focus on the individual's perspective and experiences.
• Break with the Past: Rejecting traditional norms and embracing new ways of thinking.
• Political Animals: Recognizing the inherent political nature of human beings.
• Individualism: Examining psychological perspectives, origins, and roots (folk and national traditions).
• Understanding Romanticism: Understanding emotions, religion, and nature.
• Imagination: Show other reality, an alternative world. To get imagination they need inspiration: God and nature.
• Identity: Who am I? Self-introspections. They have intuition there is something there, some+. They acknowledge the existence of a psychological world, but they don't know how to reach it. This leads to suffering, and they write: existentialism.

Romanticism grapples with societal dichotomies (rational vs. irrational) and the desire to transcend cultural conditioning. It explores the conflict between body and soul, heaven and earth.

Dickens' *Hard Times*: A Critique of Victorian Society

Hard Times represents a more pessimistic approach to life, offering a critique of Victorian England. Charles Dickens, beloved by critics and readers alike, is a prominent representative of this era.

Structure I: Social Commentary

Dickens examines societal good and bad, drawing parallels between children and the working class. He presents an idealized social and family life as a metaphor, contrasting it with a world dominated by numbers and facts, devoid of fairy tales. Dickens criticizes Gradgrind's philosophy.

Structure II: The Consequences of Utilitarianism

The working-class children disappear. Dickens focuses on Louisa's 'fanciful' education, appealing to his bourgeois readership. All characters are ultimately destroyed by society and its rigid educational system.

Facts and Fancy

Everything related to facts is portrayed negatively. Literature emerges as a positive force, capable of transforming human beings. Gradgrind, initially presented one way, undergoes a transformation. Fancy represents the power of love and empathy. People are connected, although they are not biological family. Coketown symbolizes a northern English city, the epicenter of worker strikes. Dickens, witnessing the social unrest, critiques not the strikes themselves, but the underlying social horrors that provoke them.

Family and Society

Dickens presents an opposition between 'bad' characters and 'model' characters, comparing the behaviors of the Gradgrind and Coketown children. Marriage is depicted as a political issue, intertwined with religious and civil law. Men had the possibility to choose and not women. Caroline Norton is referenced through the characters of Mr. Bounderby (who marries Louisa) and Stephen Blackpool. Mr. Bounderby and Louisa easily obtain a divorce. However, Louisa's subsequent return to her father's house signifies her social marginalization, highlighting the societal consequences of an unhappy marriage. Tom, Louisa's brother, becomes a thief. The family undergoes an affective transformation, each member experiencing loss.