Coketown Is an Extract Taken from Hard Times Chapter 5 Writtenby Charles Dickens

Federico Zamò5ASAa.s. 2017/2018

COKETOWN p. 291

Coketown is an extract taken from Hard Times Chapter 5 writtenby Charles Dickens.

The extract is organized into three paragraphsWith this novel Dickens wants to denounce the higher class people , the negative aspects of the industrialization and all the negative action performed by people of any social class.

The narrator is a third person omniscient narrator who uses the technique of telling to describe the town.

The first sequence introduces the narrator in initial situation,Mr.Gradgrind and Mr.Bounderbyare walking around the Coketown that is describes as a typical industrial city of the Victorian Age. The narrator sais “was a triumph of fact” but it is opposed with what he writes later “it had no greater taint fancy in it than Mrs.Gradgrind herself”, so the intelligent reader can understand that while reading he approaches a cold and dirty town. Than the narrator continues with the town’s description,the town is made by red bricks, but thanks to smoke and ash produced by the industries “the town was red and black like the painted face of a savage”. The bricks’ color is unnatural color, it convenes the idea that in this age the old values have faded and have been obscured by social injustice and crime of any kind.

In addition the town is described with a personification of smoke into ‘‘serpents’’ and the repetitive use of the terms ‘‘ever’’ and ‘‘never’’ that makes clear the idea that smoke continues to go out of industries. Once again, the use of personification is used to compare the monotonous work of steam-engines to the head of a melancholic elephant. This idea of monotony characterized all the Industrial and consumerism period , when the is obligated to live same houses, do the same action during their job.

The second sequence underlines the relationship between the town , its inhabitants, the work and the “churches” . Everything seems to work perfectly, all things are the same, everything seems to be precise.

The narrator continues to underline that all the buildings looked the same because are made of red bricks and have the same inscriptions black and white, in fact the narrator tells :“the jail might have been the infirmary, the infirmary might have been the jail and the town-hall might have been either, or both, or anything else”. So he underlines that in the Victorian society only the facts count, people focus on concreteness, on something material, this idea is expressed by the repetition of the word "fact".

With his rhetorical question (….of course got on well?....NO?Dear me! No!) the narrator takes part to the town’s description, but this description is very critical and raw.

The third sequence focuses the attention on the vices of the town’s inhabitants, they live in terrible condition and to escape from their real situation they get alcoholic and take drugs. All this shows off the worst part of society, which tries to forget for a moment the harsh conditions of life.

In the last part of the sequence the narrator conveys a negative characterization of Mr.Gradgrind and Mr.Bounderby. Dickens repeats theword“gentlemen” another time and uses the adjectives “restless, unmanageable, dissatisfied” to ridicule the two rich men that think only about their happiness and wealth.

In conclusionCoketown is a town where everything seems to operate perfectly but hides a reality far from perfect.

Dickens uses an ironical,grotesque and sarcastic language to criticizedthe utilitarianism and materialism; the narrator wants to convey the idea that many men of the Victorian era were attached to highly material values such as wealth and success.