Hard Times:Discussion

Throughout Hard Times, we often see the metaphors of fire when Dickins describes Coketown.  These metaphors give the reader a sense of gloom and monotony, which is contradicting to a fire's vibrate, sparking presence.  How Dickins portrays fire seems to stay consistent throughout; this suggests how Coketown is stuck in this monotonous cycle of learning facts, working in the factories, etc.  An example of the fire metaphor is revealed in Book 2, Chapter 6; after Louisa visits Rachael and Stephen at their shelter, Dickins says towards the end of the chapter, "Day was shining radiantly upon the town then, and the bells were going for the morning work.  Domestic fires were not yet lighted, and the high chimneys had the sky to themselves.  Puffing out their posionous volumes, they would not be long in hiding it; but, for half an hour, some of the many windows were golden, which showed the Coketown people a sun eternally in eclipse, through a medium of smoked glass" (162).  Portraying Coketown as "golden" and "shining radiantly" when the fires are not burning constrasts greatly to other instances when the fires were "puffing out their posionous volumes."  Here, Dickins reveals that the fire in Coketown is both constricting and monotonous; the people are constantly under its wrath as it is represented through the burning from the factory chimneys.