Sunday, October 21, 2012
Hard Times:Discussion
Hey guys! Okay so when looking through my book I saw that on the first page of the second book I had a really good quote about fire regarding Coketown. Dickens stated "A blur of soot and smoke now confusedly tending this way..a dense formless jumble, with sheets of cross light in it, that showed nothing but masses of darkness: - Coketown in the distance was suggestive of itself..." (Dickens, 111). It seems that even though a new section of the story had begun, the trend of this monotonous lifestyle still persisted. Coketown was continuously described in the story as filled with smoke or "a blur of soot", I think Dickens does this to show that Coketown is a cold place to be because this "fact" based life style has left everyone in this town in a "haze". Right from the start we were given a cold and dark image of Coketown, and Dickens purposely begins book two with the town being described as "masses of darkness."Multiple changes had occurred: Tom moved in with Bounderby, Louisa and Bounderby were married, sissy moved in ect, but the one thing that stayed constant from book one to two was this monotonous and "dark" description of the town. I think Dickens is saying that in order for this town to change and not be described as a "blur of soot" and "masses of darkness", someone must take initiative and allow people to realize there is a life out there outside of Coketown where everything is not based on facts. Until then this "darkness" will continue to be in Coketown and this" "blur of soot" will never go away!
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Angela, to continue your idea of Coketown having a trend of this monotonous lifestyle, I also found other instances of these metaphors of fire that give the reader a sense of gloom and monotony. 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). Describing Coketown as "golden" and "shining radiantly" when the fires are extinguished constrasts with his portrayal when the fires are alive and "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.
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