Complete 5 pages APA formatted article: Charles Dickens: An Influence of Reform in Victorian England.

Complete 5 pages APA formatted article: Charles Dickens: An Influence of Reform in Victorian England. The novel, “Hard Times (1854), focused on the British working class of the era, it, also, drew attention to two areas that Dickens felt were in need of serious reform, the nature of traditional Victorian education and the condition of factories and the people, both adults and children, who work there (De Laureal 1). He may not have directly reformed British society but his works had a tangible effect upon its readers that inspired greater change than even Dickens’s himself might have ever hoped.

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) grew up in the world that he wrote about. He saw storytelling as a means to share his dissatisfaction with economic and the social condition of Britain in the Victorian Age. All the same Dickens himself remains something of an enigma politically. Many call him a Marxist, an extreme socialist, and even a Catholic conservative (Teachout 1-76). However, regardless of the title, he was given this gifted writer and the classic author used words, scenarios, and characters to inspire the minds of people to make a change.

“Hard Times,” tells the tale of a number of characters living in the Victorian era industrial world. Gradgrind is a wealthy politician and has two children. His children are raised to do what they are expected to do and gave little consideration to their concerns or feelings. He essentially “sells” his daughter Louisa into marriage to a man she finds repulsive and his son goes awry. If they had had their way their lives might have been different, but their utilitarian upbringing left no room for their personal opinions (Dickens). The city of Coketown is not described by Dickens in a favorable light.