Working Class Conditions in Charles Dickens’s Hard Times

Abstract

This paper explores the workers' financial, social and legal conditions in Hard Times. The setting (time and place) has a great significance in the novel that shows some aspects of the industrial circumstances of the early Victorian period. In the introduction, a brief biography of the novelist, Charles Dickens and then a historical background of the novel is given. The laborers and master are going to be highlighted as well as some other minor characters who have a direct relationship with them. Through the explanation of the setting, the circumstances of the workers would be understood well. The effects, nasty effects of the industrial revolution and how it changes the society. How is the daytime of the workers in the black merciless and big factories? What are the rights do they have and what do they lack? How law is oppressing these poor, hungry workers unjustly. The differences between the laborers and manufacturers in terms of working and living create a broad distance between these two classes.