Hard Times

Mr. Gradgrind, M.P. for Coketown, northern England, runs a strict regime at his utilitarian school. His children also attend the school, and are taught to value facts and duty and neglect their emotions. ‘Hard Times’ follows their journey into adulthood, and their father’s gradual realisation that his tough parenting may have caused later problems for his offspring. Compared closely with the works of Elizabeth Gaskell, Dickens captures the essence and struggles of northern English life, through his sympathetically written and magnetic characters.