Hard Times was written against a backdrop of a changing
economic environment in England. Gone was the cottage industry of
Georgian England in which families labored together in the home. In its
place were the factories of the Industrial Revolution in which men (and
women and children) were forced to work long hours in unhealthy
conditions. The land bore marks of the Revolution with deforestation
combined with significant shifts of population into the cities.
Overcrowdedness produced dust heaps everywhere, creating unsanitary
living condition and, unfortunately, contaminating water sources. Those
at the helms of the large factories amass huge amounts of wealth while
factory "hands" worked harder for minimal wages. Is the sacrifice of
the many for the few worth the price of Progress? This is the question
Dickens forces us to answer during the reading of the novel.
At
the time of the novel's writing, Dickens had not planned to produce
another work for at least a year, but circumstances with his magazine Household Words forced him to act earlier. Readership had dropped significantly and editors believed that having Dickens produce a serial novel for the first time
for the magazine would help increase profits. The editors proved right,
though Dickens felt constrained by the limitation of the magazine's
publication standards, and the result was his shortest novel.
Nevertheless, Hard Times was highly popular during its serialization.
Dickens
prepared for the novel by visiting the municipality of Preston in
January of 1854 to gain a perspective of the strike being launched there
by cotton mill workers. Mill owners reacted to the strike with a
"lockout," closing down the mills and preventing factory hands from
returning to work. When Dickens arrives, the face off is entering its
twenty-third week, though as Dickens remarks, there are no boisterous
demonstrations happening, only a pervading "quietness and order,"
despite its affecting twenty to thirty thousand people. Dickens
supported the ability of the workers to "combine" and called the lockout
"a grave error." Nevertheless, Dickens placed the responsibility on
both sides to find a workable solution. Dickens' visit to Preston
provided him with the knowledge he needed to write the scenes of
Slackbridge's speeches.
Sources: Charles Dickens: His Tragedy and Triumph by Edgar Johnson
"On Strike" in Household Words, 11 February 1954, Vol 8, No 203