Charles Dickens's "Hard Times": A Critique of Benthamite Utilitarianism

Seminar paper from the year 2012 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,0, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, language: English, abstract: Hard Times is arguably Dickens¿s most controversially discussed work. It was published in 1854 as a serial in his weekly periodical Household Words. Critics such as F.R. Leavis reprehend his novel for having flat and stereotypical characters that seem to be crude caricatures of reality, whereas others applaud him for his socio-economic critique of 19th century England and his amiable characters. In this paper I will show that Dickens strongly criticizes the utilitarian ideas of Jeremy Bentham and his ideological followers through the characters and the plot as well as the stylistic device of repetition.