The Depiction of Social Layers of 19th Century Britain in Charles Dickens’ Novel “Hard Times”

Abstract

The objective of this study is to investigate and to analyse the social classes which Charles Dickens intervened in his novel “Hard Times”. The present study expresses the author's society during Victorian Age. It is clear that Dickens was much more successful than his predecessors in exposing the troubles of the industrial society including class division, and poverty. This investigation aims at laying attention on the characteristics of each class, through a literary study of corpus. In this regard, the dissertation is divided into three chapters. The first chapter involves background knowledge about Victorian literature. Also, it discusses the Effects of the Industrial Revolution in the British society. Its aim is to show the Victorian society and how a social novel draws it. The second chapter studies the main features of literature which is social criticism that concerned with the social structures, with the essential Marxist theory that can be applied in social classes. The aim of this chapter is to criticize the Victorian society and show the social classes and its conflict. Third chapter centres on the analysis of the novel focusing on the content through a discussion of the social class in 19th century England.