CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
1.1
Background of the Study Hard
Timesis the tenth novel by Charles Dickens, first published in 1854.
The book is a condition of
England novel, aimed at highlighting the social and economic pressures of the times. The novel is
did not contain illustrations. Instead the
story is set in the fictitious Victorian industrial of Coketown, a generic Northern English mill-town partially based
upon 19th-century Preston. The novel begins
with a short introduction. Inside a classroom, Mr. Gradgrind repeats the exclamation "Now, what I want is,
Facts". He represents the stringency of Fact, statistics and other materialistic pursuits.
He is a "square" person and this can be seen not only through Dickens´ description of
his personality but also through the description
of his physical appearance, "square shoulders". Josiah Bounderby is a
business associate of Mr Gradgrind. He
treats his employee like a machine than a human being. He discriminates the lower class
society by his power, because of that,
his employee who comes from the lower class society against him and his community from the upper class society. Based
on this novel, we can know that the
upper class society discriminate the lower class society and the struggle of lower class against the discrimination during the
first industrial revolution era.
Hard timesis the kinds of
literary works that contai n of social criticism.
Here, the literary work can be
defined as a branch of literature to create an idea or a story in a meaningful pattern. The literary
work is not the result of the work 2 which is only need the skill of the author,
but also need contemplation, idea, and the
certain steps that will be different with the other author. The literary work
has a strong relationship to the
society. There are several things that must be considered why the literary work has a
relationshipto the society, i.e.: 1) the literary work is written by the author, told
by thenarrator, wrote by the writer, whereas
the third subjects are the society member, 2) the literary work life in the society, absorb the life aspects which is
happen inthe society, that finally used by the society, 3) the medium of literary work,
both oral and written, borrowed through
the society competence, 4) the literary work contains of aesthetic, ethic, even logic, 5) the literary work is the nature
of intersubjectivity where the society find
their self-image in the literary work (Nyoman Kuta Ratna, 2007: 332). That is way the relationship between the literary work
and the society either as negation or
affirmation, and innovation, clearly an essential relationship.
According to Plato (Ekarini,
2003: 20-21) in his book Ioan and Republic, he told about 1) the literary work as an
imitation of reality. Plato said that everything
in this world is an imitation of the highest reality in the world of idea.
2) Three kinds of artists, they
are: the consumer, the maker and the imitator. The consumer gives instructions to the makers
about howmaking something and then imitated
by the imitator. 3) The importance of literary work for the children, 4) the society must use the common sense than a
feeling. From the explanation of Plato, we
can know the importance of literary work in thisworld. The literary work, as a work of art, can be journalism, a fiction,
biography, essays, drama, poetry and novels.
The important thing that will be discussed in this paper is novel.
3 As we know that novel is a long prose
narrative. The characteristic of novel
is realistic. It is developing from the type’s nonfiction narrative, like
letter, biography, or history. Novel is
a story which is playing in human world and the material surrounding us, more defining the
person life in a period (Jassin, 1961:72).
Hauser (1985: 92) also states that novel is more clear in representing the characteristic of era. According to the Oxford
English dictionary a novel is a fictitious
prose narrative or tale of considerable length in which characters and actions representative of the real life of
past or present times are portrayed in a plot of more or less complexity. Moreover, the
novel has characters, actions, and plot;
it involves people who do things in a total context ruled over by some sort of connective logic, chronology, or
cause-and-effect. So, in spite of the great number of novels and authors in this world,
researcher prefers to choose one of the nineteenth
century’s British literatures; it is because of the researcher interest toward the condition of the English society in
Industrial Revolution during that era.
The researcher chooses one of
Charles Dickens’s Novels, Hard Times because Dickens is one of the famous
authors in Victorian age whose literary works
are about social criticism which have valuable messages to increase moral society. It can be proved by this statement
“Dickens’s graphic and eloquent pages have
issued to the world more political and social truths than have been uttered by all the professional politicians, publicist,
and moralists put together” (Peter Demetz,
45). Dickens is highly critical of his age.Social criticism is the characteristic of all his works. He is
supremely human and keenly sensitive to the 4 problems
of his age and the plight of his people. Chang Yaoxin (Zhang Huaming, 2009: 236) states that: All of the Charles Dickens Novel like: David
Copperfield, The Old Curiosity Shop, The
Pickwick Papers, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, Our Mutual Friend, Little Dorrit, Bleak House
and Hard Times, and one will understand
the fury that the author feels and the emotional intensity with which he deals with these subjects. On
the other hand, Dickens is stands
forever on the side of the poor and feels adamant about the just and righteous nature of their struggle for
survival.
So, we can see the valuable
messages in the novel, we can learn it, and we can apply it in our life. From the statement
above it can be said that actually Dickens’s
novels are the description of people condition which has some messages and criticism to the government
policy of England. Dickens gives a valuable
contribution through his works based on his experience and the phenomenon. This period produced more literary
works of prose and Charles Dickens
produced “problematic novel”, in which the main goal was to against the imbalance in society by showing it so that the
society could feel the situation.
As we know that discrimination is
a bad thing. It treats people not same as the other people, in which this treatment is
made based on the characteristic which has
represented by that people. Discrimination is an event that usually found in the society, it is caused by the human being
inclination to discriminate the others.
The researcher finds this kind of
discrimination inthis novel at industrial revolution era.
Industrial revolution is the name
given to the massive social, economic, and
technological change in 18th century and 19th century Great Britain. It commenced with the introduction of steam power
(fuelled primarily by coal) and 5 powered automated machinery (primarily in
textile manufacturing). The causes of the
Industrial Revolution were complex and remain atopic for debate, with some historians seeing the Revolution as an
outgrowth ofsocial and institutional changes
wrought by the final end of feudalism in Great Britain following the English Civil War in the 17th century. It can
be said caused by the European working
class. Goodin (2006) confirms that the Industrial Revolution created a society where social classes were sharply
schismatic. It is shown in the gap between
poor and rich, the worker and the factory owner. It made the European upper class as well. In other word, the
industrial revolution brings a suffering to the lower class society during the time.
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