Asst.Prof. Maali Abdulhussein Mehdi

  Department  of  English

 Pollution Imagery in Charles Dickens’Hard Times

    In his novel Hard Times, Charles Dickens employs a variety of literary tactics, including rhetorical elements, to artistically convey the profound and authentic messages of his literary work. Dickens is well-known for writing detailed images with magnificent descriptions for the purpose of proving his point of view towards  his characters  and situations. He advised people to “ Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There is no better rule,’’ he is against superficial images.  In Hard Times, imagery plays a critical role in illustrating the main theme of the novel which is the  bleakness of industrialization and the dehumanizing effects of utilitarianism. Dickens’ cridibility is the main source of his powerfull imageries as he had firsthand knowledge of them or at least had direct touch with them.   Everything that occurs in the novel can be seen, smelled, heard, tasted, and felt by the reader. Hence, a number of images are utilized  in Hard Times to highlight mainly  the negative aspects of the industrial revolution, chiefly among them being the problem of pollution. 

      Coketown, the town of factories and tall chimneys,  is described as a grim place filled with smoke, dust, and repetitive machinery. This industrial imagery creates a sense of confinement and oppression, reflecting the mechanization of society. Dickens uses figuritive language that is full with fearful symbols like for example; “the painted face of a savage,’’  “ serpents of smoke,’’ “ a head of an elephant in melancholoy state of madness,’’ to describe the undesirable phenomenon of  invironmental pollution  and its   fatal effects on  humanity.

  The town which “ was a town of red brick, or of brick that would have been red if the smoke and ashes had allowed it’’ becomes  “ a town of unnatural red and black like the painted face of a savage’’. This visual image of the dirty face of a savage would invoke reader’s thoughts about bloody and dirty savagery associated with the danger of these factories. Dickens continues in describing Coketown as a dark and polluted town in the following statement: “It was a town of machinery and tall chimneys, out of which interminable Serpents of smoke trailed themselves forever and ever and never got uncoiled.’’ The chimneys of factories and smoke coming from them are like  endless number of serpents that are threatening the lives of people. The use of phrases like ‘interminable serpents of smoke’ and ‘never got uncoiled’ evokes a sense of chaos and relentlessness, and the tall chimneys and constant, never-ending smoke further contribute to a gloomy atmosphere of the polluted town. Moreover, auditory image is depicted also to stimulate readers’ ears; “and vast piles of building full of windows where there was a rattling and a trembling all day long, and where the piston of the steam-engine worked monotonously up and down, like the head of an elephant in a state of melancholy madness.’’ Again the image is provoking and effective in stimulating  the conceptual system of redears.

  Overall, the imagery in Hard Times reinforces its social critique, illustrating the consequences of a world that prioritizes profits and money over  people’s healthy life. Furthermore, the oppressive, soulless imagery  suggests  a longing for more humane and emotional  possibilities.

–Charles Dickens.  Hard Times.