English Literature Essay essays

English Literature Essay essays How does Dickens Satire Utilitarianism in Hard times? I will Begin this essay with a brief introduction to the word UTILITARIANISM. Utilitarianism is a system of ethics (morals) that judges human conduct in relation to the extent to which it conduces to the greatest happiness of the greatest number of people. Utilitarianism faces a number of key issues during the course of the novel, one of which is that its discards feeling and emotion. The problem is that morals and emotions cant be quantified statistically quite as easily as burglary rates or profits accounts. Im Hard Times, Dickens is attacking the ways of thinking and acting that became associated with utilitarianism thought. Dickens attacks the extremes of mechanisation, statistical analysis and rationality. This novel is not a work of social criticism but a moral satire. Evidence of Dickens satire to utilitarianism is in the first chapter of Book the first-sowing. The chapter begins with a short introduction. Inside a classroom, the speaker repeats the exclamation now, what I want is facts. Dickens presents the argument that the formation of a childs mind must be rooted in the study of fact. The school room is as hard and plain as the teachers teaching style. The description of the classroom is the first satire upon utilitarianism, a critique of utilitarianism, and similar philosophies that suggested the absolute reliance upon calculations and facts in opposition to emotion, artistic inspiration and leisure. In this novel, Utilitarianism underlies pedagogy of Gradgrind and his MChoakumchild school; and Louisa, Gradgrinds daughter and one of him pupils, has learned her lesson all too well. Her decision to marry Bounderby is a Utilitarian one. There is a constant attack on the consequences in education, as is made clear in the ...