Hard Times

*Hard Times* by Charles Dickens is set in a fictitious place called Coketown and recounts the story of Thomas Gradgrind and his family.The growing capitalism and industrialization transformed the lives of the working class completely by reducing them from the status of human beings to mere living machines, devoid of any emotions. Being an educationalist, Thomas Gradgrind tries to incorporate those practical principal of facts into his children. However, he later reaps what he sows...In this novel, Dickens tries to depict the utilitarian and materialist mindset of the midnineteenth century.