Thinking activity- Hard Times

 I am writing a blog about Play Review on Hard Times - Charles Dickens. This assignment is given by Dilip Barad sir . 

Play started with Sutradhar and Nut. First scene of the Play is Fact-Fact-Fact there is no imagination but in novel fact-against imagination-something like mechanical- fiction of industrialization. There are three parts like,

• Sowing 
• Reaping 
• Gardening 

These are also connected with our life. The novel starts like this….

‘Now, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them. This is the principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these children. Stick to Facts, sir!’

Hard Times Play is the tale of a group of people who lived in an industrial town named Coketown during the mid-19th century. Throughout the story, the characters' different choices impacted what happened to them; those who did bad deeds died, while those who did good deeds lived fairly peacefully. Thomas Gradgrind, a key character of the story, is an academic supervisor in the community who believes in facts and all work with no play. Early in the story, he is shown quizzing his students on facts (to model his method for a new teacher at the school) and calls them by their assigned numbers instead of names. Gradgrind withholds all forms of fun from his children, Louisa and Tom.

Louisa and Tom become interested in the circus and are seen looking at the one in town. Their father is very bothered by this fact and discusses his concern with his friend Mr. Bounderby. Bounderby thinks Sissy June (Gradgrind kids' classmate) is to blame for the children's interest in the circus because her father works there. So, Gradgrind and Bounderby attempt to remove Sissy from the school, seeing her as a problem, but then discover her father has disappeared/abandoned her. Gradgrind then invites Sissy to live with his family, and she agrees to do so only until her father comes back. Gradgrind removes Sissy from the school, believing it is not the correct place for her; instead, she spends her time at home with Mrs. Gradgrind. Mr. Gradgrind becomes a member of Parliament, so he goes to London quite a bit.

Mr. Bounderby wants to marry Louisa Gradgrind, and she agrees, even though she does not love him. In addition, Bounderby is fifty years old to Louisa's sixteen. Bounderby often makes people in town believe he was self-made and grew up poor, but his story ended up being false, as his true mother was later revealed. Stephen Blackpool lives in the poor part of town and wants a divorce from his wife, who is an alcoholic. Blackpool works at Bounderby's factory and confides his troubles to him. Blackpool is also in love with Rachael, who works with him in the factory. Mr. Bounderby affirms to Blackpool that only the rich can afford to divorce, so he must accept the state of his life and stay unhappily married. When Blackpool goes home that day, he sees Rachael taking care of his wife, who is sick. Rachael even stopped Blackpool's wife from swallowing a lethal dose of medication, making him love Rachael even more.

Meanwhile, a man named James Harthouse pursues Louisa and has fun flirting with her. Harthouse is an aspiring politician who can be described as crafty and manipulative. Louisa falls for Harthouse and spends a good amount of time with him. Mr. Bounderby's housekeeper, Mrs. Sparsit, sees Louisa and Harthouse together and overhears their plots to be together and reports her findings to Louisa's husband, Mr. Bounderby. Louisa also confesses her feelings to her father and reveals her general unhappiness. He then shares that he regrets how he raised his children so strictly and without time for play and imagination. Meanwhile, Sissy blames Harthouse for Louisa's pain and unhappiness and successfully convinces Harthouse to leave town.

Mr. Bounderby is still upset by the whole ordeal after Harthouse left town, and to make matters worse, his bank was robbed. Bounderby believes the robber was Blackpool, and people also believed that Blackpool left town. Soon after, the Gradgrinds, Rachael, and Sissy find Blackpool's hat and then him in an old shaft mine. He was alive when found and pleaded that Gradgrind restores his good name, as he was not responsible for the robbery. Blackpool died shortly after being discovered. The characters discover that the real bank robber is Tom Gradgrind, who was in debt from gambling and drinking too much. Tom's family convinced him to gain travel with a circus to help get him out of town, but he ends up dying on the trip.this is the end of the Play.