Comparison Between Hard Times and Communist Manifesto

passim account, a divide has always existed in the midst of the plenteous and poor in society. However, during the industrial Revolution in Victorian England, this jailbreak r each(prenominal)ed its peak. The calculateing fellowship grinded for immense hours and received miniscule wages, whereas the middle class grew richly wealthy done the labor of the working differentiate. Published in 1848 and 1854 respectively, Karl Marxs The communistic Manifesto and Charles Dickens dense generation both comment on these troubles. objet dart Hard generation is a novel which tells a story and The communist Manifesto is a short publication which tries to bring somewhat sociable change, both writings shot a nipping critique of the consort antagonism brought plainly well-nigh by capitalist economy at the height of the Industrial Revolution. From the fountain of Hard Times, the setting of Coke town offers a sharp critique of the consequences involved with industrial capit alism. The town existed solely for the benefit of the bourgeoisie however, this was brought about at the get down of the mill workers, or proletarians.Dickens described the town as some(prenominal) large streets alone in truth resembling one another, and cosmosy sm tout ensemble streets grasp mum to a greater extent than interchangeable one another, populate by people equally cargon one another. Dickens recognized that the proletarians had no individuality. Before the Industrial Revolution, separate exertion was the norm, not the exception wherefore, the types of jaks were much more diverse. Any given laborer could fall in been a farmer, a nail-crafter, etc. This gave the laborer a much greater comprehend of individuality since thither were different jobs at heart the working class.However, with the introduction of cipheries and mass production, the proletarians had no choice more everywhere when to work in factories. Since almost the entire working class liv ed in factories, they began to be viewed more as one large group quite a than as individuals. The sameness of Coketown illustrates this sameness among the working class. In the same way, Marx claims that the bourgeoisie has interpreted away all individuality from the proletarians. In Marxs view, capitalism causes coin to be more important than the actual person.For example, Marx states, In bourgeois society capital is in unfree and has individuality, while the living person is dependent and has no individuality. According to Marx, the proletarian is dependent, or a slave, to money. Most proletarians had no want to work languish hours inside of a mill under horrid conditions, but they were forced to. small-arm their wages were very(prenominal) meager, the workers still take aimed some wages. The only jobs available during the Industrial Revolution were big(p) factory jobs. Since the proletarians had no choice on what type of job that they could hold, they had no individualit y.Ironically, money not only manages the lives of the proletarians, but it withal greatly influenced the lives of the bourgeoisie. For hu firearmy members of the bourgeoisie, money was the effort force in their lives. Marx lashed out against this when he stated, The bourgeoisiehas left remaining no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest. Men no longer cared about respecting the rights of other men. The bourgeoisie simply wanted to do was to stash away more and more wealth. The fact that this aggregation of wealth was accomplished through the scummy of other humans was of little importance.A man was judged by how much money he had therefore, these men would do whatsoeverthing to acquire more of it. Traits standardised honor and being just no longer mattered to these members of the bourgeoisie. The patriarchal opposer in Hard Times, Josiah Bounderby, would be sort out as one of these members of the bourgeoisie. Bounderby is a man that would Marx would co ndemn emphatically since Bounderby focuses entirely on his own betterment. For instance, Bounderby frequently recounts how he was innate(p) to a very poor sustain that abandoned him and through his own tough work, built his fortune.He tells this story for the sole causal agent of impressing others, yet the story turns out to be a falsehood. Bounderby cares more about improving his position than being an reasonable individual. Furthermore, like m any members of the bourgeoisie, Bounderby tries to better himself at the expense of the proletarians. While Bounderby was a member of the degrade class in his youth, he has completely turned his back on them. He treats the proletarians with contempt, and he believes that all the proletarians desire to be fed on turtle dope up and venison, with a gold spoon. Dickens is creating an ridicule here.Bounderby believes that all the proletarians want to get rich without working, yet the proletarians are actually doing all the excruciating work in the society. However, the wealth is not going to the proletarians but to Bounderby himself. In contrast, the protagonist of the novel is Stephen Blackpool, who represents the average proletarian. He is not very educated, he whole kit and boodle long hours at a challenging factory job, and he gets paid very little for this job. Blackpool is a tragic portion who is constantly being taken vantage of by members of higher classes.Bounderby takes utility of Blackpool through wage labor, and Tom Gradgrind takes advantage of him by framing him for the bank robbery. This all leads to a brio full of sufferings, including exile from Coketown and an prematurely death. Blackpool would be a perfect theoretical account for Marx in set up to showcase the sufferings of the proletarians in Victorian England. Bounderby had complete control over Blackpool. Bounderby could decide his wages, fire Blackpool, and even debar Blackpool from divorcing his wife. Just as Blackpool was taken adva ntage of by Bounderby, Marx believes that capitalism takes advantage of the labor of the travail.Marx says that these laborers are a commodity like every other article of commerce. Machines do taken away all need for skilled labor. Without skilled labor, the bourgeoisie render complete control over the undertakings since any job in a factory stooge be performed by any person. Mass production causes the worker to be cipher more than an appendage of the machine. This devalues the proletarians to nothing more than commodities, whose wages can be determined by the bourgeoisie. While life for the lying-in may have been a struggle at this snip, Marx believed that it was inevitable for the proletariat to gain political power.According to Marx, What the bourgeoisie therefore produces, above all, are its own grave-diggers. While class antagonism has existed passim the history of societies, the vox populi class in preliminary eras would at least try to keep the oppressed class i n genuine conditions. However, with the continuing rise of industry, the living conditions of the proletarians are only getting worsened and worse. Moreover, with the increase of industry, classes of people like the petty bourgeoisie are becoming part of the proletariat. Therefore, the proletariat is living under worse and worse onditions, yet it is getting larger and larger. reddentually, Marx is accredited that these workers will unite and will bring out a revolution. In Hard Times, the earliest stages of unity among the working class can be seen. The workers at Bounderbys factory decide to unionize. They do this in run to improve their working conditions. While the public speaker Slackbridge is dishonest according to Dickens, the workers cause was honest and legitimate. Since the bourgeoisie only cared about each other, they would not listen to the complaints of the workers.Therefore, the workers had to band together in order to bring about change. Each at Bounderbys fact ory felt his only hope to be in his allying himself to the comrades by whom he was surrounded. However, in Marxs mind, this was only the beginning. While unions in factories were a good start to the proletarians dance orchestra together, Marx believed that all the proletarians throughout a demesne would unite. Modern industry allowed for better dialogue between workers in different areas. This confabulation would centralize all the local struggles with the bourgeoisie into one national struggle.Eventually, each res publicas proletariat would gain control of their respective country, and there would be no more class struggle since there would be no classes. With no class struggle, there would be no more hostility between nations, and national differences would vanish. While the bourgeoisie and the proletariat are the primary classes at this time in society, remnants of the grandeur still remain from the feudal times. passim history, family status had always been the primary f actor to determine a persons fond standing. This all changed with the Industrial Revolution.Wealth at one time determined a persons social standing, and the bourgeoisie, not the aristocracy, was accumulating all the wealth. The bourgeoisie became the ruling class during this time period. To conflict the growing power of the bourgeoisie, some(prenominal) aristocrats created a form of socialism that proclaimed the plight of the proletarians. However, this is ironic since the aristocrats utilize to be the ruling class who exploited the other classes. The fall of the aristocracy is illustrated in Hard Times through the character of Mrs. Sparsit. She came from a long line of aristocrats, and she married into another risque family.However, her husband wasted away all of his money, and he left Sparsit poor after he died. In this new social order, it did not matter that Sparsit came from a high-standing family. She had no money therefore, she had no social standing. Even though, she was equal to the proletariat economically, she was so inclined to being supported by others that she refused to work and must be provided for by Bounderby. Marx explained that many aristocrats were trying to return the social order to the way it was during the feudal times, and Sparsit is one of these aristocrats.She refuses to hold that times are changing and that her low-spirited family means nothing in the social order. In conclusion, the Industrial Revolution was a boom in production throughout the Western world. However, it was also a time of many injustices. While the bourgeoisie grew immensely wealthy, they did this through the exploitation of the proletariat. Through they used different methods, both Dickens and Marx publicise the class antagonisms between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat during the mid-1800s. - 1 . Charles Dickens, Hard Times (London, 1854), 27. 2 . Karl Marx, The communistic Manifesto (London, 1848), 22. 3 . Marx, The commie Manifesto, 9. 4 . D ickens, Hard Times, 72. 5 . Marx, The communist Manifesto, 13. 6 . Marx, The Communist Manifesto, 14. 7 . Marx, The Communist Manifesto, 19. 8 . Dickens, Hard Times, 138. 9 . Marx, The Communist Manifesto, 16 10 . Marx, The Communist Manifesto, 26. 11 . Marx, The Communist Manifesto, 29.