Stephen Blackpool is introduced after we have met the
Gradgrind family and Bounderby, and Blackpool provides a stark contrast
to these earlier characters. One of the Hands in Bounderby’s factory, Stephen
lives a life of drudgery and poverty. In spite of the hardships of
his daily toil, Stephen strives to maintain his honesty, integrity, faith,
and compassion.
Stephen is an important character not only because his
poverty and virtue contrast with Bounderby’s wealth and self-interest,
but also because he finds himself in the midst of a labor dispute
that illustrates the strained relations between rich and poor. Stephen
is the only Hand who refuses to join a workers’ union: he believes
that striking is not the best way to improve relations between factory owners
and employees, and he also wants to earn an honest living. As a
result, he is cast out of the workers’ group. However, he also refuses
to spy on his fellow workers for Bounderby, who consequently sends
him away. Both groups, rich and poor, respond in the same self-interested,
backstabbing way. As Rachael explains, Stephen ends up with the
“masters against him on one hand, the men against him on the other,
he only wantin’ to work hard in peace, and do what he felt right.”
Through Stephen, Dickens suggests that industrialization threatens
to compromise both the employee’s and employer’s moral integrity,
thereby creating a social muddle to which there is no easy solution.
Through his efforts to resist the moral corruption on
all sides, Stephen becomes a martyr, or Christ figure, ultimately
dying for Tom’s crime. When he falls into a mine shaft on his way
back to Coketown to clear his name of the charge of robbing Bounderby’s bank,
Stephen comforts himself by gazing at a particularly bright star
that seems to shine on him in his “pain and trouble.” This star not
only represents the ideals of virtue for which Stephen strives,
but also the happiness and tranquility that is lacking in his troubled
life. Moreover, his ability to find comfort in the star illustrates
the importance of imagination, which enables him to escape the cold,
hard facts of his miserable existence.
