Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary
devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.
Bounderby’s Childhood
Bounderby frequently reminds us that he is “Josiah Bounderby
of Coketown.” This emphatic phrase usually follows a description
of his childhood poverty: he claims to have been born in a ditch
and abandoned by his mother; raised by an alcoholic grandmother;
and forced to support himself by his own labor. From these ignominious beginnings,
he has become the wealthy owner of both a factory and a bank. Thus,
Bounderby represents the possibility of social mobility, embodying
the belief that any individual should be able overcome all obstacles
to success—including poverty and lack of education—through hard
work. Indeed, Bounderby often recites the story of his childhood
in order to suggest that his Hands are impoverished because they
lack his ambition and self-discipline. However, “Josiah Bounderby
of Coketown” is ultimately a fraud. His mother, Mrs. Pegler, reveals
that he was raised by parents who were loving, albeit poor, and
who saved their money to make sure he received a good education.
By exposing Bounderby’s real origins, Dickens calls into question
the myth of social mobility. In other words, he suggests that perhaps
the Hands cannot overcome poverty through sheer determination alone,
but only through the charity and compassion of wealthier individuals.
Clocks and Time
Dickens contrasts mechanical or man-made time with natural
time, or the passing of the seasons. In both Coketown and the Gradgrind household,
time is mechanized—in other words, it is relentless, structured,
regular, and monotonous. As the narrator explains, “Time went on
in Coketown like its own machine.” The mechanization of time is
also embodied in the “deadly statistical clock” in Mr. Gradgrind’s
study, which measures the passing of each minute and hour. However,
the novel itself is structured through natural time. For instance,
the titles of its three books—“Sowing,” “Reaping,” and “Garnering”—allude
to agricultural labor and to the processes of planting and harvesting
in accordance with the changes of the seasons. Similarly, the narrator
notes that the seasons change even in Coketown’s “wilderness of
smoke and brick.” These seasonal changes constitute “the only stand
that ever was made against its direful uniformity.” By contrasting
mechanical time with natural time, Dickens illustrates the great
extent to which industrialization has mechanized human existence.
While the changing seasons provide variety in terms of scenery and
agricultural labor, mechanized time marches forward with incessant
regularity.
Mismatched Marriages
There are many unequal and unhappy marriages in Hard
Times, including those of Mr. and Mrs. Gradgrind, Stephen
Blackpool and his unnamed drunken wife, and most pertinently, the
Bounderbys. Louisa agrees to marry Mr. Bounderby because her father
convinces her that doing so would be a rational decision. He even
cites statistics to show that the great difference in their ages
need not prevent their mutual happiness. However, Louisa’s consequent
misery as Bounderby’s wife suggests that love, rather than either
reason or convenience, must be the foundation of a happy marriage.
