How does Dickens satire utilitarianism in his novel "Hard Times"?
             I will begin this paper with a brief introduction to the word "utilitarianism." Utilitarianism is a system of ethics (morals) that judges human conduct in relation to the extent to which it provides the greatest happiness of the greatest number of people. In "Hard Times," it faces a number of key issues during the course of Charles Dicken's novel "Hard Times," one of which is that, in context, it disregards feelings and emotions. The problem is that feelings and emotions can't be quantified statistically as easily as numbers pertaining to burglary rates or profits accounts.
             In "Hard Times," Dickens attacks the ways of thinking and acting that had become associated with utilitarian thought. He exposed the extremes of mechanization, statistical analysis, and rationality.
             "Hard Times" is not a work of social criticism but a moral satire. Evidence of Dicken's satire to utilitarianism is in the first chapter of the book. The chapter begins with a short introduction. Inside a classroom, "the speaker" repeats the exclamation, "Now, what I want is facts." Dickens presents the argument that the formation of a child's mind must be rooted in the study of fact. The schoolroom is as hard and plain as the teachers, and the classroom represents the first satire on utilitarianism.
             Utilitarianism underlies the pedagogy of Gradgrind and his M'Choakumchild school, and Louisa, Gradgrind's daughter and one of his pupils, has learned her lesson all too well. Her decision to marry Bounderby is a utilitarian one.
             There is a constant attack on the consequences in education, as is made clear in the wonderful satire of the opening chapters, in which Sissy Jupe, whose life has been spent among horses, is convicted of ignorance of their essential nature. Bitzer, on the other hand, whose "correct" definition of a horse could have been given equally described by someone who had never set ...