Question map
Identify from the following the novel written by Charles Dickens that critisied the adverse impact of industrialization on the poor.
Explanation
Charles Dickens, a prominent Victorian novelist, wrote 'Hard Times' in 1854 to critique the dehumanizing effects of the Industrial Revolution. The novel is set in the fictional Coketown, a symbol of industrialization characterized by pollution, factories, and the exploitation of the working class. Dickens specifically targeted the utilitarian philosophy of the era, which prioritized cold logic and facts over human emotion and imagination. Through characters like Thomas Gradgrind, the novel illustrates how industrial society treated people like machines, leading to social injustice and misery for the poor. While Dickens was not entirely against industrial progress, he used 'Hard Times' as a social protest to highlight the stark class disparities and the harsh living conditions of factory workers in 19th-century England. The other options provided are not works by Dickens related to this theme.