Author(s): Abdulqader Sulaiman Mejbel

Abstract: The industrial revolution during the eighteenth century had many favorable outcomes. Through the Victorian era, there was rapid progress due to industrialization. This divided society into the rich and the poor. Charles Dickens’s novel "Hard Times" is considered one of the early works that had a critical perspective on the effects of the industrial revolution on working life. This paper analyses Dickens’s opinion on the events that were witnessed during the Industrial Revolution. Though he criticizes the sudden changes due to industrialization, he was not against the industrial revolution. It can be seen that his concern for the people made him reach out to bring about the necessary changes in the lives of the factory workers. The goal of the research is to understand how industrialization affected society from the writer's perspective.

Keywords: Charles Dickens, The industrial revolution, social changes, and perspectives.

Article Info: Received: 21 Sep 2022; Received in revised form: 12 Oct 2022; Accepted: 16 Oct 2022; Available online: 20 Oct 2022

DOI: 10.22161/ijels.75.25