Thoughts & Reflections - Hard Times and Engels Comparison

Thoughts & Reflections - Hard Times and Engels Comparison

Image: Coketown

This T&R is going to compare the thoughts of Charles Dickens and Engels in regards to how they viewed the conditions of living during the industrial revolution. The thing that is interesting is that they do share some of the same ideas however they say them in different ways. Dickens uses a more poetic tone while Engels uses a more philosophical tone. 

The first idea that they share is the concern of air quality. Engels starts by saying "The carbonic acid gas, engendered by respiration and fire, remains in the streets by reason of its specific gravity...The lungs of the inhabitants fail to receive the due supply of oxygen. Dickens shows this with the quote "a town of red brick, or of brick that would have been red if the smoke and ashes allowed it." Both of these quotes show the authors commenting on the poor air quality and heavy smog. 

The second idea they share is the idea that factory work is dehumanizing. Dickens states "The piston of the steam engine worked monotonously up and down, like the head of an elephant in melancholy madness.” While Engels states "This condition which degrades, in the most shameful way, both sexes." Both of these statements have to due with the fact that working in the factory conditions are detrimental to the health and well being of the people.
This concept can be seen in a different way with the Dickens stating “It contained several large streets, all very like one another: and many small streets still more like one another, inhabited by people equally like one another, who all went in and out at the same hours with the same sound upon the same pavement, to do the same work, and to whom every day was the same as yesterday and tomorrow and every year the counterpart of the last and the next”. Engels says that "They are deprived of all enjoyments except that of sexual indulgence and drunkenness, are worked every day to the point of complete exhaustion of their mental and physical energies." These quotes both show the monotonous and never ending work for the men and women of the industrial era.
 [Side Note: Nine Inch Nails - a music group that is considered "Industrial" meaning there music invokes the feeling of the industrial world, with pumping engine like drum beats, and mechanical droning overtones. One of their songs titled "Every Day Is Exactly The Same" echos the thoughts of Dickens "whom every day was the same as yesterday and tomorrow and every year the counterpart of the last and the next" As well as the dehumanization that Engels states.]  

 

I believe I can see the future
'Cause I repeat the same routine
I think I used to have a purpose
But then again, that might have been a dream

I think I used to have a voice
Now I never make a sound
I just do what I've been told
I really don't want them to come around, oh no

Every day is exactly the same
Every day is exactly the same
There is no love here and there is no pain
Every day is exactly the same

I can feel their eyes are watching
In case I lose myself again
Sometimes I think I'm happy here
(Sometimes)
Sometimes, yet I still pretend

I can't remember how this got started
Oh, but I can tell you exactly how it will end

Every day is exactly the same
Every day is exactly the same
There is no love here and there is no pain
Every day is exactly the same

I'll write it on a little piece of paper
I'm hoping, someday, you might find
Well I'll hide it behind something
They won't look behind

I am still inside her
A little bit comes bleeding through
I wish this could've been any other way
But I just don't know, I don't know what else I can do

Every day is exactly the same
Every day is exactly the same
There is no love here and there is no pain
Every day is exactly the same

Every day is exactly the same
Every day is exactly the same
There is no love here and there is no pain
Every day is exactly the same
(Every day is the same!)