The novel <em>Hard Times</em> can be seen as a critique of two important phenomenons that were taking place in England during this time period. The first one is the Industrial Revolution. This revolution placed an enormous value on efficiency. This led to the predominance of measurements and statistics as opposed to more humane values like imagination, creativity or freedom. The second phenomenon was the philosophy of utilitarianism, which believed that every human value (such as happiness) could be expressed as a mathematical equation of utility. Because of these two phenomena, the time period Dickens wrote about is one during which hard, measurable facts were highly valued.
Hard Times- For this times, is a short novel by Charles Dickens that has a pessimistic view of the social and economic situation of the era, it protrays a satiric version of the English society but set in Mexico by 1854 and how they appreciated more the hard value of numbers and things. He had to write it and publish it because his weekly periodical was low on sales, by publiching it it boosted its numbers.
