Hard Times

8 Pages 2006 Words

describes his place of employment, the mill, as “...always going, and...they never work us any nearer to any distant object-except always death.” (Hard Times, pg. 140). It was something he had begun out of obligation and in the long run it had moved itself into his entire being. After work every day he feels a sensation “–the sensation of its [his labor] having worked and stopped in his own head” (Hard Times, pg. 61). This idea is the entire base of Marx fashions: the blending of the worker and his work as one until the worker is reduced.
Blackpool is the victim of labor in that it entirely forbids him from experiencing what is attractive in life. His labor spoils his roses and gives him thorns instead. In Hard Times the laws of England are fashioned for the rich, not the poor, another way Marx believes capitalism exploits the poor worker. Blackpool visits Bounderby for help. He has spent a big segment of his life wedded to his not speaking wife but has found another woman he has grown to love. Wanting to liberate himself from the limits holding him to his first wife he asks Bounderby for guidance. Blackpool, on the other hand, is rapidly up to date that getting a divorce involves a large amount of wealth. Due to his insufficient salary Blackpool must live his days married to a drunk and simply connected with a virtuous woman. The divorce laws in England at that time only benefited the rich. The bourgeoisie, the predominate legislative class at that time, made the law in their o...