Dear Charles Dickens,
I am writing this letter to commend you on your exemplary depiction of real deficiencies in human behaviour and criticism of the education system in the Victorian era seen in ‘Hard Times’. I am in admiration of your novel as it exposes the negative effect of industrialisation on society as people became overly concerned with statistics and factual information. I can relate to your feelings of great disdain towards Gradgrind’s education system that focuses on the consumption of information, specifically calculations and figures. I believe that the character of Gradgrind perfectly epitomises authoritative figures in the Victorian age who thought that people should only be concerned with facts and this is all that children should be taught at school for creativity and imaginative processes are impractical. This belief that many people carried at the time was problematic as necessary human qualities such as compassion and modesty were dismissed due to the primary focus on information. I think you portray this brilliantly through Gradgrind’s influence over his children as he becomes disappointed and manipulative when Tom and Louisa show interest in the circus. They are taught to not be imaginative and wander about the world, which creates real human deficiencies such as the inability to form genuine connections with people and the deprivation of joy. These characters are a reflection of people in society, urging for change to be made which I think is admirable. Therefore I would like to say thank you for writing your novel.

Kind Regards,
Anna