'Hard Times' is a wonderful story, but if you think about the reality behind the work, the novel becomes a masterpiece. This novel becomes very important because utilitarianism was the main thought in the Victorian era. Utilitarianism: “the forms of freedom and equality that will produce the greatest happiness depend on the state of the educational, political, economic and social structure” (Harris). Everything is explained by logic and facts. It is easy for the reader to find that Dickens teases out this theory, but what is exciting is how he does so through the characters. “Now, what I want are the facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but facts. In life you only need facts. Plant nothing else and uproot nothing else” (Dickens 9). These are the words addressed to the children in class. Additionally, these are the first sentences of the novel, so the audience is directly put into an effective way of thinking and led to the time period in which it was written. Readers get most of their impressions, emotions, and their own ideas and opinions about the topic through characters. Charles Dickens injected his ideologies into the characters which make them more than just a character in the story. Gradgrind and Mr. Bounderby are the main characters who relate to utilitarianism. Both speak only of facts that guide the lives of others according to their opinions. And these facts are taught to children from childhood, so to speak. Mr. Gradgrind's daughter, Louisa, is a good example. She is the character who obeys her father and follows the system of facts. The only scene that tells the reader very clearly about this system is when Mr. Gradgrind brings up Mr. Bounderby's marriage proposal. This… middle of paper… gets its revenge by making utilitarianism seem unreasonable in “Hard Times.” It is the readers who decide whether or not Dickens was a moderate or some other believer. Works Cited Harris, Wendell V. “The Value of Utilitarian Ethics in the Present Moment.” Texas Studies in Literature and Language 40.2 (1998): 209+. Literary Resource Center. Network. August 8, 2011. Stiltner, Barry. "Hard times: the disciplinary city". Dickens Annual Studies 30 (2001): 193-215. Rpt. in nineteenth-century literary criticism. Ed. Kathy D. Darrow. vol. 230. Detroit: Gale, 2011. Literature Resource Center. Network. August 10, 2011.Olsen, Maigun Gaardbo. “Utilitarianism and hard times”. Aalborg University."Princeton Gradgrind." Commonweal (1999): 5. Literature Resource Center. Network. August 10. 2011.