DICKENS & HARD TIMES, MELODRAMA VS. TRAGEDY

1. Modern Times Charlie Chaplin, dir., 1936 DICKENS & HARD TIMES, MELODRAMA VS. TRAGEDY Modern Tragedy

2. London, 1850s Rationalism / Economics / Self Interest / Productivity / Exchange of $ / “Head”

3. Fancy / Sympathy / Emotion / Non-productivity / Non-exchangeable value / “Heart”

4. Proposed Title for Hard Times: “EXTREMES MEET” (276)

5. HEGEL ON TRAGEDY • An individual’s decision […] is carried out in a one-sided and particular way, and therefore in specific circumstances […] he injures another and equally moral sphere of the human will. To this sphere another person clings […]and in carrying out his aim opposes and reacts against the former individual. In this way the collision of equally justified powers and individuals is completely set afoot. --GW Hegel, Aesthetics, v II, 1213.

6. PETER BROOKS ON MELODRAMA • “The ritual of melodrama involves the confrontation of clearly identified antagonists and the expulsion of one of them. […] There is […] a social order to be purged, a set of ethical imperatives to be made clear.” --Peter Brooks, The Romantic Imagination, 17

7. Another Proposed Title for Hard Times: “Damaging Facts” “Hard Heads and Soft Hearts” (276)

8. SOCIAL HARMONY RESTORED, “EVIL” PURGED, CLASS WAR ABATED…? • Melodrama is “a drama of morality”: “it strives to find, to articulate, to demonstrate, to ‘prove’ the existence of a moral universe which, though put into question, masked by villainy and perversions of judgment, [according to melodrama] does exist and can be made to assert its presence and its categorical force among men.” --Brooks, Melodramatic Imagination, 20

9. The Bumper Sticker? • 'It theemth to prethent two thingth to a perthon, don't it,Thquire?' said Mr. Sleary, musing as he looked down into the depthsof his brandy and water: 'one, that there ith a love in the world,not all Thelf-interetht after all, but thomething very different;t'other, that it hath a way of ith own of calculating or notcalculating, whith thomehow or another ith at leatht ath hard togive a name to, ath the wayth of the dogth ith!'Mr. Gradgrind looked out of window, and made no reply. Mr. Slearyemptied his glass and recalled the ladies. […] ‘People mutht be amuthed. They can't be alwayth a learning, nor yet they can't be alwayth a working, they an't made for it. You mutht have uth,Thquire. Do the withe thing and the kind thing too, and make thebetht of uth; not the wurtht!’ (269)

10. Punished, Rewarded, or Sacrificed? • Thomas Gradgrind • Josiah Bounderby • Louisa Bounderby nee Gradgrind ("Loo") • Cecilia Jupe ("Sissy") • Stephen Blackpool • Bitzer • Mrs. Sparsit • James Harthouse • Mrs. Pegler • Mrs. Gradgrind • Slackbridge • Thomas Gradgrind Junior ("Tom")

11. Stephen Blackpool Sacrificed? (253)

12. http://www.cartoonstock.com/lowres/csl4689l.jpg

13. “By the 1860s, Dickens had perfected readings of his books that had British audiences lining up for tickets. Theatrical managers promised Dickens huge profits from an American tour, inspiring him to return. He was exuberantly received. Dickens made so much money—£38,000 from 76 readings—that his manager carried cash around in paper bags. ” Matthew Pearl, “Dickens v. America,” moreintelligentlife.com, accessed 11/9/09