Carlyle s Attitudes on Dicken s Hard Times

Carlyle (1795-1881) was one of the major writers who lived in the nineteenth century. In this century, which was popularly known as the Victorian age, England witnessed great changes. This age was not only the longest but the greatest in the history of England because it was a period of such social and political problems. No doubt, the bitter sufferings and the gloomy reflections of this period seized Carlyle's imagination. His influence over the mind of his time was so partly because the earlier writings were felt to be greater than his doctrines. There was a misapprehension which remained an impediment to the understanding not only of him but of the literature of a whole age.1 At the end of the century, it was a customary to measure Carlyle by the content of his teaching, and especially by its potential dangers and distortions. Clearly, it was not Carlyle's specific doctrines, or even his powerful and influential way of expressing them, but the general quality of his response to nineteenth century life that fostered his immense status among his contemporaries. He dealt with mechanism and the effect of machine on mankind in his age which is consequently called The Mechanical Age.2