Reflections of industrial revolution on work life in England and its projections in literature: An analysis on charles dickens’s hard times

Abstract

The Industrial Revolution, which began in England in the eighteenth century, is the result of a long period of social and economic evolution extending into the late Middle Ages. Apart from its several favorable outcomes, Industrial Revolution caused some undesirable outcomes for working life. The aim of this study is to inspect Dickens’s Hard Times which can be counted as one of the preliminary works that reflected on effects of Industrial Revolution on working life with a critical perspective within the scope of administrative mentality of that time. Within this context, scientific works which focused on the intellectual foundations of the industrial era and Dicken’s Hard Times are taken into consideration for the conceptional framework of the study. Qualitative research approach has been adopted to the study and through the inspection of the novel, the main perspectives which make up the foundations of management mentality have been evaluated. As a result of this study, it is seen that positivitism, economy science and utilitarianism have been influential in the management concept and practices of the Industrial Revolution era. In Hard Times, Dickens propounds the negative effects of these perspectives which can be useful for the humankind when used for good causes.