A Victorian Utilitarian Education in Hard Times
A Victorian Utilitarian Education in Hard Times

Summary/Abstract: My paper aims to analyse the consequences of an exclusively utilitarian education taught by Mr. Gradgrind in Charles Dickens’s novel Hard Times. At the same time this paper will bring forth Dickens’s solution to ameliorate the effects of utilitarian education: the attempt to unify the “wisdom of the head” with the “wisdom of the heart”, in order to attain a powerful bond between mind and feelings. Therefore, a better future of the education provided in Victorian schools lies in the hope of softening the hearts of the learned ones.

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