When the Last Trumpet Sounds

Judging by his works, Dickens’ views on religion seem difficult to pin down. 

Theologians often found reason to complain, since religious figures in his texts were frequently shown in a negative light.  In December of 1842, a publication entitled The Christian Remembrancer complained that “his religion, wherever any is introduced, is for the most part such mere pagan sentimentalism, that we should have been better pleased by its absence.  The clergy are never introduced otherwise than with a sneer” (House 113). 

At first glance, this appears to be true of Hard Times as well.  While this book does not feature an abundance of clergy members, Coketown does boast of several religious institutions.  Eighteen churches, to be exact, built by eighteen different religious persuasions.  All constructed of the same dreary and soot covered red brick that the rest of the town is made out of (Dickens 17). 

Who went to these eighteen different churches?

Nobody, apparently.  Not the laboring people, anyway.  It was amazing to walk through the streets on Sunday morning and see how few of the people took any notice at all of the jangling, maddening church bells (Dickens 17).  Coketown was a model of utilitarianist workfulness, and there was no room for faith in the utilitarianist system. 

Every session of the House of Commons, members of Coketown’s religious persuasions indignantly petitioned for an act of parliament that would force people to be more religious.  A lot of good it did.

Dickens may have portrayed organized religion as useless, but the text is not without more positive religious references.  His personal views on religion focused more on works than on faith, and his books may have reflected this (House 111).

Religion, in fact, might have offered a cure for the inhuman evils of utilitarianism. 

The use of Christian language was common in the nineteenth century (House 106).  Throughout Hard Times, Christian references are used in very specific places, often in opposition to utilitarianism. 

When, for example, will the dehumanizing, mathematical, utilitarian system finally end?  At the sound of the last trumpet (Dickens 74). 

More significantly, certain chapter titles and moments in the text suggest biblical passages.  “One Thing Needful,” for example, echoes the language of the tenth chapter of Luke.  Jesus enters the house of Mary and Martha.  Martha busies herself with housework, but Mary sits at Jesus’s feet.  When Martha scolds Mary about not helping, Jesus answers, “Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things.  But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:41-42 KJV).  This passage is often interpreted as demonstrating the importance of putting the kingdom of God before the world.  If the kingdom of God is to be reached, then love must come before practical, utilitarian matters.  This aligns with the overall message of Dickens’ novel (Sexton). 

The book titles, “Sowing,” “Reaping,” and “Garnering” also echo religious language.  Also found in the tenth chapter of Luke is Jesus’s address to the seventy: “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth laborers into his harvest.  Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves” (Luke 10:2-3). 

Sissy Jupe exemplified this exhortation.  She, a model of Christian charity, was sent among the wolves of Coketown to heal the sick (Sexton).  Not just the physically sick, but the mentally and ethically sick as well.  She cares for Louisa after her breakdown at the end of the second book.  Louisa’s sister Jane perhaps owes it to Sissy’s care that she did not experience the same deadening of character that Gradgrind’s eminent practicality had forced upon Louisa.

The March 1842 edition of a Boston publication, The Christian Examiner, disagreed completely with the Remembrancer’s assessment.  Here, they stated that Dickens “shows us, more clearly than any other author whom we can name, what Fancy, baptized with a truly Christian spirit, may achieve towards reconciling man to man, and, through love of the brother whom we have seen, towards leading us to the purer love of the father, whom we have not seen” (House 112). 

The eighteen religious denominations in Coketown may have been useless, but Sissy demonstrated true Christian love.  Her character functioned as a stark contrast to heartless utilitarianist practices.  What is first principle of the science of Political Economy, M’Choakumchild wanted to know?  “To do unto others as I would that they should do unto me” was Sissy’s answer (Dickens 41).  A good first principle for all of us to follow. 

Works Cited

Dickens, Charles. Hard Times. New York: Dover, 2001. Print.

House, Humphry. The Dickens World. New York: Oxford University Press, 1941. Print.  

Sexton, James. “Dickens’ Hard Times and Dystopia.” Victorian Web. 11 Oct. 2002. Accessed 11 Apr. 2017. Web. http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/hardtimes/sexton1.html