Hard Times A Class Project
Cristina Delgado 3ยบB IES Cristo del Rosario - Zafra (Badajoz) 06/01/2013
- The title of this book is Hard Times. - The author is the famous Charles Dickens - The publishing house is Oxford. - The main characters are: Mr Bounderb : He is a very rich and an ambitious person, he is the owner of a very big factory in Coketown and he is a banker too. Thomas Gradgrind: He is a Bounderby´s friend; he is Tom and Luisa’s father. He is teacher in a school in Coketown and he only teaches about facts. Tom Gradgrind: He is the Gradgrind´s son, he has a lot of problems with money, and he goes to prison. Louisa Gradgrind: She is the Gradgrind´s daughter; she is a very serious girl. James Harthouse: He is a Tom´s friend; he comes to Coketown to learn about the political work. He seduces Louisa and in the end he has to go to other city because he has a lot of problems. Sissy Jupe: She is a clown´s daughter, she work for Gradgrind like a servant. She is a very good person and she likes to imagine and thinking ideas. Stephen Blackpool: He is a Bounderby´s factory worker; he falls in love with Rachael, a very good friend of his wife. Rachael: She is a factory worker, she is in love with Stephen but his wife is the best friend of her.
-Summary: This book take place in a factory town in 1870, this town is in the north of England and its name is Coketown. Mr Bounderby is the owner of the factory and a banker; he wasis a very rich person and likes telling stories about how he grew up. His best friend, Mr Gradgrind is the teacher of the school of Coketown but he only teaches about real facts and he doesn´t allow having their own dreams and His children, Tom and Louisa, have the same situation at home. Gradgrind welcomed a clown´s daughter like a servant, because the clown disappeared, her name was Sissy Jupe. She was a happy girl and Tom and Louisa like listening Sissy´s stories. When Tom and Louisa grew up, Tom worked for Bounderby in his bank and Louisa married Bounderby. Suddenly, one day a strange man appear in the house, he is a Tom´s friend named James Harthouse, he was very gorgeous and rich. In the Bounderby´s factory there is a worker named Stephen Blackpool, ha has a hard life because his work is very hard, and he has an alcoholic wife, he is in love with his wife´s best friend, Rachael. She is another factory´s worker. Stephen doesn´t want to stay in Coketown, he wants to go to other cities to meet new people and to have a new job; and with the help of Tom and Bounderby he goes to another city. The same morning that he goes, somebody robbed the bank. Everybody think that Stephen the bank, but this is not true. Mr Harthouse fell falls in love with Louisa and he set her but Louisa is very confused and goes to her father´s house and stays here a lot of days, because she doesn´t want to go to her house, and Mr Harthouse leaves the city.
In the end Mr Gradgrind discovers that Tom is the robber, because he escaped from the city and went to the circus where Sissy´s father worked. He robbed the bank because he had a lot of problems with money and he and his sister Louisa, where angry with their father because they didn´t like the way his father has took them; however they forgive their father because he was regretted.
-Personal opinion: I enjoyed the book but I think it is a bit confuse because it mixes different stories, I recommend this book to people who like historical books because it is related to industrial revolution.
VOCABULARY CHART Name: Cristina Delgado Cascajosa
Class: 3ºB
Title: Hard Times WORD
Date: 18/01/2013
Chapter
MEANING
SENTENCE
Stern
Severa
She had a stern face
Sullenness
Malhumor
Is normal have sullenness with this teacher
Amused
Divertido
It is very amused
Wheel
Rotar
The Earth is wheeling all the time
Perhaps
Quizás
Perhaps he goes to the cinema
Blanket
Manta
Here there are a white blanket
Impassive
Impasible
He was impassive when he read the news
Treated
Tratados
I treated him
Belonged
Pertenecia
My dog belonged to a poor man
Whisper
Susurrar
My mum whisper me every day: “good night princess”
Fainted
Abrazó
I fainted her because she was very sad
Overjoyed
Llenos de alegría We are overjoyed with our presents