"...pretend that there could be smoke without fire; death without birth, harvest without seed, anything or everything produced for nothing." (138)
In the passage, the fire and smoke along with the other contrast words, are used to reveal that the workers' unionization was caused by Coketown and that every cause has an effect and vice versa.The continuous use of the word "without" emphasizes that it's not possible to have one without the other. The fire and smoke indicate that the smoke from Coketown was created from the "fire" of the factories, causing Coketown to symbolically become as destructive as the fire .
Dickens uses his descriptions to show those there doesn't seem like a way out. Fire can be destructive though, so it suggests that at some point, the characters could potentially find their way out of the unending cycle if they thought individually to come to the right conclusion for themselves.
ReplyDeleteSlackbridge is truly a strong persuasive speaker as he seems to convince everyone in the room of uniting under the union and a common cause, except for Stephen of course. Dickens is not kind to him at all, describing him as follows: "In many great respects, he was essentially below them. He was not so honest, he was not so manly, he was not so good-humoured; he substituted cunning for their simplicity, and passion for their solid sense" (137). It seems in many ways that this is one of Dickens' concerns about unions. The "Hands" are quite admired in the narrator's mind, but the leaders are not honest or fit for leadership. With enough "passion" instead of logic or a thorough understanding of the situation, Slackbridge is capable of leading these men down a questionable route.
ReplyDeleteIn that light, Emily's comment is very interesting in this idea of a cycle. While Slackbridge is not perfect in metaphorical language in my opinion, these are cycles. So yes, the union might be the smoke and did not cause the original fire but could this not be the fuel that feeds its continuation as well as the result?