Discussion Question #2:
"Domestic fires were not yet lighted, and the high chimneys had the sky to themselves. Puffing out their poisonous volumes, they would not be long in hiding it; but for half an hour, some of the many windows were golden which showed the Coketown people a sun eternally in eclipse, through a medium of smoked glass"(162)
-Who has control, the fire or the people of Coketown?
I think it is safe to say that Dickens is suggesting the the people are controlled by the fire of Coketown and not the other way around. First off, fire and smoke are continually used in describing the rising and setting of the sun and the passage of time. As scene in the quote above, and earlier in a scene describing Mrs Sparsit it is said that she "sat at the window, when the sun began to sink behind the smoke" (123 Dickens). Suggesting that the fire is what determines and controls the lives of the people in Coketown. Also the fact that the people of Coketown are called "the Hands" suggests that they do not even think for themselves but instead are just beings that do what they are told. They are controlled by their jobs at the factory which is what produces the fire.
ReplyDelete