In Charles Dickens' novel Hard Times, the author provides us with a story of mill workers of Coketown, a hellish mill town that exists solely to exploit its human capital for profit. As Dickens tells us of one resident, Stephen, he lives in "the hardest working part of Coketown; in the innermost fortifications of that ugly citadel, where Nature was as strongly bricked out as killing airs and gases were bricked in" (Dickens 58). The lack of education and ability for upward mobility among the mill workers is readily apparent. Mill schools stick just to the "facts," and mill parents are desperate their children receive some schooling as a means of achieving a better lifestyle. The entire mill town is structured around the exploitation of human resources for the profit of the owners of the means of production. In this sense, the happiness of the greatest number of people, the measure of morality from a utilitarian perspective, is perverted in Coketown, since a handful of wealthy males profit from the exploitation of workers barely earning sustenance. This analysis will show how Dickens' view that education would provide a means of leveling the playing field between workers and owners is related to the philosophy of utilitarianism.
Utilitarianism (1) is the concept that the "moral worth of an action is solely determined by its contribution to overall utility, that is, its contribution to happiness or pleasure as summed among all persons." Taking an action, then, that produces the greatest amount of happiness or pleasure for the greatest number of persons, is a morally correct action from the utilitarian perspective. If utilitarianism promotes actions that produce the greatest good for the greatest numbers, then Dickens' Hard Times is a moral critique of capitalism from a utilitarian perspective, because Coketown is structured and decisions inside its borders are made to benefit a relatively small, handful of weal...