Hard Times is a tragic story of human oppression, set in the imaginary Northern industrial town of Coketown, where overzealous adoption of industrialization threatens to turn humans into machines by thwarting the development of their emotions and imaginations.

As always, Dickens creates a wonderful array of characters including strict utilitarian schoolmaster Thomas Gradgrind, heartless factory owner Josiah Bounderby, seemingly unfeeling Louisa Gradgrind, and kind-hearted Sissy Jupe.

Dickens's great satiric and social themes come through clearly: the plight and misery of the poor and the greed and heartless stupidity of the rich.