Pg 125 as Bounderby describes Coketown aristocrat mentality to Harthouse.
"First of all, you see our smoke. That's meat and drink to us. It's the healthiest thing in the world in all respects, and particularly for the lungs. If you are one of those who want us to consume it, I differ from you. We are not going to wear out the bottoms of our boilers any faster than we wear them out now..."
The first part of this quote is a very nice reversal becuase is is directly the opposite of the common belief that smoke should not be breathed in. It empasizes the gap between the beliefs of the hands or outsiders (portrayed as better) and the beliefs of the industrialists (portrayed as rediculous and illogical through reversal).
Well it really is just a hilarious quote by dickens. it really just shows how their lives revolve around the factories and their ideas of efficiency. Also Bounderby saying its good for the lungs just emphasizes how blind he is to the fact that his life has been wasted caring about fact and factories! also i couldn't help but think of old cigarette adds when he said smoking was healthy and how Bounderby says it's healthy and his whole persona is a lie haha also the smoke definitely reminds me of the cover of the book, and i know it wasn't chosen by Dickens' or anything but it is a fitting cover to describe coketown and the sad society.
ReplyDelete