Measuring in Hard Times

Another theme I've noticed in Hard Times is the idea of measuring.  Mr. Gradgrind is astounded when he realizes that Sissy Jupe's worth is not calculable.  "Somehow or other, he had become possessed by an idea that there was something in this girl which could hardly be set forth in tabular form.... he was not yet sure that if he had been required, for example, to tick her off into columns in a parliamentary return, he would have quite known how to divide her" (73).  Sissy has not learned much of facts in her time at the school, and she doesn't reason according to mathematics, but according to the dictates of her own consciousness.  That is immeasureable.

In another section, focusing on the working class, Dickens notes, "It is known, to the force of a single pound weight, what the engine will do; but, not all the calculators of the National Debt can tell me the capacity for good or evil, for love or hatred, for patriotism or discontent, for the decomposition of virtue into vice, or the reverse, at any single moment in the soul of one of these its quiet servants" (56).  During the Industrial Era, it was important to quantify the amount of something produced, the amount of cost, the amount of profit, the amount of time used, etc.  Everything was calculated; yet the soul of man is incalculable by these means.  The workers may be seen as cogs in the machine, but their value is not measurable.  Sissy Jupe, though incapable of memorizing facts, does a great deal of good to Mrs. Gradgrind, and, as we see later, to everyone who comes in contact with her.  People are worth more than the amount of products they produce; their true worth is not measurable by mortals.

Our society tries to quantify worth all the time.  We've talked about badges in our class and how they are a new system of measuring someone's skills and qualifications.  Also, in the digital age, anyone can contribute information and art online; material that isn't reviewed by an expert leads to questions like, "How do we know whether this is valid?"

We've discussed currency in our class relating to reputation.  If something online is good, we need a way to quantify its value.  We can do this by looking at ratings (so many stars or likes), the number of hits it receives, or the number of subscribers.

However, Dickens points out that it is difficult to measure some things.  In this way, sometimes it is more helpful to read comments and opinions from friends on social networks in order to know how valuable something is, rather than trying to calculate or quantify its worth.