Tough times

Overview of the novel Hard Times - Charles Dickens: I have planted in their minds the facts as I plant nails in wood, mercilessly and relentlessly, until the springs of imagination in them dried up. However, there remained deep in their hearts a small thing that refuses to die, a faint flame of a dream or emotion, waiting for a breeze of mercy to reignite it. But the industrial city with its smoke and noise did not know mercy, rather it turned humans into gears in an unstoppable machine.