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Similes
Book 3, Chapter 9
Explanation and Analysis—A Deathbed Confession:
One example of situational irony in the book takes place when Tom passes away. Tom, who at his last meeting with his sister blamed her for his problems and refused to speak with her, dies with her name on his lips:
At length this brother coming nearer home, with hope of seeing her, and being delayed by illness; and then a letter in a strange hand, saying, “he died in hospital, of fever, such a day, and died in penitence and love of you: his last word being your name [...]”
Until this moment, Tom has been one of the most obdurate and unchanging characters in Hard Times. While Louisa and his father realize the error of their ways, Tom cannot let go of his selfishness until the very last moment.
The context of this scene adds another shade of irony to it. At the novel’s end, Louisa is looking into the fire, trying to see her future in it. Tom’s penitence is listed as among those future events which will come to pass, but which Louisa is unlikely to predict.
In this way, Tom’s deathbed admission is doubly ironic. Readers would never suspect, based on Tom’s behavior, that he would come to such a moment of self-realization and reconciliation with his sister. Neither can Louisa: the audience is given knowledge of it that she cannot have, since the event is projected into the future beyond the narrative.
The effect of this situational irony is that the end of the book contains an unexpected kernel of hope for the reader. Though Tom had been thoroughly inculcated into one view of the world, he manages to ultimately break free of it. The bonds of love and family overcome the rational self-interest utilitarianism promotes. His death far from home is tragic, but provides the intense conditions for self-reflection that make any change in Tom possible.
Related Themes:
