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Séquence 1 · Art against injustice: Dickens's Coketown and Hood's « Song of the Shirt »

Can literature change the way a society sees the poor?

Bonjour !

Dans cette séquence de langues, littératures et cultures étrangères (anglais), tu vas chercher à répondre à la grande question écrite en haut de la page. Elle se fait en 2 séances. Pour chaque séance : lis la consigne, étudie les documents, réponds aux questions sur ta feuille ou sur l'ENT, puis recopie l'essentiel dans ton cahier. Tu peux imprimer cette page avec le bouton « Imprimer ».

À la fin, je serai capable de :

Les mots importants

Industrial Revolution, the « Condition of England » questionsocial novel, satire, caricaturerepetition, anaphora, monotonyprotest poem, refrain, pathossweated labour, utilitarianism

Ressources de la séquence

Les notions, les repères et les pistes pour aller plus loin, utiles pour toutes les séances.

Les notions à maîtriser

Condition of England
Expression of Thomas Carlyle (1839) for the debate on the misery created by industrialisation.
Social novel
Novel which depicts social problems to move the public: Dickens, Gaskell (North and South, 1855).
Satire
Mockery of a vice or an institution: Coketown as « the painted face of a savage ».
Utilitarianism
Doctrine of Bentham and Mill; in Hard Times, Gradgrind's « Facts » philosophy.
Sweated labour
Work paid by the piece, very long hours at home or in workshops: Hood's seamstress.
Anaphora
Repetition at the beginning of clauses: « It was a town of … It was a town of … »

Repères

DateÉvénement
1833 ; 1844 ; 1847Factory Acts limiting child and women's work; Ten Hours Act (1847).
1843« The Song of the Shirt » in Punch's Christmas issue; Carlyle, Past and Present.
1845Friedrich Engels, The Condition of the Working Class in England.
1854Hard Times, serialised in Dickens's weekly Household Words.

Pour aller plus loin

Sources et bibliographie

Mon parcours : je choisis mon rythme

Séance 1 · Coketown: the key-note of an industrial world

65 min

Séance approfondie : cours développé, documents sourcés, activités exigeantes avec coups de pouce.

La question du jour

How does Dickens make monotony unbearable for the reader?

Mon plan de travail

Le cours à lire · Dickens and the social novel

Hard Times (1854) is set in Coketown, a fictional industrial town of the North of England. Chapter 5, « The Key-note », gives the tone of the whole novel. Dickens uses anaphora (« It was a town of … »), striking images (smoke as « interminable serpents », the piston « like the head of an elephant in a state of melancholy madness ») and repetition to make the reader feel the monotony of lives ruled by machines. The inhabitants are « equally like one another »: industrial work erases individuality. This is a satire of the utilitarian society embodied by Gradgrind and Bounderby.

Document 1 · Charles Dickens, Hard Times (1854), book I, chapter 5 « The Key-note »

Novel, 1854 (public domain).

It was a town of red brick, or of brick that would have been red if the smoke and ashes had allowed it; but as matters stood, it was a town of unnatural red and black like the painted face of a savage. It was a town of machinery and tall chimneys, out of which interminable serpents of smoke trailed themselves for ever and ever, and never got uncoiled. It had a black canal in it, and a river that ran purple with ill-smelling dye, and vast piles of building full of windows where there was a rattling and a trembling all day long, and where the piston of the steam-engine worked monotonously up and down, like the head of an elephant in a state of melancholy madness. It contained several large streets all very like one another, and many small streets still more like one another, inhabited by people equally like one another, who all went in and out at the same hours, with the same sound upon the same pavements, to do the same work, and to whom every day was the same as yesterday and to-morrow, and every year the counterpart of the last and the next.

Source : C. Dickens, Hard Times, I, 5 (full text on Wikisource).

Pour bien lire ce document :

ashes: cendres ; uncoiled: déroulés ; dye: teinture ; rattling: cliquetis ; counterpart: réplique exacte.

Activité 1 · Understand

12 min
Essentiel

Supports : Document 1

Consigne :

Read the extract and answer in English.

  1. What colours dominate Coketown, and why?
  2. What does the steam-engine look like?
  3. How do the inhabitants live?

Ce qui est attendu (6 pts) : Comprehension

Activité 2 · Analyse

18 min
Essentiel

Supports : Document 1

Consigne :

Analyse Dickens's techniques.

  1. Find two repetitions and explain their effect.
  2. What do the animal images suggest?
  3. What is ironic in the comparison « like the painted face of a savage »?

Ce qui est attendu (7 pts) : Analysis

Activité 3 · Write

15 min
Travail à rendre

Supports : Document and lesson

Consigne :

Write a 120-word description of a modern place (warehouse, call centre, motorway) in Dickens's style: anaphora, images, repetitions.

Ce qui est attendu (7 pts) : Written production

Trace écrite · document à compléter (papier ou ENT)

Complète la trace écrite avec les mots de la banque, puis recopie-la dans ton cahier.

Coketownelephantmonotonysatire

In *Hard Times*, ________ is described with anaphora and repetition to express ________. The steam-engine is « like the head of an ________ in a state of melancholy madness ». Dickens writes a ______ of industrial and utilitarian society.

Séance 2 · Stitch! stitch! stitch! A poem that moved a nation

65 min

Séance approfondie : cours développé, documents sourcés, activités exigeantes avec coups de pouce.

La question du jour

How can a poem speak for those who have no voice?

Mon plan de travail

Le cours à lire · The protest poem

« The Song of the Shirt » was published anonymously in Punch at Christmas 1843, after a London court case revealed the misery of a seamstress paid a pittance for shirts. Hood gives a voice to the worker: most of the poem is her song. The refrain « Stitch! stitch! stitch! » and the dashes (« Work—work—work ») imitate the endless movement of the needle. The poem appeals to pathos and addresses the middle-class reader directly: « O, men, with sisters dear! ». The final paradox, « bread should be so dear, / And flesh and blood so cheap! », turns economics into a moral scandal. The poem was reprinted everywhere, sung and painted.

Document 1 · Thomas Hood, « The Song of the Shirt » (1843), first stanza

Poem, Punch, 1843, text of the Poetical Works (public domain).

With fingers weary and worn, With eyelids heavy and red, A woman sat in unwomanly rags, Plying her needle and thread— Stitch! stitch! stitch! In poverty, hunger, and dirt, And still with a voice of dolorous pitch She sang the "Song of the Shirt!"

Source : T. Hood, « The Song of the Shirt » (full text on Wikisource).

Pour bien lire ce document :

weary: las ; rags: haillons ; plying: maniant ; dolorous pitch: ton douloureux.

Document 2 · Thomas Hood, « The Song of the Shirt », stanzas 4 and 5

Same poem.

"O, men, with sisters dear! O, men, with mothers and wives! It is not linen you're wearing out, But human creatures' lives! Stitch—stitch—stitch, In poverty, hunger, and dirt, Sewing at once, with a double thread, A shroud as well as a shirt. […] O, God! that bread should be so dear, And flesh and blood so cheap!

Source : T. Hood, « The Song of the Shirt » (full text on Wikisource).

Pour bien lire ce document :

linen: linge ; shroud: linceul ; dear: cher (prix) ; cheap: bon marché.

Activité 1 · Understand

12 min
Essentiel

Supports : Documents 1 and 2

Consigne :

Read the stanzas and answer in English.

  1. Who is the woman and what is she doing?
  2. To whom does she speak in stanza 4?
  3. What does she sew « with a double thread »?

Ce qui est attendu (6 pts) : Comprehension

Activité 2 · Interpret

18 min
Approfondissement

Supports : Documents 1 and 2, lesson

Consigne :

Write a paragraph (about 180 words): « Hood turns a news item into a universal protest. »

Ce qui est attendu (8 pts) : Written production

Activité 3 · Translate

15 min
Travail à rendre

Supports : Document 2

Consigne :

Translate into French « It is not linen you're wearing out, / But human creatures' lives! ».

Ce qui est attendu (6 pts) : Translation

Trace écrite · document à compléter (papier ou ENT)

Complète la trace écrite avec les mots de la banque, puis recopie-la dans ton cahier.

pathosPunchrefrainshroud

« The Song of the Shirt » was published in ______ in 1843. The _______ « Stitch! stitch! stitch! » imitates the endless work. The seamstress sews « A ______ as well as a shirt ». The poem uses ______ to move middle-class readers.

Fiche à trous · je complète

Complète le texte avec les mots de la banque (sur papier ou dans le document de l'ENT).

anothercheapchimneyselephantshroud

Coketown is « a town of red brick », of machinery and tall ________; its people are « equally like one _______ ».

The steam-engine moves « like the head of an ________ in a state of melancholy madness ».

Hood's seamstress sews « A ______ as well as a shirt »: « bread should be so dear, / And flesh and blood so ______ ».

Ce que j'ai appris

Les 3 idées que je retiens :
Une phrase en anglais que je veux retenir :
Ce qui reste difficile pour moi / ma question pour le professeur :