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영어

Dickens depicts an industrial city called Coketown in Hard Times. People living there suffer from conflicts between laborers representing Union and management representing Bounderby. Dickens suggests his alternative through Stephen Blackpool to solve the conflicts, but the author’s suggestion is not satisfactory. Blackpool seems to be qualified for the alternative, a mediator, but he does not behave as an able arbitrator on account of his insufficient abilities. The character of Blackpool resembles of Carlyle both in reality and in his writings. In Signs of the Times, Carlyle emphasizes on the importance of spiritual values and the importance of the editor in Sartor Resartus. It is the mediative abilities that Dickens wants to show through Blackpool to solve the problem. In spite of his qualification as a mediator, however, he fails to adjust the conflicts in the industrial city and that is because this article argues that Dickens suggests an unsatisfying suggestion to labor management conflict society.