Rachael

This character of Dicken’s ‘Hard Times’ is represented as the factory worker. She is a woman with soft character and gentle behavior. Her best friend is Stephen whose wife who ends up as an incurable alcoholic and lives separately from her husband. Rachael helps her friend to come over his troubles with the wife at the same time showing that she is compassionate and altruistic.

This lady takes in that she cannot be together with Stephen since she is a married woman. Though, her husband is warring drunk who she cannot end up with. Due to Rachael’s classical manners and perception of the world, she has to suppress feelings to Stephen and let them develop only on the platonic level.

As almost all the factory workers Rachael leads poor life since she barely makes her living, she is married to an alcoholic; she spends her life taking care for people who are hard cases in the society. When Stephen was accused to be connected to the robbery of the bank, actually made by Tom Gradgrind, Rachael tried to assist the man in every possible way. Even when Stephen dies, the lady holds his hand till the last breath. Therefore, Rachael is the sort of devoted soul mates who would never let down.

Miserable work and the death of her beloved make Rachael even stronger. She spends the rest of her life taking care of Stephen’s widow. The character of Rachael depicts unlucky woman but with strong beliefs, traits of character, attitude to life. It is appraising that live troubles did not break her down. Comparing to other characters of the book, Rachael is the positive one with high moral values. The reader may relax a bit from the negative influence of the others when he or she encounters this personality.