In his essay “Signs of the Times,” Thomas Carlyle warns his readers that the Western world has forsaken its passion for religion and philosophy in the interest of bringing about a "Mechanical Age." Unlike the many who might consider mechanization a sign of progress, Carlyle asserts that its “cunning abbreviating processes” make it an imposing point to renovate and facilitate even the simplest industrial activity; meanwhile, the accomplished inventor of these “abbreviating processes” sees himself elevated to near-idol status in the eyes of his fellow citizens.

The legacy that this kind of inventor leaves behind, whether deserved or undeserved, is the focus of Carlyle’s other essay, titled “Hudson’s Statue,” which presents a bleaker, more scathing commentary on honoring railway financier George Hudson and what such an act of honoring might imply about the new standards of British hero-worship. Whereas in “Signs of the Times” Carlyle’s tone appeared moralizing and instructional, carefully laying out the many issues of industrialization so that they might be overturned, his tone in “Hudson’s Statue” seems cheeky and acerbic. In this essay, the author wryly placates his “dear Reader” instead of educating him, and as a result comes off as more of a satirist than a sage. However, every one of Carlyle’s sarcastic direct addresses also implies an urge for his readers to reform and to return to a more sensible rubric for idolization. One of the main questions of this essay, then, is how Carlyle might reconcile instructing his readers with insulting them — how he might improve “the deep-sunk condition of the English mind” even as he explicitly, insensitively acknowledges it to his target British readers.





1. How does Carlyle’s scathing account of Hudson and the terrible implications of honoring him seem to compare with his account of Oliver Cromwell at the beginning of this essay? If it’s largely uncontested that Cromwell, a national hero, should go without a statue while someone like George Hudson is in contention for one, how might Cromwell be further criticizing/characterizing British society?

2. How are unnecessary capitalizations and outside cultural allusions functioning in this passage, specifically the comparisons of mechanization/industralization with “religion”? Does this kind of biting emphasis and criticism seem more so a characteristic of satire — as in Wolfe’s “Pump-house Gang” — and if so, is it functioning in a similar way here?

3. How might this type of essay, with its tendency to insult its target audience, have established ethos for its author? Since a key part of sage writing, by my conception, involves the sage proving himself as a moral or ethical authority, are Carlyle’s criticisms and witticisms off-putting in the sense that they might dissuade many offended readers from his instruction?

4. If portions of this essay can be considered satirical, how does the more blatant sense of irony and criticism compare to Swift’s consistently implied sense? If it is instead considered primarily as sage writing, how does its style differ from Montaigne’s, who is also simultaneously warning and criticizing his readers? Is Montaigne more effective in the sense that his criticisms are less invective to readers?

Victorian Web Overview Thomas Carlyle Hudson's Statue

Last modified 22 February 2011