A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree Licence en langue et Littérature Anglaises.

RÉSUME,

This work analyzes children as victims of the capitalistic system in Charles Dickens' Hard Times. Therefore =, this work treats capitalism as a system that requires people to work hard for the capitalists' own profil. So, children's victimization through capitalism is the main concern of the present research. The study is developed on the hypothesis that in Hard Times, childres become victims of the tough philosophy of facts from childhood to adulthood. Written on Marxism, New Historicism and Psychoanalytic theories, this work has found out that from the bougeois class to the proletariat, no child is excluded from the suffering of the facts educated by Gradgrind. In addition, this research has come out with the conclusion that even though utilitarianism favors economic development by hard-working, people ought to complete it with fancy particularly for openly growing their children in a world of romanticism, love, sentiments, etc. This study ends with a recommendation to educational program designers who would account for entertaining activities such plays, literature readings, cinema, etc, in order to incite in the child's psyche a sense of imagination and love of this life at school. Further researchers interested in the issue of victimization are recommended to examine parent characters like Gradgrind, Bounderby, Sleary, etc. In Hard Times.