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.’ set in fictitious coketown, england during the industrial revolution of the 1850s, dickens wished to expose the enormous gulf between the rich and poor through his writing. In hard times, the social and moral purpose of his work is at its most evident. Openly ironic and satirical in its tone, dickens suggests a mechanization of society, where the wealthy are ruthless and uncharitable towards those less fortunate than themselves.