Charles Dickens' Hard Times In the novel Hard Times by Charles Dickens, Stephen Blackpool’s life and death were symbolic. Stephen was a forty year old man that looked older, who worked for a man named Bounderby as a power-loom weaver. His life was filled with the troubles that a lower-class person must withstand. His name, Blackpool, was symbolic of his life. He lived a life in a “Blackpool”, meaning he was looked down upon by most of his associates. He was even looked down upon by his own working class. At the Bounderby factory, Stephen did not like the way Bounderby abused him and the other workers. He wanted