title

hi, i was wondering if anyone has any ideas as to the significance of 'hard times' being the name of the story...what effect do you think it has on the reader both as victorian contemporary readers and modern readers? thank you

The title was originally "Hard times for these times". The significance being excatly as the title says

I thought the title was a little misleading. It made me think that the book was about an economic depression or a strike. I suppose the book is about hard facts, hard economic theories and hard heartedness. Dickens had a list of titles. He gave a friend the list and asked him to choose three, and he picked three himself. Hard Times was the one they both picked.