Hard Times Chapters 11-12

In which we witness the quiet yet potent struggles of a steadfast factory worker seeking counsel from his austere employer on an impossible domestic plight, revealing the rigid workings of law and society that bind him. We then accompany him through the bustling streets of Coketown, where a chance encounter with a curious old woman and his solitary reflections cast a somber light upon his sorrowful existence in the shadow of the relentless industrial world.