Three characters in Hard Times; James Harthouse, Josiah Bounderby and Stephen Blackpool, exemplify this realistic quality and each is representative of a different social division. These divisions are the upper, middle and lower class. Each class, because of social interaction or absence of the same, creates different dilemmas.

The upper-class, as holds true in real-life, is the smallest of the three categories and, consequently, has its own unique problems. James Harthouse, a characteristic member of the upper-class, comes to Coketown to search for something else to bide his time with.