The Starlight — Hard Times

On a bright autumn Sunday Sissy and Rachael leave Coketown's smoke by train and walk green lanes toward the country. They rest in stillness until Sissy notices fresh broken fence and footsteps. Rachael picks up Stephen's hat with his name inside and cries that he has been made away with.

At their feet they find the hidden brink of the Old Hell Shaft. Sissy holds Rachael back, calls down, throws earth in, and hears nothing. She runs for help; men sober up, windlasses and ropes gather, and a message reaches Louisa. Hours pass before two men descend. Stephen is alive but badly hurt, trapped on rubbish since he fell walking to deliver himself up.

They raise him on a hurdle under the darkening sky. Rachael takes his hand. Stephen speaks without anger of the pit that kills with or without work, of Rachael's sick sister, of the muddle that sent him here. He looks at a star that shined on him below and makes his dying prayer that the world may come together and understand one another better. Louisa bends near; he has not forgotten her.

He asks Gradgrind to clear his name and tells him to ask Tom how. They carry Stephen gently toward the road, Rachael holding his hand, the crowd falling silent. It is soon a funeral procession. The star has shown him where to find the God of the poor, and through humility, sorrow, and forgiveness he goes to his Redeemer's rest.