What is the significance of the title, Hard Times?

I am not really sure that there is any other way to
describe the story of the Gradgrind family other than to say that it consisted of plenty
of "Hard Times."  The mere educational philosophy of Thomas Gradgrind is one that
consists of hardened facts, grounded in rationality,  There is no room for "fancy" in
such a configuration, and "hard data" is what is accepted and taught.  Consider that the
opening of the novel is one with an angry lecture from a teacher.  It just seems like
this is the best way to introduce that education in Coketown and life, in general,
consists of "hard times."  From this, more "hard times" emerge.  Louisa is educated in a
manner where there is no comprehension of emotional sensitivity and the lack of affect
causes her to enter into a loveless marriage where pain and "hard times" emerges.  If we
extend to the ending, there is much more of these moments.  The last scene where Thomas
and his son is an emotional "hard time," where the father fully understands his failure
to teach his son a moral compass.  There is something painful about the guilt and
resentment that exists between father and son, and this moment is a representation of
"hard times."  The ending is one where Tom's life is filled with "remorse and grief" and
"illness and death," while Louisa is committed to philanthropy.  Mr. Gradgrind has
abandoned his "fact, not fancy" and embraced the life of religious faith.  For all of
them, life is "hard times" and nothing else at the end of the
novel.