hodges
n. countablen. a name for a person who works on a farm or does physical work. It is an old-fashioned word that you might see in history books or old stories.
n. a generic or stereotypical name for a farm labourer or rustic worker. Often used historically in British English to represent the typical agricultural labourer.
The old stories often featured a character named Hodges the farmer.
In nineteenth-century political cartoons, Hodges was frequently used to represent the voice of the rural working class.
The author uses the figure of Hodges not as a specific individual, but as a literary archetype to explore the hardships faced by the peasantry during the industrial revolution.
When used as a common noun for a labourer, it is often capitalised as it originates from a proper name.