Term Paper on "Dickens the Characterization of Thomas Gradgrind"

Term Paper 4 pages (1822 words) Sources: 1 Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Dickens

The Characterization of Thomas Gradgrind and Josiah Bounderby in Hard Times

Charles Dickens' novel Hard Times is constructed around the opposition between the fact and fancy. The author criticizes the nineteenth century materialist and utilitarian philosophy, which had turned man into a simple cog in the large machine of the society. The pun in the title of the novel alludes to the "facts philosophy" promoted by the Industrial Age: "hard times" is a phrase usually used to designate a time of hardships or difficulties, but Dickens also uses it to hint at the stiffness and insensibility specific to his age. The book is, at the same time, a social and a philosophical critique. Dickens denounces the political economy and the law system of the age, which were only concerned with raw facts and statistics, not minding the poverty and the hardships of the working class individual. At the philosophical level, the author attacks the dryness of the Industrial Age ideology, which propounded that all thinking should be based on reason and mathematical calculation, and that fancy should be excluded as something dangerous. The characters in the novel are organized in sets that are meant to emphasize the opposition between fact and fancy: Bounderby, Mr. Gradgrind, and Mr. M'Choakumchild are the representatives of the facts philosophy, whereas Tom, Louise and especially Sissy, are their opposites. Bounderby and Gradgrind, who are best friends insomuch as friendship can exist without any feeling whatsoever, have a very similar way of thinking. The two are characterized in the usual Dickens' manner, through language, metonymy, metaphor and interiority. The factuality of their thinking transpires through their appearance, gestures and actions. As in his other works, Dickens makes sure that Bounderby and Gradgrind are perfect embodiments of the ideas they represent: they leave an impression of utter inflexibility, stiffness as if their own presence demanded to be taken as a fact.

First of all, the protagonists are characterized through their own appearance, which is in perfect concordance with their personality and ideas. Gradgrind's name already hints of the fact machinery he represents: the grinding suggests an imperturbable and plodding mechanism, which passes reality through the mill and reduces it to plain, dry facts. The action of the novel opens with Gradgrind's school where he makes sure the children are indoctrinated into the facts philosophy. His appearance is, as Dickens intended it, entirely factual: every part of him and every gesture is "square": "The speaker's obstinate carriage, square coat, square legs, square shoulders, - nay, his very neckcloth, trained to take him b'y the throat with an unaccommodating grasp, like a stubborn fact, as it was, - all helped the emphasis."(Dickens, 3)

Thus, Dickens employs metonymy to stress that every part of his character alludes to the perfect logic of mathematics: Gradgrind looks as exact and convincing as a geometrical figure. As the author himself notes, every detail of his outward appearance and demeanor is an emphasis of his facts philosophy.

The language also reflects the characters very well. The opening words of the novel belong to Gradgrind as well, and already introduce the reader to the idea that the entire formation of an individual should be based exclusively on facts: "Now, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them."(Dickens, 3) it should be noticed that Gradgrind is characterized mostly through language: both the language he as a character uses, which is almost entirely mathematical and the language the author ironically uses when he himself speaks of his character. The mechanic language Gradgrind pretends to be the absolute model for exactitude. Thus, when he visits the school, he addresses Sissy, the daughter of a circus worker, as "girl number twenty": "Girl number twenty,' said Mr. Gradgrind, squarely pointing with his square forefinger"[...](Dickens, 4) in this first episode, he tries to imbue the mind of the children with absurd ideas, such as the fact that it is absurd to plaster the walls of a house with fanciful images, such as the pictures of horses, since reality itself does not offer any evidence of the existence of horses upon the walls. These teachings clearly hint to the belief that all ornaments or arts are useless. Poetry, the circus, children's stories and so on, are symbols of the realm of imagination, for which Gradgrind, at least in the first part of the novel, has no consideration. Thus, Gradgrind himself is represented as factual, exact and completely unornamented. When he speaks, he uses brief axiomatic sentences like, "Girl number twenty unable to define horse"(4), which are meant to state nothing more than facts.

Next, Dickens uses interiority to portray his characters. The way Gradgrind thinks about himself, the way he "mentally introduced himself" to the others is very revealing: "Thomas Gradgrind, sir. A man of realities. A man of facts and calculations. A man who proceeds upon the principle that two and two are four, and nothing over, and who is not to be talked into allowing for anything over. Thomas Gradgrind, sir - peremptorily Thomas - Thomas Gradgrind."(Dickens, 4) the emphasis on the name is significant, as the character sees himself as a sort of epitome for the mechanic philosophy. He is constructed as being directly related to the philosophy he represents. Gradgrind shapes himself thus as to fit perfectly in the general mechanism of the world. Personality, no less than life itself, is based entirely on facts. Everything, including a human being, has a precise definition according to Gradgrind, who seems to imply that "Thomas Gradgrind" is only another name for definitions, calculations and demonstrations.

There are many metaphor in the novel that support Dickens' characterization of Gradgrind. For example, he is like a cannon loaded with facts: "[...]he seemed a kind of cannon loaded to the muzzle with facts, and prepared to blow them clean out of the regions of childhood at one discharge. He seemed a galvanizing apparatus, too, charged with a grim mechanical substitute for the tender young imaginations that were to be stormed away."(Dickens, 4) Besides the fact that Gradgrind is here directly compared to a machine, the author also alludes at the destructive and even murdering philosophy that he promotes. As Dickens intends it, Gradgrind is a part of the general mechanism, another piece in the system. Using Gradgrind's favorite mechanical language, the author shows the way in which he is caught in the mill of time and made into an MP: "Time hustled him into a little noisy and rather dirty machinery, in a by-corner, and made him Member of Parliament for Coketown: one of the respected members for ounce weights and measures, one of the representatives of the multiplication table, one of the deaf honourable gentlemen, dumb honourable gentlemen, blind honourable gentlemen, lame honourable gentlemen, dead honourable gentlemen, to every other consideration. Else wherefore live we in a Christian land, eighteen hundred and odd years after our Master? "(Dickens, 123) However, in spite of his acquired facts philosophy, Gradgrind is nevertheless a good character, who will renounce his philosophy in the end, and who is, without his knowledge almost, capable of some feeling. As such, he actually likes Sissy, in spite of the fact that he is unable to set her character in the "tabular form" as he wished: "He really liked Sissy too well to have a contempt for her; otherwise he held her calculating powers in such very slight estimation that he must have fallen upon that conclusion. Somehow or other, he had become possessed by an idea that there was something in this girl which could hardly be set forth in a tabular form."(Dickens, 122)

The difference between Gradgrind and Bounderby is that the first will eventually undergo a transformation, and begin to see the faults of his facts philosophy, whereas Bounderby is constructed as an unmovable and entirely pragmatic character: "Mr. Gradgrind, though hard enough, was by no means so rough a man as Mr. Bounderby."(Dickens, 35) as such, the characterization of Bounderby is done slightly differently. He is not so much described as the perfect, exact square as Gradgrind. He is in fact, much more corrupt and boastful. What is in Gradgrind only acquired through persistence, in Bounderby it is inherent. Thus, he is not "square," but coarse altogether: "A big, loud man, with a stare, and a metallic laugh. A man made out of a coarse material, which seemed to have been stretched to make so much of him. A man with a great puffed head and forehead, swelled veins in his temples, and such a strained skin to his face that it seemed to hold his eyes open, and lift his eyebrows up."(Dickens, 18) He constantly complains about his hardships as a child, and the fact that he was deprived of any kind of education.… READ MORE

How to Reference "Dickens the Characterization of Thomas Gradgrind" Term Paper in a Bibliography

Related Term Papers:

Thomas More's Utopia Holds a Special Place Term Paper

Thomas More's Utopia holds a special place in both literature and history. The book is a unique exercise of imagination that culminates in a science-fiction like vision of the ideal… read more

Term Paper 10 pages (3266 words) Sources: 1+ Topic: Literature / Poetry

---

Thomas Jefferson's Views on Freedom Term Paper

Thomas Jefferson

Jefferson's views on freedom of religion and freedom of the press reflect those of a well-thought out balanced approach to public policy. This balance encompassed differences in personal… read more

Term Paper 1 pages (383 words) Sources: 1+ Topic: Religion / God / Theology

---

Dickens and Bronte Term Paper

Dickens & Bronte

Keeping the Spirit of the Past, Present, and Future -- Bronte and Dickens

Both Emily Bronte's Victorian gothic novel Wuthering Heights and Charles Dickens's popular short seasonal… read more

Term Paper 2 pages (780 words) Sources: 0 Topic: Literature / Poetry

---

Characterization and Doubling in Wuthering Heights Charlotte Essay

Characterization and Doubling in Wuthering Heights

Charlotte Bronte's novel Wuthering Heights is one of the best examples of Romantic gothic literature. By creating realistic, yet larger-than-life characters, Bronte illustrates what… read more

Essay 10 pages (3066 words) Sources: 4 Topic: Literature / Poetry

---

Thomas Jefferson Background and Description Term Paper

Thomas Jefferson

Background and Description

Thomas Jefferson is considered one of the most important political actors in the history of the United States, not only because he was President, but… read more

Term Paper 4 pages (1807 words) Sources: 5 Style: MLA Topic: American History / United States

---

View 100+ more related papers  >>