England protagonist: Louisa Gradgrind major conflict: Louisa Gradgrind struggles to reconcile the fact-driven self-interest of her upbringing with the warmth of feeling that she witnesses both in Sissy Jupe and developing within herself. As this attitude changes‚ Louisa is caught between allegiances to her family and loveless marriage and her desire to transcend the emotional and personal detachment of her past. rising action: Sissy joins the Gradgrind household‚ and Louisa marries Mr. Bounderby
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place in the classroom‚ you become familiarized with the Gradgrind School and its fundamentals. The Gradgrind philosophy‚ based on the Facts‚ Facts‚ and more Facts of reality‚ is demonstrated as being not only cruel and destructive to the workers the "Hands" of society but is also humanly inadequate to the Gradgrind family it served. Mrs. Gradgrind observed that her husband has missed something in his life‚ yet‚ "not an ology at all." Louisa and her brother Tom‚ "the whelp‚" are nearly destroyed
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the author can easily sway one’s opinions on the novel they have written‚ as can be seen in Hard Times. Dickens’ presentation of Louisa Gradgrind in Hard Times allows readers to see the emotional and moral value that that those in the lower classes may experience‚ and the emotional emptiness that often resulted from upper-class societies in the Victorian Era. Louisa first began to understand the value in lower-class life through experiences with Sissy that allowed her to understand the deeper sense
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Cecilia Jupe also know as Sissy shows Louisa the way to escape the cruel cycle of the era by counterbalancing the industrial revolution with femininity. Charles Dickens uses Sissy as a symbol of a classical woman and a revolutionist. She overcomes these gender restrictions by stepping outside
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"Book the First: Sowing": Chapter 2‚ human beings being portrayed as machines is clearly portrayed as Dickens describes Louisa and Thomas looking thorough a peephole at the circus. "Dumb with amazement‚ Mr. Gradgrind crossed to the spot where his family was thus disgraced‚ laid his hand upon each erring child‚ and said: ’Louisa!! Thomas!!’ Both rose‚ red and disconcerted. But‚ Louisa looked at her father with more boldness than Thomas did. Indeed‚ Thomas did not look at him‚ but have himself up to be
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recommendation to Plant nothing else and root out everything else’ (except facts)" (Lodge 91). In the first book‚ titled "Sowing‚ " we are introduced to those that Dickens creates a firm character basis with. The opening chapter emphasizes on Thomas Gradgrind Sr.‚ and his students fittingly referred to as "vessels before him ready to have imperial gallons of facts poured into them until they are filled to the brim" (Dickens 12). Gradgrind’s methods of education are employed to show Dickens’ view
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Hard Times are those between Louisa Gradgrind and Mr. Bounderby‚ Mr. and Mrs. Gradgrind‚ and Stephen Blackpool and his wife. None of these three marriages are loving or prosperous. The inequality in these marriages and the pain caused by them gives insight into the characteristics of real life marriages during this time. For example‚ the one marriage that affected Louisa’s upbringing the most was that between her parents. From the beginning of the novel‚ Mr. Gradgrind is described as‚ “A man of realities
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demonstrates that both fancy and fact must work together in order for one to become a healthy human being. The central character of Hard Times who most embodies the factual approach is Thomas Gradgrind. He is introduced to the readership at the beginning of the novel. In chapter one‚ ‘One Thing Needful’‚ Thomas Gradgrind is shown as the ‘speaker’. He is described to have a ‘square forefinger’ and ‘square wall of a forehead’ and their voice is described as ‘inflexible’‚ ‘dry’ and ‘dictatorial’. Dickens uses
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anyone in Charles Dickens’ Hard Times. Claiming to be a self-made man grants Mr. Bounderby wide admiration in Coketown‚ with the exception of Tom and Louisa Gradgrind and Mrs. Sparsit‚ who perceive him to be an insolent person. Tom mirrors Mr. Bounderby’s selfish and hypocritical personality‚ but blames the old man for his rigid upbringing. Louisa cannot admire Mr. Bounderby while he shamelessly objectifies her when pursuing her romantically. At the same time‚ Mrs. Sparsit values Mr. Bounderby’s
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Navigate Introduction Criticism Further Reading Copyright Introduction Print PDF Cite Share Charles Dickens Hard Times for These Times The following entry presents criticism of Dickens’s novel Hard Times (1854). See also Charles Dickens Short Story Criticism‚ A Christmas Carol Criticism‚ A Tale of Two Cities Criticism‚ Little Dorrit Criticism‚ and Our Mutual Friend Criticism. INTRODUCTION Perhaps the least-known of all Dickens’s novels‚ Hard
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