character (KARE-ec-ter): a person who is responsible for the thoughts and actions within a story, poem, or other literature. Characters are extremely important because they are the medium through which a reader interacts with a piece of literature. Every character has his or her own personality, which a creative author uses to assist in forming the plot of a story or creating a mood. The different attitudes, mannerisms, and even appearances of characters can greatly influence the other major elements in a literary work, such as theme, setting, and tone. With this understanding of the character, a reader can become more aware of other aspects of literature, such as symbolism, giving the reader a more complete understanding of the work. The character is one of the most important tools available to the author.
Using the definition above, characterize Mr. Gradgrind.
9 comments:
Danielle Andrews
The first character we meet in Hard Times is Mr. Gragrind. In the first paragraph of the book the reader get a clear insight into Mr. Gradgrind’s ideology, “what I want is facts.” Mr. Gradgrind clear believes that people should only speak and learn facts, and nothing more. Along with instructing his school teacher to, “stick to facts,” when teaching his students, we also learn that he believes that nothing other than facts, “will ever be of any service,” to his children and the future generation. Based just on this first paragraph the reader can infer that Mr. Gradgrind is very narrow-minded and set in his ways. Mr. Gradgrind is also described as a “man of realities…facts and calculations,” which also emphasizes how he is man who has no time for fantasies, emotions or imagination. Throughout the beginning of the book we also learn how Mr. Gragrind has no respect for children within his school who do not speak facts. When Cecilia Jupe answers a question about horses and she does not respond with facts, Mr. Gradgrind harshly reminds her that she must speak “Fact, fact, fact!”
Later in the book, Mr. Gradgrind’s action when he encounters Cecilia Jupe running through town, lets the reader conclude that Mr. Gradgrind has a certain image of society and what should take place in society. When he finds Cecelia Jupe running through town he says “how dare you dash against – everybody – in this manner?” The way he asks the question and the manner in which he says it speaks a lot about his character. He clearly does not like to see anything out of place in his perfect image of society. He believes no girl should run in the manner in which Cecelia did, because it is improper. Through all his interactions with the other characters, the reader also witnesses how Mr. Gradgrind likes to control situations, by almost speaking down upon people. All in all, Mr. Gradgrind as a character has conformed to society and continues to stress the ideology of society. Whenever he sees something or someone going against his perfect picture of society he confronts them and almost belittles them, in order to get them to understand.
Mr. Gradgrind, as a character, is extremely important to Hard Times, because he will always be there to challenge anyone who tries break out of what society expects. His personality will continue to develop the story and even maybe at some point challenge his ideology. Mr. Gradgrind is also the character that creates a very stern and strict mood. He is that character the most of the other characters seem to be afraid to encounter, giving him an almost scary demeanor. In the end, Mr. Gradgrind is very narrow-minded, stern, strict and controlling of his kids, student, situations, and society. He does not tolerate anything but facts and conforming to society, which he sees as proper.
Mr. Gradgrind is an upperclass man who believes it is best for one to be purely logical and fact-based. He is the owner of a school which teaches children to think only with facts; they are not allowed to wonder, question, or do any other imaginative activity. He is so intent on this ideal that he raises his own children in a similar manner- they were discouraged from ever uttering the word "wonder" and were never read traditional fairy tales. When he catches his children watching a circus, he is horrified. To him, a thing such as watching a circus is completely horrible and wasteful; he assumes he has failed his children when he sees this. As a character, he is very harsh,cold, and unsentimental. When his daughter Louisa is to be married, he doesn't even question whether she will be happy. He only measures her future in figures and with reason. It seems the only thing on his mind is the stability of the family, not the actual quality of Louisa's marriage. According to Dickens' description, he has a square forehead, wide, thin, and hard set mouth, and an inflexible, dry, and dictorial voice. Overall, despite the overal presence of him being a little overwhelming, he seems to be a very boring person. If all he has is facts, his life lacks the foundations of humanity- dreams, wonder, creativity, etc. His personage is constantly acompanied with the word "square," which reiterates how not outside of the box he is. After his retirement from hardware, he is now in Parliament, showing how the general public seems to favor his ideal of knowledge.
Within the reading for this week, so far Mr. Gradgrind has functioned to show the possible error in this way of thinking. Dickens may be using him to make a point about teaching people only facts, and not about other important things like how to create, wonder, and explore, as those are necessary for human improvement. Mr. Gradgrind is also responsible for the characterization of other characters, particularly his children. He "[took their] childhood captive, and [dragged] it into gloomy statistical dens by the hair" (9). Later in the novel, when Louisa is saying that she does not know how to love or imagine like Sissy does, it is all because of Mr. Gradgrind, the man obsessed with facts, who makes life miserable for almost everyone else.
I also definitely agree with Danielle that he has conformed to society, but I believe he has conformed to his level in society. He is disgusted by the lower classes and their behavior, and does not see how they can function so. Although he has conformed, I also believe that he in a way is trying to force his opinions upon everyone else, which also matches Danielles post. He believes the world would be better if everyone were like him. He has a very high opinion of himself.
Jeff Rossi
The first chapter of the book Hard Times by Charles Dickens is very powerful in giving a first impression of Mr. Thomas Gradgrind. His first words uttered are, "Now, what I want is Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life" (Dickens 1). I find it interesting that the word facts has a capitalized F when it is said by Mr. Gradgrind. This to me shows the significance of facts to Mr. Gradgrind. He devotes his entire life to facts and teaching his children nothing but facts. He does not let them wonder, or imagine, because these things are not real and have no importance to life. I agree with the previous entries that think that Mr. Gradgrind is a bland person, but I do not view him in a completely negative way. At the end of the reading when he talks to his daughter about marrying Mr. Bounderby he lets her have the decision to marry him, "I now lead you to judge for yourself" (Dickens 96). He is not demanding his daughter, Louisa to marry Bounderby, but he suggests it, and doesn't put too much pressure on her to do so. This shows that he has kindness and morality to him, despite his bland controlling attitude shown at the beginning of the reading. It is true that he appears mean to her when she "wonders" at the beginning, but that is simply dicsipline which is a good thing even though it is promoting the wrong thing.
In comparison to a different character, Josiah Bounderby, who has a similar belief about Facts, Gradgrind is much nicer and simpathetic for example, when he took in Sissy Jupe to teach her his values while Bounderby didn't want to. Overall my first impression of Mr. Graddgrind is not exactly really good, but is not as bad as it could be.
Mr. Gradgrind represents society, especially the upperclass, during the Industrial Revolution of the Victorian Ages. He sees the improvement in society and believes that the only way to progress in society would be to stop wasting time on art and imagination and work on science and facts. His role in the book is indefinate toward the plot, because the plot has yet to develope too much so far, but a prediction can be made that since Gradgrind was significant in the beginning of the story he will be significant at the end, and with his sence of kindness towards Louisa he might have a change of heart of some kind maybe. His controlling attitude at the beginning is deifferent after Bounderby's proposal.
Miky Branson
Mr. Gradgrind is the first character who comes into the novel. Because of the fact that he is the first character, the reader can form a greater attatchment to this character. The reader may feel that this character is most important and they should pay close attention to him. In the definition, appearance is said to play a big role in a character's character. Mr. Gradgrind, right off the bat, is portrayed as a man with a large square forehead, huge dark circles around his eyes, a wide, hard set mouth, and a voice, " which was inflexible, dry and dictorial."(1) His features an voice show a lot about his character. He thinks that everyone should just learn a lot of facts and that way of life is sort of set and stone in his mind. This connects to him as a person because the way his appearance and voice is like the same thing over and over again and really boring, like just learning facts over and over again could be. His eyes show a great deal about his character also. The black circles of his eyes show the black hole of his fact-based way of life. One could just fall into the neverending gyre of his deep black eyes. All in all, just mr. Gradgrind's appearance shows a lot abot his personality.
Lane Southard
Thomas Gradgrind fits this definition of a character in several ways. In the second chapter, insight to his personality is given as the book reads, “With a rule and a pair of scales, and multiplication table always in his pocket, sir, ready to weigh and measure any parcel of human nature…other nonsensical belief…into the head of Thomas Gradgrind-no sir!” (2). With his rigidness in ideas as an educator, Gradgrind is able to become the medium for the reader to connect to. He is shown as a strict teacher who, like Danielle mentioned several times, sticks to facts and has little flexibility. A reader can draw comparisons to him because almost everybody has had a teacher that they felt is far too strict and sees a distinct line between right and wrong with no in between. So while a reader generally won’t connect on a personal level with Gradgrind, he is a familiar personality that the reader can recognize and draw deeper roots into the reading.
Symbolism is also apparent with Gradgrind, particularly in his name. It contains grind in it which connects to the lives of the subordinates under him. He himself, along with the aristocratic class, brings a daily grind onto those that must work hard for a living and do not have things handed to them. The fact that he is so strict and has unmovable beliefs simply contributes to the harshness of the lives the lower class lead under the aristocratic discretion. This helps to emphasize the differences between the two classes in the book and differentiate the mood in settings where the two interact as he makes a dominating presence in his classroom.
Factually, as stated in the facts of the first page of the book, Gradgrind sticks to only the facts. This is clear, thus it is blatantly stated. However, this does not give any explanation as to why Dickens' placed a character so rigid in their thought process in his story. Well, the first notable theme I picked up on in the story is the comparison of two social aspects: factual and imaginative--specifically one who observes the world through what is already known, and one who explores the world through what they perceive it as. Gradgrind was placed in the story to create an entity representing a social problem in his society--the banning of any form of opinion or imagination. This goes further to ostend the lack of expression or freedom of speech and rights. When I first read the story, I got the impression that Gradgrind was similar to several governments in the late 1800's--spoon feeding the people only what they want them to know. Gradgrind is very controlling, manipulative, and progressively moulding the brains of several people in his society to his ideals only. Essentially, Gradgrind is repressing creativity, or any counter to his form of learning.
I do agree with what many stated in the above posts, that Gradgrind is narrow minded, and reliant on facts, however, I believe there is more to him. I suspect that Dickens' put Gradgrind in the story to possibly reflect problems of his time by contrasting the two opposites of fact and imagination. By relying solely on facts, Gradngrind is limiting the people from questioning his authority. Although this is somewhat of a frightening prospect, it seems to suggest the sense of socialism...that everyone is equal. It creates a sense of fairness since all expression must be through facts, or the basis of everyone's knowledge. Despite Grandgrins intimidation at first, I believe he is quite fearful of losing power, thus he must sustain it through his school.
Olivia Lamb
Megan Kasetty
Mr. Gradgrind has been undoubtedly described as someone who focuses solely on facts. He looks down upon ideas involving creativity and imagination, even going so far as to scold his daughter, Louisa, for using the word “wonder”. I agree with what the previous post said about Mr. Gradgrind’s character representing social problems in society during this time. People tended to be narrow minded, and were quick to reject ideas that were different from their own. Dickens used Gradgrind’s personality as a symbol for upper class society in order to illustrate its flaws.
Although Mr. Gradgrind was first described as a “rigid” character through his physical description that greatly emphasized squares, I believe that he will eventually show changes in his character. I think that Dickens intended to create a dynamic character, who would evolve throughout the story. Compared to Mr. Bounderby, Mr. Gradgrind’s personality is much less severe. His softer side was already shown when he decided to keep Sissy in his school. He felt compassionate towards her even when she failed to make progress in the class, saying “You are an affectionate, earnest, good young woman – and – and we must make that do” (89). He also showed signs that he had trouble always speaking factually. When Louisa asked him if she must love Bounderby, Gradgrind found it difficult to give her a definite answer. Mr. Gradgrind is an important character to the story, as he may steer away from the ideals of a typical upper class member of society.
Sammy McHugh
Mr. Gradgrind is a factual character who is a no-nonsense kind of guy. He hates all things make believe especially the circus so when he sees his beloved children watching it, he is appalled. He questions them as to why they would indulge in such frivolous activites. He wants only facts and reason to be the thoughts of his children. He does seem to love them however because he cares for their futures and their well-being. Mr. Gradgrind goes about making his child happy the wrong way when he plans Louisa's marriage to Mr. Bounderby. She doesn't know what love is the way that Sissy does but she becomes apprehensive about marrying Bounderby nontheless because she doesn't know if she'll be happy. Gradgrind doesn't take Louisa's happinesss into account when planning her future though, he only wants her to be in a financially sound relationship.
Throughought these events we, as readers, see who Gradgrind is; intelligent and caring but narrowminded as well. He believes that all people should be like him: factual, "eminently practical", and rich (11). He doesn't understand how Sissy could want the life that she has. Gradgrind can't fathom why she would hesitate to accept his offer of going to school and living with him. His personal character affects those of people he is around as others have previously mentioned. He decides his children's futures, when in Parliment the future of the country, and Sissy's well-being.
I hope that in the future, Sissy will love and respect him but also teach Mr. Gradgrind to become more warm-hearted. I agree with Megan that Dickens wants him to be a dynamic character. I think that he will change into a man who will help to poor instead of insulting them. I hope he becomes a more understanding and charitable person because of Sissy and her ways.
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