Louisa is (in my opinion) the most interesting character in the book. During her life she has had everything provided for her, due to the money which her father possesses. But the money isn’t able to bring her joy or love but only material possessions. Her education has prevented her from having a warm personality, instead, she is silent, cold, and seemingly unfeeling, though she only appears to be like this because she doesn’t know how to express herself. Already the pattern that money equals unhappiness seems to be emerging.
Thomas is Gradgrind’s oldest son. Thomas is a weak person and also is rather heartless. He is driven by money and will do anything to get at it, even manipulate his sister to marry a wealthy man called Mr Bounderby, in order for himself to get in good favour with him. This is a soulless thing to do to your own sister and it seems that being one of the wealthy characters, he has lesser sense of family loyalty than the lower classes do. He seems to be a younger version of the next character we meet, Mr Bounderby.
Mr Bounderby is Gradgrinds close friend but he is more interested in power and wealth than facts. Bounderby frequently reminds us that he is “Josiah Bounderby of Coketown.” This phrase usually follows a description of his childhood poverty. He claims to have been born in a ditch and abandoned by his mother, raised by an alcoholic grandmother, and forced to support himself. From these apparent humble beginnings, he has become the wealthy owner of both a factory and a bank. Bounderby wants to represents the possibility of social mobility, he believes that any individual should be able overcome all obstacles, including poverty and lack of education, and still be able to succeed in life, through hard work. Bounderby often recites the story of his childhood in order to suggest that his Hands are impoverished because they lack his ambition and self-discipline. This is a very narrow minded view as the people have very few opportunities to make something of themselves.
Bounderby's attitude represents the social changes created by industrialization. Dickens implies that Bounderby uses his wealth and power irresponsibly, contributing to the muddled relations between rich and poor, especially in his treatment of Stephen, when he asks for a divorce. Whereas birth or bloodline formerly determined the social hierarchy, in an industrialized society, wealth determines who holds the most power. Bounderby takes great delight in the fact that Mrs. Sparsit, an aristocrat who has fallen on hard times, has become his maid, because it makes him feel that he is all powerful.
Stephen Blackpool is introduced after we have met the Gradgrind family and Bounderby, and he provides a stark contrast to these earlier characters. He is one of the ‘Hands’ in Bounderby's factory, and he lives a life of drudgery and poverty. In spite of the hardships of his daily life, Stephen strives to maintain his honesty, integrity, faith, and compassion. Stephen is an important character because his poverty and virtue contrast with Bounderby's wealth and self-interest.
Stephen is married to an alcoholic who isn’t given a name but is almost described as a monster:
‘Such a woman! A disabled, drunken creature, barely able to preserve her sitting posture by steadying herself with one begrimed hand on the floor, while the other was so purposeless in trying to bush her tangled hair from her face, that it only blinded her the more with the dirt upon it’
In contrast to this awful woman Stephen is in fact in love with an angelic woman called Rachel who is also a ‘Hand’. In contrast to Stephen's wife, Rachael embodies the qualities that she possesses none of; she is compassionate, honest, sensitive, morally pure, and generous. Indeed, she represents the Victorian ideal of femininity. It is largely because of these qualities that Stephen frequently refers to her as his ‘angel’. Through her own virtues, Rachael inspires him to maintain his personal integrity, and when she cares for his monstrous wife in chapter 13, Rachael is able to lighten the tone of his previously dismal residence, by purely entering it. Rachel and Stephens relationship contrasts with most of the other ones in the novel. Both characters are warm and honest, they are one of the few little glimmers of pure love that we see in the novel.
In chapter eleven Stephen goes to visit Mr Bounderby to ask for a divorce from his wife so he can marry Rachel, having heard that there is a law permitting divorce under certain circumstances. However, Bounderby makes it clear that there are no laws to help Stephen as all laws are made by the rich, for the rich. He shows no pity for Stephen's misery and callously tells him that, as a poor man, he has no recourse but to accept his lot. Furthermore, Bounderby reminds Stephen that “there's a sanctity in the relation” of marriage that “must be kept up”. This is rather ironic as he is planning to marry a seventeen year old who is young enough to be his daughter! This shows that there is a huge divide between the rights of the poor and the rights of the rich. Bounderby himself proves that it was nearly impossible to get ahead if you were poor as you had many restrictions holding you back from your goals.
Mr Sleary’s circus people are a refreshing alternative to the miserable lives of the rich and the poverty stricken working class. The entertainers possess the ability to transform the colourless, humdrum world into a place of magic and excitement simply by using their imaginations. They represent happiness in a bleak world. Through fancy, the circus entertainers not only find happiness themselves, but also bring pleasure to others. The name of the inn, in which they all stay, is called the Pegasus Arms. Inside this inn is a “theatrical” Pegasus, a model of a flying horse with “golden stars stuck on all over him.” The Pegasus itself represents a world of fantasy and beauty. The very name of the inn reveals the contrast between the imaginative and joyful world of the circus and the dismal lives of the people of Coketown.
Signor Jupe is a clown in Sleary’s circus. His daughter Cecilia or Sissy has been admitted to Gradgrind's school. Sissy is full of life and full of love. When her father leaves her, she optimistic and believes he will return for her. Sissy loves her father very much, he was her everything. If we contrast Sissy's relationship with her father and Louisa’s relationship with Gradgrind we can clearly see a huge difference between the two. Gradgrind is willing to let his daughter marry Bounderby even though he is so much older than her, he may show a slight sense of guilt in the chapter called the ‘great manufacturer guilt’, but he is still going to make her go. In contrast Signor Jupe would do anything for Sissy and desperately want her to have an education so she can have a better life. Sissy explains her life with her father as being happy and very close. When Louisa hears these stories she is transfixed and keen to hear more. This shows that she has never felt these feeling for or with her father and has an obvious longing to be like Sissy. Even though sissy and her father were very poor they still were content, they had each other and it seems that that was all they needed. In contrast Louisa and Gradgrind have a lot of money, but neither of them are content, especially not Louisa. Louisa is a tortured character; she has never experienced love from another person except her brother, who is actually just using her to get to Bounderby.
When Stephen goes to ask Bounderby for the divorce, he accuses Stephen of wanting to eat turtle soup with a gold spoon. This accusation results from Bounderby's belief that all Hands are improvident, dishonest ‘cretins’ who simply want to get ahead, when in reality Bounderby, (who very well could eat turtle soup with a gold spoon) is the only character guilty of fitting that description. Bounderby is alone, he has no family, no wife, he is happy because he thinks money is everything and his belief that Hands are lazy good-for-nothings is part of Bounderby's rhetoric of the self-made man. You may think that Dickens is making describing him as a happy man but when looking at it as a reader you can see that Charles Dickens is trying to stress the fact that he isn’t happy by being very sarcastic about his denial over the importance of power and money.
When looking at the rich and the poor in this novel there is an obvious divide. Stephen and Rachel may be poor but they have each other, they have a sense of compassion for other people, and because of this they are able to find pleasure in there monotonous and plighted life. They show that without the virtues of compassion and imagination, life would be unbearable. Sissy and the other entertainers are also impoverished, but they have fire in their souls and this gives them a huge advantage over the wealthier characters. Gradgrind and Bounderby have the money but they don’t have the joy. Due to their father’s unfeeling nature the Gradgrind children have grown up without sentiment, this has resulted in them being damaged; they are always rubbing themselves almost as if they are trying to remove the pain which they feel. The children who have grown up with ought money are far happier than the ones who grew up with money. By coming into the Gradgrind household Sissy has already made a change occur within the family, they seem to be realising that tenderness and affection are more important than wealth.
Charles Dickens is trying to make the reader ask themselves what is more important, spiritual or material wealth? His view is that spiritual wealth, portrayed by the lower classes, is far more important than material wealth, portrayed by the upper classes. If love does not exist in this world then the people who live on it will be mere zombies. Money when compared to love looses its value.
