Another method of his teaching is humiliation; this is demonstrated by the passage,
“Girl number twenty”… “Who is that girl?”
“Sissy Jupe, sir.” replied Sissy.
He then goes on to tell Sissy that she must be called Cecilia,
‘“Sissy is not a name,” said Mr Gradgrind “don’t call your self Cecilia”
“It’s farther as calls me Sissy, sir”
“Then he has no buisiness to do it,”’
Under Mr Gradgrind’s education, Louisa seems to have lost her way. She still craves for creativity but is starved of it therefore she craves it even more. However, she is not totally defeated, she shows signs of defiance, and she will not give up,
‘Struggling through the dissatisfaction of her face, there was a light with nothing to rest upon, a fire with nothing to burn, a starved imagination keeping life within its self somehow which brightened its expression’
This shows that although Louisa’s imagination has been starved she still looks for fulfillment. Louisa is bored with life because of the dull facts that are constantly hammered into her head.
‘All it made me think, after all, how short my life would be, and how little I could hope to do in it.’
She feels like she is locked in the arms of her life, caged in. In the chapter “Never Wonder” she is told,
‘Louisa, never wonder!’
Louisa feels suppressed as she is told she cannot imagine,
‘“I have such unmanagable thoughts” returned his sister, “they will wonder.”’
When Sissy Jupe comes to live with Louisa and Tom, Louisa was fascinated to know about Sissy’s fuller life and asks her question after question of every kind as her imagination is starved,
“Tell me more about him”
‘“Why was he angry at the dog” Louisa demanded’
“Finish by telling me how you’re father left you, Sissy. Now that I have asked you so much, tell me the end,”
Thomas and Louisa feel like they are united in isolation, they discuss their troubles with each other and stand by each other. Thomas, however, appears more beaten down and negative. When Mr. Gradgrind found both of his children watching a circus, Thomas gave in more easily.
“Thomas did not look at him but gave himself up to be taken home like a machine,”
This showed Thomas feeling hopeless with the situation. There was no questioning of his fathers’ power. Thomas has become resentful and angry because his imaginative needs have not been met,
“I wish I could collect all the facts we hear about, put a thousand barrels of gunpowder under them, and blow them up alogether”
This passage shows Thomas’ frustration but it also shows a glimmer of hope as Thomas uses his imagination in describing building the bonfire to burn the facts.
Sissy’s background was from the circus where people cared for one another and were generous. The circus was full of colour and creativity as opposed to Gradgrind’s facts and discipline. For sissy, moving in with the Gradgrinds was alien to her. When Sissy was asked in class whether she would have flowers on her carpet she said,
“It wouldn’t hurt them sir. They wouldn’t crush and wither,
if you please sir.They would be the pictures of what was very pretty and pleasant, and I would fancy..”
When Sissy moves in with the Gradgrinds she talks openly and with warmth and understanding about her father,
“I came home from the school that afternoon,
and found poor father just come home to, from the booth. And he sat rocking himself over the fire as if he was in pain”
Sissy showed empathy in the understanding of her farther.
Mr Gradgrinds intention to wipe out Sissys free spirit and free thinking was unsuccessful because it had already developed.
“Good gracious bless me, how my poor head vexed and worried by that girl Jupe’s so perseveringly asking, over and over again, about her tiresome letters.”
However Mr Gradgrind does smother Sissy to a degree as he is older and stronger.
“At about this point Mr Gradgrind’s eye would fall upon her; and under the influence all that wintery piece if fact she will become torpid again”
This shows that although he cannot stop her imagination he can dampen her spirit. But eventualy Mr Gradgrind gives up and accepts he cannot convert Sissy.
‘“I fear, Jupe” said Mr Gradgrind, “that your continuance at the school any longer would be useless.”’
He gives Sissy the chance to stay with the Gradgrinds and look after Mrs. Gradgrind. Despite Sissy failing the experiment, he can still make her a “Hand” by helping his wife.
Dickens’ view of education is extremely satirical. He does not agree with any of Gradgrinds views on how education should be presented. The way he goes about informing the reader of this is not subtle. The chapters in which he names are sarcastic,
“Sissy’s progress”
Dickens uses irony here to sarcastically describe sissy’s lack of progress under Gradgrind’s’ education as he if failing sissy.
“Never Wonder”
Dickens enforces the narrow minded view of Gradgrind, telling Louisa to never wonder which is stupid as it is part of human nature to.
He informs the reader what he thinks is happening to the children in the chapter title,
“Murdering the innocents”
Dickens relates to the story in the bible by the title as he thinks dickens is murdering the innocent children by taking their imagination and wonder out of their heads.
