Lemise Elsden
What impression does Dickens give the reader of Gradgrind and his schooling methods?
‘Now, what I want is, Facts….Facts….Facts….Facts’ this is how the reader is introduced to Thomas Gradgrind. I myself can picture him saying this poised and stiff with a hard unyielding presence. Gradgrind is described as having a ‘square forehead’, a mouth ‘which was wide thin and hard set’, a ‘voice, which was inflexible, dry and dictational’ and ‘hair which bristled on the skirts of his bald head’. His clothes and poise are like his face, looking composed and collected with a ‘square coat, square legs’ and ‘square shoulders’.