Why Is Everything in Thomas Gradgrind's School Square? How Would You Describe The Education Offered There And The Effects On Its Recipients?

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Thomas Wallis 12WH

Why Is Everything in Thomas Gradgrind’s School Square? How Would You Describe The Education Offered There And The Effects On Its Recipients?

Thomas Gradgrind is a misguided exponent of Utilitarianism, an “eminently practical man”, who believes in facts and statistics and brings up his children Louisa and Tom accordingly, ruthlessly suppressing the imaginative sides of their nature. He marries Louisa to Josiah Bounderby, a manufacturer 30 years older than herself. Louisa consents partly from the indifference and cynicism engendered by her father’s treatment and partly from a desire to help her brother, who is employed by Bounderby and is the only person she loves. James Harthouse, a young politician without heart or principles, comes to Coketown and, taking advantage of her unhappy life with Bounderby, attempts to seduce her. The better side of her nature is awakened at this experience, and at the crisis she flees for protection with her father, who in turn is awakened to the foolishness of his system. He shelters her from Bounderby and the couple are permanently separated. However there is more to come. Tom has robbed the bank of his employer and, though he tries for a time to throw suspicion on a blameless artisan (Stephen Blackpool), is finally detected and hustled out of the country. Among the notable minor characters are Mrs. Sparsit, Bounderby’s venomous and intriguing housekeeper, Sleary, the owner of the circus, and Sissy Jupe, whose father had been a performer in his troupe, their generous hearts are contrasted with the harshness of Gradgrind’s regime.

I find Mrs. Sparsit such an intriguing character because she has fallen from greatness; she used to be rich and eminent in society, but due to the death of her husband has been forced to work in Bounderby’s house. This is greatly contrasted to Bounderby’s past; he was poor as a child “I hadn’t a shoe to a foot…I passed the day in a ditch and the night in a pigsty.” Sparsit still hangs on to her previous greatness and, instead of upsetting Bounderby and possibly getting fired, she has private jokes with herself, usually with the use of sarcasm, to lighten her day and mock her employer. This is shown, for example, by her saying “Very thoughtful of you!” the sarcasm is shown when her “black eyebrows contract”.

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Gradgrind’s school is square because of the education he offers there. “Facts, sir; nothing but facts!” This incessant use of facts to teach is shown in the squareness of the school room to show uniformity, much like facts. The square is not only applied to the school room either, but also to Gradgrind himself, “Square legs, square shoulders.”

To answer the second question I am going to concentrate my essay on Tom Gradgrind, Thomas Gradgrind’s son. Thomas is first introduced with Louisa in chapter three when they are reprimanded heavily for looking at the "Tyrolean flower act". Gradgrind ...

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