This thought can also be shared with the education at the time, in Charles Dickens’ eyes teaching wasn’t as it should’ve been. This is made known when Mr Gradgrind calls one of his pupils ‘girl number twenty’ outside of the classroom, it shows the formality involved at this time and the worship to fact. The girl is not given a name, so to avoid the fantasy of a name, because to Mr Gradgrind a name is a piece of fantasy.
Another binary opposition that runs through the book is the circus and Coketown, as a matchup between fact and fancy. A perfect example of the snobbery of upper class Victorian Britain is Mr Bounderby’s snuff at girl number twenty’s ‘nine oils’. The two upper class fact based gentlemen cannot understand the idea that the nine oils could cure something that had seen to be incurable, but Sissy (Girl number twenty) could not understand why they reacted like this. This confrontation between classes highlighted the differences at the time.
Dickens starts the first chapter of this novel with the title ‘The one thing needful’; this refers to the bible passage Luke 10:42. Within this passage ‘Mary chooses what is better’, a subtle mention of utilitarianism. This is then followed by Mr Gradgrind expressing his opinion on what should be taught, ‘Now, what I want is, Facts.’ This theme is then carried on using the personal pronoun, which makes what he says feel rather possessive and selfish as if it is the only thing in the world that is needed to be taught - and it is his way of teaching.
The first description we read of the schoolroom is ‘a plain, bare, monotonous vault’. This is the first mention of monotony which intertwines with the constant drone of facts that the school master teaches. The idea of a room being plain and bare also relates to the monotony with no fancy about them. Finally, the schoolroom is described as a vault, a place, by definition, where something is locked to keep valuables. These valuables are the facts that are being taught and the children that are privileged enough to be in education at the time.
The description moves on in vivid detail regarding ‘the speaker’ (Mr Gradgrind). His appearance; ‘square forefinger’ and ‘square wall of a forehead’, a square is the first shape you learn and is not fanciful with its 4 exactly equal straight edges, a square can also be seen as quite robotic and without any passion. Dickens then describes the speakers eyes as ‘two dark caves’, a metaphor that immediately conjures up negativity, and gives the impression that this is a man that is withdrawn from his emotions because the eyes are said to be the windows to the soul, and you can often tell a persons emotions just by looking into their eyes. The description is then rounded off talking about his head being ‘like the crust of a plum pie, as if the head had scarcely warehouse-room for the hard facts stored inside’. This simile is used to great effect because with a plum pie comes oozing just like the facts oozing out of Mr Gradgrind’s bald head. A warehouse-room is also mentioned, this relates to the industrial time where things were measured by the room as things were growing so quickly.
Thomas Gradgrind, a Victorian teacher, one which was the complete opposite of Charles Dickens’ views on education, and Dickens expresses this in the name Gradgrind. It can be interpreted as GRADually GRINDing, away at the children of the school, teaching them nothing but facts with very little or indeed no time for fancy. The name can also be linked to machinery in that when the word Gradgrind is spoken it sounds like a machine at work, therefore it uses onomatopoeia. In his eyes there is no room for any imagination not even in the sense of shortening names ‘Don’t call yourself Sissy call yourself Cecilia’ this is quite dictatorial, because Mr Gradgrind is not asking but telling the girl what to do. His personality is described by Dickens as ‘a kind of cannon loaded to the muzzle’ which gives the impression that he is about to explode with the knowledge he knows and the facts he stores.
In addition, in the second chapter another man is introduced, the school master, Mr McChoakumchild. Again this name can be broken up and construed as him choking children with facts, forcing the children to learn what was seen as best for them. This is certainly the most violent out of all the names, and Dickens has deliberately made this so, as he regarded education as far too harsh. Aside from this he is also not portrayed as a very good teacher ‘he might have taught much more’ this quotation relates to a previous block of text where it describes a number of factual subjects which the school master has learnt. Dickens says he might have taught much more because Mr McChoakumchild had learnt everything it would be difficult to give all of this to his pupils. This is continued when his knowledge is explained as ‘rather overdone’. Dickens has also referred to the old fable of Morgiana, a piece of fiction; Mr McChoakumchild has become so factual that he has become fictional.
The third and last person in this room was the Government officer, who was not given a name but just his work title, which ties in with this working period of time. Apart from this the fact that he has a title suggests importance and a certain wealth of knowledge; on the other hand a person without a name can be seen as not being a person at all. The officer also seem quite intimidating because ‘he would go in and damage whatever subject’ he would find a way for there to be fact in what he was talking about or what someone else was talking about. He also mirrors Gradgrind in his preaching of ‘Fact, Fact, Fact.’ as though he was reiterating for the benefit of the children as if they hadn’t already heard enough. Passed all this defence of fact, Dickens makes it clear that he is not just a hardcore factual base like the two other teachers by saying ‘said the gentleman warmly’ this gives a sense of passion and an approachable character.
As at least 2 out of 3 of these men see fact as a relative of theirs, this must rub off on their pupils. However Sissy (or girl number 20) comes from the circus and cannot understand the devotion to fact. During the class she is unable to define a horse after Mr Gradgrind has tried to find an answer to the mystery of the title for the job of Sissy’s father. Then we are introduced to Bitzer a strongly spoken pupil who is able to define a horse with as many facts as only Mr Gradgrind could out-fact.
In conclusion as a result of the exhausting exposure to fact Mr Gradgrind gradually learns that all this fact is not good for the pupil. An example of this is his own daughter, she had been stuffed full of facts so much that when she should have felt emotion she couldn’t she did not know what to feel. Bitzer also had this reaction, as he had no feelings for anyone by the end of the novel in terms of other people’s emotions, Bitzer was unable to read into them and determine what they meant. Dickens secretly criticises Gradgrind’s utilitarian views, as every person is different, it is not just like a machine where all the produce is exactly equal to the first and the last. Furthermore the novel is riddled with bible passages, which could be seen as ironic, as Christianity, has not been proven by fact nor can we disregard it at a fictional story. Religion is the bridge, bridging the gap between Fact and Fancy. Gradgrind’s religion was to facts and in the end he lost faith.