When Mr. Gradgrind is introduced in Book the First, Chapter 1 Dickens describes him, saying,
“The emphasis was helped by the speaker’s square wall of a forehead, which had his eyebrows for its base, while his eyes found commodious cellarage in two dark caves, overshadowed by the wall. The emphasis was helped by the speaker’s mouth, which was wide, thin, and hard set. The emphasis was helped by the speaker’s voice, which was inflexible, dry, and dictatorial. The emphasis was helped by the speaker’s hair, which bristled on the skirts of his bald head, a plantation of firs to keep the wind from its shining surface, all covered with knobs, like the crust of a plum pie, as if the head had scarcely warehouse-room for the hard facts stored inside. The speaker’s obstinate carriage, square coat, square legs, square shoulders, — nay, his very neckcloth, trained to take him by the throat with an unaccommodating grasp, like a stubborn fact, as it was, — all helped the emphasis.”
This description presents Mr. Gradgrind as a rigid character, which is fitting because of his fixation on facts and method of teaching and raising children, which allows no room for imagination. Mr. Bounderby is described in Book the First, Chapter 4 as,
“A big, loud man, with a stare and a metallic laugh. A man made out of a course material, which seemed to have been stretched to make so much if him. A man with a great puffed head and forehead, swelled veins in his temples, and such strained skin to his face that it seemed to hold his eyes open and his eyebrows up. A man with a pervading appearance on him of being inflated like a balloon, and ready to start.”
This description of Mr. Bounderby; using words like big, loud, puffed, swelled, and inflated, present him as dominating and overbearing which is exactly what he turns out to be throughout the story.
Another reason Dickens may have for describing a specific physical trait of a character is so that the reader can remember them. Mrs. Sparsit’s roman nose is often addressed whenever she is presented in the novel and this helps to remember and distinguish this character. Another example of this is Bitzer and his extremely pale skin. When Bitzer is first brought into the story in Book the First, Chapter 2 he is a student at Mr. Gradgrind’s school and Dickens says, “His skin was so unwholesomely deficient in the natural tinge, that he looked as though, if he were cut, he would bleed white.” Towards the end of the novel, many years later, when Tom has fled Coketown, Bitzer is brought back into the story to force Tom to stand trial in Book the Third, Chapter 7. Here, Dickens says, “ For there was Bitzer, out of breath, his thin lips parted, his thin nostrils distended, his white eyelashes quivering, his colorless face ore colorless than ever, as if he ran himself into a white heat, when other people ran themselves into a glow.” Dickens references Bitzer’s paleness here again to help the reader remember who this character is. Mr. Sleary’s lisp is another method of helping the reader remember the character, because whenever Dickens gives him dialogue the lisp is written in, forcing the reader to take note and recall the character even when he hasn’t been mentioned since the beginning of the story.
Dickens’ uses character names and descriptions in Hard Times that directly relate to the individual’s personality and importance in the plot. These techniques help the reader remember each character so that when they all come together by the end of the story there is no confusion. This may have been even more important during Dickens’ time because the entire story was not published at once, but rather in small segments with gaps of time between each one.