The title of chapter two of the novel is a metaphor chosen by Dickens to maybe show how he feels about Gradgrind’s teaching methods. “Murdering the innocents” refers to a biblical story in which King Herod killed all children in the search for Jesus. Dickens is comparing the teaching methods of Gradgrind to the evil of King Herod. This shows that the evil Gradgrind is murdering the children’s imaginations.
Gradgrind’s pockets are full of lots of different types of measuring equipments. He seems to think that he can measure human emotions with his measuring equipment, which of course is not right and could be seen as slightly insane. It says in the text, “With a rule and a pair of scales, and the multiplication table always in his pocket”.
Gradgrind’s intentions are to implant the pupils with facts and “blow them clean out of the region of childhood” using “a kind of cannon loaded to the muzzle of facts.” This metaphor uses a destructive weapon to destroy the childhood of whoever goes to Gradgrind’s school. He believes that this method of teaching, by which he “drums” the facts into his students, to be essential to prepare the students for later life perhaps working (as intended by Gradgrind) in the factories which he runs.
Gradgrind does not agree which anything that is non-factual, and certainly does not agree with any form of entertainment. The use of numbers to label the pupils is both discrediting and dehumanising. It shows a robotic and unnatural way of teaching that produces children like Bitzer who can define horses as “Quadruped, Graminivorous”. You can see that Bitzer is probably Gradgrind’s model pupil whom he expects all of his other pupils to model themselves on. We can immediately see Gradgrind’s liking for Bitzer as he addresses him by name and not by number. Bitzer is a pale, lifeless boy with no expression to him whereas Sissy is a pretty girl who is full of character. When asked a question, Bitzer answers it to its full extent, and distributes the processed information like a computer. If anyone read his definition they would not be able to guess that the boy was describing a horse as to any normal person it would mean absolutely nothing. Dickens makes a connection between paleness and life. Bitzer, who is very pale, has no life in him as it has all been taken away from him by Gradgrind’s harsh regime. Sissy Jupe, who is very pretty and full of character, has a lot of life in her as she is new to the school and therefore is new to Gradgrind’s regime.
Gradgrind takes an immediate disliking to Sissy Jupe or “girl number twenty” as he refers to her. He even dislikes her name and orders her to call herself Cecilia. Gradgrind makes up his mind about her when she begins to talk about her father’s profession, which is totally unacceptable for Gradgrind because he is in the entertainment business which is totally against Gradgrind’s beliefs.
One word, which Gradgrind seems to hate, is “fancy” because when Sissy mentions it he immediately scolds her for using that word. This probably because if you fancy they you imagine something you might like and of course Gradgrind’s teaching method is the complete opposite of using imagination.
Gradgrind regards both his school and his own children to be models of what he thought all people should be. He had raised his children on facts, just like his students. While other children were playing with toys, his had been solving mathematical problems and learning science with their “cabinets in various departments of science” which seems to be like a museum in their own homes. Another thing which shows how much his children missed out on their childhood is the fact that they did not have a clue about nursery rhymes and fairy tales simply because they were seen as to be non-factual which of course Gradgrind opposed to. This makes the reader feel sorry for his children because they have grown up under his regime from the moment they were born. Therefore they have totally missed out on their childhood and do not know what an imagination is or how to have fun, which is something that every child takes for granted.
The description of Gradgrind’s house greatly reflects his personality and mind probably because he designed it himself. It is all completely symmetrical and proportional, as he believes all things should be absolutely accurate with not an ounce of imagination gone into it. The reader’s reaction to the house would be pity for Gradgrind’s children who have to live in the perfectly symmetrical house, which is just a symbol of his obsession with precision and facts.
Gradgrind believes himself to be a model parent as well. His children he believes are models to society but he cannot see how unhappy they are and they have got worse as the want for a normal childhood has grown inside them. You could not really call them children; they are more like adults mentally trapped inside the body of a child resting on the dividing line between a childhood imagination and an educated hind and not knowing which to turn to. This has occurred because they have been forced to mature far too quickly and have not been able to go through a normal childhood. The reader feels sorry for his children because we see how much they are hurting and how they are now realising that they missed out on their childhood which is not healthy especially when they see things like the circus in the street and probably have no idea what it is.
When Gradgrind discovers his children watching the circus it seems to take a huge dent out of his ego. The circus stands for everything that disgusted him in the world: entertainment, non-factual stories and vagabonds. Vagabonds disgust him the most because he seems to blame the vagabonds for “attracting the young rabble from a model school” but does not see that the children from his school might actually want to go and see the circus at their own will. Gradgrind is horrified when he notices that two of his own children are at the circus watching the circus. He feels that his children have defied him in the worst imaginable way and therefore is very angry. We can see that Thomas is still very much under his fathers control as soon as he is caught but Louisa is becoming free of her father and is breaking through his stranglehold on her. We learn that however much Gradgrind tries to drum his way of teaching into the children there is still a little spark left of the imagination and a little sense of the childhood they have missed, “a starved imagination keeping life in itself somehow.” This shows that Dickens suggests that a damaged imagination is more dangerous than no imagination.
There is also a hint that maybe Gradgrind is also a little sexist because his first thoughts are that it was Thomas’s idea to come to the circus and he merely asked Louisa to come with him. We also learn how his teaching regime is hurting the children because Louisa says “I was tired, father. I have been tired a long time”. Louisa is unaware about what is wrong with her which shows that she is rather pathetic and ignorant.
As Gradgrind drags his children home at the end of chapter three he scolds his children and Dickens labels them as “two delinquents” which suggests that they are going to be in big trouble. He repeats “What would Mr Bounderby say?” a few times, which shows that he has respect for him and is trying to copy him and looks to him as a role model who would scorn at Gradgrind if he found that his children went to the circus. He possibly sees Mr Bounderby as a possible future husband for his daughter Louisa so that is why Louisa looks at her father when he mentions his name.
Gradgrind wants all the children in the school and his own children to be modelled on Mr Bounderby because he looks up to him and admires him a lot. The way he does this is by using this awful teaching method, which we can see is harming the children. This teaching method is that the children must only learn facts and nothing else in the view that it will make them good future workers in the factories where the entire workforce will be the same with no personality and be modelled on Mr Bounderby. Gradgrind means well but is unaware his philosophy of education is wrong and that it actually damages the pupils both mentally and physically.
