‘… little vessels,… ready to have imperial gallons of facts poured into them until they were full to the brim’.
They are also given no individuality, the teachers refer to them as numbers and not names, for example Mr Gradgrind refers to Sissy as ‘girl number twenty’ Any expression of imagination is quickly suppressed, as this is not useful it is fanciful. For example, when the teacher asked the children if they would paper a room with representations of horses, half of the children cried yes but on seeing his face quickly changed to saying no. This expression of imagination is suppressed quickly when he says
‘Do you ever see horses walking up and down the sides of rooms in reality – in fact?’
He seems extremely shocked that the children would have said something which was not a fact. The education system contrasts well with the colourful and imaginative life the people want to lead.
Dickens gives a very detailed description of Thomas Gradgrind. However, before we meet him, we hear him talking to the class about how and what they should be learning
“Teach these boys and girls nothing but facts. Facts alone are wanted in life.”
From this we already have a perceived judgement of Gradgrind.
The whole of both chapters are written from a satirical perspective and it soon becomes obvious that Dickens detests this form of teaching. Dickens believes that Gradgrind doesn’t see these children as children but machines that are drained of all imagination
“had imperial gallons of facts poured into them until they were full to the brim.”
This becomes more and more increasingly obvious in chapter two. Dickens tries to make the reader feel disgusted about this way of teaching by satirizing it. There is a very definite atmosphere that you can detect from the classroom throughout both chapters; it seems tense, and very still. Everything that Gradgrind says when arguing about how these children should be taught is very spurious. In other words, because he’s very domineering and dogmatic it sounds sensible, but it lacks logic and sense. The opening two chapters of Hard Times have a very good rhythm and it flows very well. For example, during the description of Gradgrind every sentence started with “The emphasis was helped by...” this helped to keep the reader interested in the description and it kept it as one description. The sentences are all quite short, making more impact e.g. “Stick to facts, Sir!” Another quite abnormal thing is the word “fact” is nearly always given a capital letter “Fact.” I feel that this tells us of Gradgrinds feelings of the significance of facts.
Figurative language is used quite a lot in this chapter. Metaphors and similes are used quite a lot in the description of Gradgrind .
“the speaker’s square wall of a forehead, which had his eyebrows for a base, while his eyes found commodious cellarage in two dark caves, overshadowed by the wall.”
Dickens also uses repetition of the word “facts” and especially “nothing but facts.” I think that this is done because Dickens wants to get across to us that all Gradgrind wants to teach these children are facts. Dickens’ style is very consistent and it doesn’t change throughout chapter one and two.
The school inspector shares the same views as Mr. Gradgrind but is a bit more obsessed with it. He is “a professed pugilist” this means he is like a professional warrior and he is fighting for the teaching of facts. He is considered
“an ugly customer”
A man whom you wouldn’t argue with. The inspector has been given the right by the government to change the world into a factual place. The inspector thinks that living in a factual kind of place is wonderful
“You are to be in all things regulated and governed by fact”
this means that he also only wants facts to be known, followed and taught in life he doesn’t want people to have imagination. The inspector wants to fill everyone up with facts and get rid of common sense, fancy and imagination.
Mr. M’Choakumchild, the new teacher, had just finished a teacher training course in which he and many others had been taught a lot of facts as though it was a factory. He was taught things such as orthography, etymology, syntax and prosody, biography, astronomy and many more.
“He and some other one hundred and forty other school masters had been lately turned out at the same time, in the same factory, on the same principles, like so many pianoforte legs”
this mean that Mr. M’Choakumchild and the other teachers had all been taught the same things making them practically identical in their knowledge. They all were taught facts. In Charles Dickens’ opinion Mr. M’Choakumchild had learnt too much and would have taught better if he hadn’t learnt as much as the facts were practically drilled into him.
“Ah, rather overdone Mr. M’Choakumchild if only he had learnt less how infinitely better he would have taught much more”.
In conclusion I feel Charles Dickens has successfully managed to satirise the education system, by using exaggeration, sarcasm, repetition and literary techniques such as metaphors and imagery. He captures his dissatisfaction with the Victorian system by consistently mocking the schoolroom, the teachers and their teaching methods and sympathises with the pupils who he believes are a product of the education system of that time. The ‘jug and mug’ principle applies as the children are seen as empty vessels waiting to be filled with useless facts. Dickens’s book is made more believable as he adds his personal first hand experiences to enlighten the readers of life in a Victorian School.