Major characters
Mr. Gradgrind
Thomas Gradgrind is a utilitarian(consisting
in utility) who is the founder of the educational system in Coketown.
"Eminently practical" is Gradgrind's recurring description throughout
the novel. He believes in facts, and statistics. Only after his daughter's
breakdown does he come to a realisation that things such as poetry, fiction
and other pursuits are not "destructive nonsense."
Mr. Bounderby
Josiah Bounderby is a business associate
of Mr. Gradgrind. Given to boasting about being a self-made man, he employs
many of the other central characters of the novel. He has risen to a position
of power and wealth from humble origins, though not as humble as he claims. He
marries Mr. Gradgrind's daughter Louisa, some 30 years his junior, in what
turns out to be a loveless marriage. They have no children. Bounderby is
callous, self-centred and ultimately revealed to be a liar and fraud.
Louisa
Louisa (Loo) Gradgrind, later Louisa
Bounderby, is the eldest child of the Gradgrind family. She has been taught
to suppress her feelings and finds it hard to express herself clearly, saying
as a child she has "unmanageable thoughts." After her unhappy
marriage, she is tempted into adultery by James Harthouse, but resists him and
returns to her father. Her rejection of Harthouse leads to a new understanding
of life and of the value of emotions and the imagination. She reproaches her
father for his dry and fact-based approach to the world and convinces him of
the error of his ways.
Sissy Jupe
Cecilia (Sissy) Jupe is a circus girl of
Sleary's circus, as well as a student of Thomas Gradgrind's very strict
classroom. Sissy has her own set of values and beliefs which make her seem
unintelligent in the Gradgrind household. At the end of the novel, when the
Gradgrinds' philosophy of religiously adhering solely to facts breaks down,
Sissy is the character who teaches them how to live.
Sissy Jupe is first introduced to the readers as
Girl Number Twenty in Gradgrind's classroom. She struggles to keep up with
Gradgrind's extreme reliance on the recitation of facts, and therefore is seen
as not worthy for the school. Sissy is also representative of creativity and
wonderment because of her circus background, and those were things that the
Gradgrind children were not allowed to engage in. With the urging of Josiah
Bounderby, Mr. Gradgrind goes to inform Sissy's father that she can no longer attend
his school.Gradgrind and Bounderby arrive at the Pegasus' Arms, the
public-house of Coketown where Sissy, her father, and the rest of Sleary's
circus were staying. While Sissy and her father were very close once, Mr. Jupe
packed up and abandoned his daughter,
leaving Sissy alone. In a moment of compassion, Mr. Gradgrind takes Sissy into
his home and gives her a second chance at the school. Sissy continues to fall
behind in the school, so Mr. Gradgrind keeps her at home to tend to his invalid
wife.
While Sissy is the device of imagination and
fantasy in the novel, she also serves as the voice of reason. The reason she
cannot grasp the philosophy of Gradgrind's classroom is because she actually
has a more realistic view of how the world should be perceived . After Lousia
and Mr. Gradgrind come to terms with the fact that their way of life is not
working, Sissy is the one they come to; she takes care of Lousia and helps her
live a new, happy life
Tom
Thomas (Tom) Gradgrind, Junior is the
oldest son and second child of the Gradgrinds. Initially sullen and resentful
of his father's Utilitarian education, Tom has a strong relationship with his
sister Louisa. He works in Bounderby's bank (which he later robs), and turns to
gambling and drinking. Louisa never ceases to adore Tom, and she aids Sissy and
Mr. Gradgrind in saving her brother from arrest.
Old Stephen
Stephen Blackpool is a worker at one of
Bounderby's mills. He has a drunken wife who no longer lives with him but who
appears from time to time. He forms a close bond with Rachael, a co-worker,
whom he wishes to marry. After a dispute with Bounderby, he is dismissed from
his work at the Coketown mills and, shunned by his former fellow workers, is
forced to look for work elsewhere. While absent from Coketown, he is wrongly
accused of robbing Bounderby's bank. On his way back to vindicate himself, he
falls down a mine-shaft. He is rescued but dies of his injuries.
Other characters
Bitzer – is a very pale classmate of
Sissy's and brought up on facts and is taught to operate according to
self-interest. He takes up a job in Bounderby's bank, and later tries to arrest
Tom.
Rachael - is the friend of Stephen
Blackpool who attests to his innocence when he is accused of robbing
Bounderby's bank. She is a factory worker, childhood friend of Blackpool's
drunken and often absent wife, and becomes the literary tool for bringing the
two parallel story lines together at the brink of Hell's Shaft in the final
book.
Mrs. Sparsit – is a "classical"
widow who has fallen on hard times. She is employed by Bounderby, and is
jealous when he marries Louisa, delighting in the belief that Louisa is later
about to elope with James Harthouse. Her machinations are unsuccessful and she
is ultimately sacked by Bounderby.
James Harthouse – is an indolent, languid,
upper-class gentleman, who attempts to woo Louisa.
Mrs. Gradgrind – the wife of Mr.
Gradgrind, is an invalid and complains constantly
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