Hard Times

Gradgrind opens the novel by extolling the virtues of facts. Facts, he argues, are all that the children in the classroom will need in their lives. Gradgrind bases his entire personal philosophy on this concept. He has fashioned a discrete worldview that emphasizes practicality and self-interest above everything else, and he criticizes flights of fancy, imagination, and whimsy. Gradgrind’s school teaches this philosophy to all students, providing the only public education in the area on the basis that the students must adhere to his ideas if they want to learn. Furthermore, Gradgrind teaches this philosophy to his two oldest children. Tom and Louisa are raised in their father’s ideal image, eschewing all imagination and whimsy so that they can best follow the example their father believes is best. By teaching children to follow his worldview, Gradgrind demonstrates his privileged position in society. He uses his wealth and resources to further his own ideology, raising a generation of children in Coketown to follow a philosophy of his choosing. Men like Blackpool or Sissy’s father have no say in what’s taught in schools. The rich and powerful invent a self-gratifying, self-serving philosophy and then insist that all children are taught this.

Gradgrind and Bounderby sincerely believe that their pragmatic worldview is the only worthwhile option. Imagination, whimsy, and fancy have no place in the relentlessly profit-driven industrialized society. The men are capitalists, and anything that isn’t profitable, like imagination and fun, should be avoided. Sissy is criticized in school for taking joy in a picture of a horse, for example. She’s a child with a vibrant imagination, but this has no place in Gradgrind’s view of the world. As such, he considers her to be unintelligent and unteachable. As the novel progresses, however, Gradgrind’s philosophy begins to reveal itself as actively harmful. His own children are miserable. Louisa is emotionally detached from the world and mired in a deep unhappiness. Having been raised to follow her father’s practical worldview, she now believes that she can’t feel emotions. Tom’s education has told him that self-interest is all-important. Rather than dedicate his life to work, he finds that his status as a wealthy son of a powerful family means that he can drink, smoke, and gamble to his heart’s content. He serves his self-interest by indulging his impulses and not having to deal with the consequences, which culminates in his robbing a bank and framing a poor person. Gradgrind’s philosophy doesn’t know how to accommodate Louisa’s unhappiness or Tom’s criminality. Gradgrind must reckon with the consequences of his actions as he begins to realize the influence he had on his children. He failed them through his selfishness. By teaching them to follow in his footsteps, he only drove them toward tragedy.

After Louisa confronts Gradgrind, he begins to change his worldview. In a showdown with Bitzer, however, he can’t convince the young man, who was raised on Gradgrind’s ideas. Ironically, Bitzer rejects Gradgrind’s sentimental pleas. Gradgrind begins to understand the importance of emotions, imagination, and sentimentality. Sissy’s influence on his three young children is clear, as they’re much happier than his two older children. Meanwhile, Louisa separates from her husband and never remarries, while Tom must flee the country and dies alone. Gradgrind dedicates his life to charity and religion, rejecting the pragmatism and practicality of his younger days in an attempt to compensate for his failure. Gradgrind’s story is a lesson in the importance of sentimentality.