Comment on the Significance of Chapter 15 in Terms of Themes and Issues in the Novel So Far.
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Comment on the significance of chapter 15 in terms of themes and issues in the novel so far.
This chapter features many of the issues brought up in the book so far. These issues are present from the beginning of the chapter.
Before even reading the chapter, it is clear that it will raise one specific theme. The name of the chapter is “Father and Daughter”, and so this tells us that the main topic will be the relationship between Louisa and Mr. Gradgrind. We already know that Louisa and her father Mr. Gradgrind have a lack of interaction and we learn that Louisa has had an upbringing that represses her feelings and personality. This upbringing is based on the Gradgrind philosophy – a hard philosophy of inhumanity and fact (also used in his teaching). This is shown in chapter eight where Louisa recalls a conversation with Tom, her brother. Louisa says “Tom, I wonder”, and Mr. Gradgrind steps in and says “Louisa, never wonder”. It is in Louisas nature to wonder as it is for a child or anyone else and it is Mr. Gradgrind with his philosophy that is destroying Louisas personality. This results in Louisa hating the life she has and not knowing how to cope with feelings like passion, hope and fear. Tom is also affected in the same way but the outcome is much different. It is when they meet Sissy Jupe that they realise they have missed out on so much in their lives.
At the beginning of the chapter there is reference to Mr. Gradgrinds study and the “abundance of blue books”. This is significant as it represents the Gradgrind philosophy and his institution in which everything is “Fact, fact, fact”, and learnt from books instead of humans and experience. His room is referred to as “a blue chamber” which links, to some extent, with the description of the school. The colour “blue” symbolising coldness and “chamber” suggesting claustrophobic and private. Another description further on shows reference to Mr. Gradgrind – “a stern room, with a deadly statistical clock in it”. This description is significant as it relates to Mr. Gradgrind himself – “stern”, and “a deadly statistical clock” relating to Mr. Gradgrinds constant usage of statistics. The clock could be interpreted as representing the monotonous life that Mr. Gradgrind leads as well as the life of Coketown.
Further on in this chapter Mr. Gradgrind tells Louisa that he feels she has been brought up well to view things from a “strong dispassionate ground of reason and calculation”. Although she has not been brought up the way a child should be, or the way she would have wanted, what Mr. Gradgrind is saying is true. However, he tells Louisa that from this ground she should be able to view and consider a proposal of marriage from Mr. Bounderby. This very clearly shows that Mr. Gradgrind has no knowledge of the way his daughter feels.
Mr. Gradgrind is completely wrong in thinking that his way of upbringing will help Louisa make such a decision. Louisa needs to know about and feel love in order to consider a marriage proposal – this is true for anyone. Louisa has missed out on things like this because of her fathers philosophy. Mr. Gradgrind is expecting her to think about the benefits of marriage in terms of fact and statistics instead of what it means in terms of love.
This shows that his philosophy is based on utilitarian beliefs as he is not thinking about whether Louisa will be happy with marriage, he is just considering the benefit to himself – respect and a financially secure daughter. He is only interested in the social benefits for himself and he is not concerned about her opinion as he expects that she will accept the offer. His philosophy does not work – this is shown at a later point in the chapter in which he has great trouble in explaining love in relation to Mr. Bounderby. Instead, Mr. Gradgrind uses facts to say that it is okay to marry a man (more than) double her age.
This brings me onto my second point being that Mr. Gradgrind does not realise that Louisa hates Mr. Bounderby (end of chapter four). This shows the lack of communication, bonding and confiding between father and daughter.
All of this represents the failing of the Gradgrind philosophy and institution. However, not everyone has been negatively affected by the institution. Bitzer is an example of the outcome of the Gradgrind institution. In chapter two we are given a description of Bitzer –