Hard Times Character Analysis

Hard Times

Hard Times begins with Thomas Gradgrind, a wealthy, merchant in Coketown. Coketown is an industrial city in England. He advocates a philosophy of rationalism based on self-advancement, and pragmatism. His children, Louisa and Tom, have been raised according to this philosophy. He founds a school and adopts the kindly and imaginative Sissy Jupe, whose father, a circus entertainer has disappeared.

As years go by, Tom becomes a selfish hedonist, and Louisa is confused about her real self. She feels as if she is missing something important in her life. Surprisingly she agrees to marrya marries Gradgrind’s friend Josiah Bounderby.He is a wealthy factory owner and banker much older to her. Bounderby boasts about himself as a self-made man who rose to health and esteem since being abandoned by his mother at birth. Tom takes up an apprentice’s job at the Bounderby bank. All this while Sissy stays at the Gradgrind home to take care of the younger children.

Another character enters the story. A poor labourer named Stephen Blackpool struggles with his love for Rachael, another poor factory worker. He is referred as a “Hand”—a term used by

Sparsit, in her zeal to help Bounderby find the robbers, forces Mrs. Pegler—a known acquaintance of Stephen Blackpool— to see Bounderby making her a potential witness. Bounderby is shocked at the sight of Mrs Peglar, who is really his loving mother. He had forbidden her to visit him: This falsifies Bounderby’s claims that he is a self-made man. Bounderbyis furious and fires Mrs. Sparsit. Five years later, he dies alone in the streets of Coketown. Gradgrind renounces his philosophy of rational self interest and devotes his political power to philanthrophy. Tom too realizes the fundamental flaw of his thinking .He dies without ever seeing his family again. Sissy marries and has a large and loving family, Louisa never marries but she stays with Sissy’s family .The characters learn to empathize with other fellow