2Chapter 8-12

Question 1

How much money was stolen from the bank?

Answer 1

£150

Question 2

Harthouse is associated with the “brimrstone” of hellish Coketown. The metaphors used to describe his moral condition resuscitate some of the images earlier in the novel of his introductory chapter which had likened him to an “iceberg” that may cause a _____.

Answer 2

“wreck”

Question 3

Why does Mr.Bounderby come to resent Louisa even more?

Answer 3

for lacking the domestic charms and offices of Mrs.Sparsit who offers counsel and pamper to Bounderby

Question 4

What does Louisa notice in her younger siblings?

Answer 4

the exposure they have had to Sissy

Question 5

What does the characterisation of Mrs.Sparsit focus on?

Answer 5

her facial features and architectural composition

Question 6

In contrast to whom in Book One, is Sparsit not a site of refuge but her eyes instead an “iron-bound coast”?

Answer 6

Sissy

Question 7

In contrast to images of Sissy in book One , Sparsit is not a site of refuge but her eyes instead an “_________________”

Answer 7

lighthouses on an iron bound coast

Question 8

What can be said about the fact that In contrast to images of Sissy in book One , Sparsit is not a site of refuge but her eyes instead “lighthouses on an iron bound coast “?

Answer 8

this is a symbol of her strength and intensity but we will find that she does not use her powers of surveillance to save nor rescue anyone. Though she presents herself as a serene image, having no movement; soon she shall be seen by all

Question 9

What does Mrs.Sparsit imagine Lousia descending down?

Answer 9

a staircase to damnation

Question 10

What is the function of the staircase?

Answer 10

as far as social commentary, the staircase vertically expresses the rise and fall of social standing; indeed the fates of Lousa, Sparsit, Boudnerby and Harthouse are all dependant upon her staircase. Her reveal of Harthouses’ love for Louisa ultimately causes the destruction of their lives, including the scorn of Bounderby to herself.
Another major facet of the staircase is, of course, the archetypal fall by temptation much along the lines of the classic story of Eden, Louisa’s descent down the staircase is a fall that parallels the original fall of man by sin. In this way Sparsit as a figure of the aristocracy is seen as having the authority of God in which she too will bring an end to the Eden, and cause the characters fall.

Question 11

What juxtaposes the romance between Louisa and James?

Answer 11

the war-like relationship between Louisa and Mrs.Sparsit

Question 12

Without speaking to one another, both characters seem locked in combat and Sparsit takes it as a personal loss when Lousia’s “___________” delays her long awaited fall.

Answer 12

curious reserve

Question 13

What can be said about the fact Sparsit declares “all your art shall never blind me”?

Answer 13

she is very concerned about not being blinded or fooled but in the end she fools herself and misses her victroy

Question 14

What can be said about the fact that Sparsit wears her “threatening mitten”?

Answer 14

this metaphorical glove reinforces the military operation that she has undertaken and the robust, callous figure she undertakes as an aristocratic woman.

Question 15

What does Louisa ask grad grind in her hysteria?

Answer 15

“Where are the sentiments of my heart?”

Question 16

Louisa’s capacity to love and to differentiate between emotions is deliberately deformed to the point where she impores her father to save her from what?

Answer 16

the dysfunction of her repressed emotions which prevented her from becoming a full person

Question 17

What is significant about the chapter named “Down” in which Louisa confronts her father?

Answer 17

this “down” presents the symbolic fall of the House of Gradgrind and the prized educational system for which Louisa was the pride and joy

Question 18

The motif of religion is peppered throughout the novel as an underlying protest to the force of the state, represented by Bounderby. What does Louisa say about her education and its effect on her?

Answer 18

That it had “crushed my better angel into a demon”, her “better angel” is the fanciful, imaginative spirit that she has murdered on account of the “demon” hard facts, and the suppression of desire

Question 19

What is the effect of Sparsit’s reference to Louisa as “Miss. Grandgrind?

Answer 19

that the marriage between the raging tyrant and the young woman whom is just awakening to life is non existent

Question 20

Who is the youngest sibling under the wing of Sissy?

Answer 20

jane

Question 21

Not only is the staircase a staircase erected in Mrs.Sparsit’s mind as symbolic of Lousia’s eventual shame, but it is also the staircase of destruction for whom else?

Answer 21

herself, Harthouse , Bounderby

Question 22

Gradgrind has an unemotional acceptence of his wife’s death, burries her in a business-like manner and returns to his “dust-throwing” in Parliament. Explore this quotation.

Answer 22

Dust-Throwing could possible be Dicken’s political commentary of the futility of 19th century Parliament in creating significant change. The idea of “dust-throwing” in being compared to the supposed integral function of Parliament indicates that there is no substanstive change; Dickens in doing this suggests that Members of Parliament follow the same ideology and thus maintain the status quo. He describes them as the “lame honourable gentlemen, dead honourable gentlemen,….” and so on to illustrate that they are all variations of the same mould. As this novel was published in 1854, it is worth noting that the working man did not achieve the vote until 1884, meaning that during Dickens’ lifetime, change was minimal and benefited those only who made it.

Question 23

Grad grind is shocked and consumed with sudden self-reproach, this allows what for the reader?

Answer 23

a sense of catharsis however in this Dickens suggests in social commentary the flaw of Facts and its eventual ruin in the face of Fancy to which had warped Louisa and suffocated her freedom

Question 24

Mrs.Sparsit’s imaginary staircase symbolises the standards of social conduct during the Victorian era. Had Louisa indeed eloped with Harthouse she would be morally damned by society, irregardless of her unhappy domestic situation with Bounderby. While pretending to be a model of virtue however, Mrs.Sparsit secretly takes pleasure in the downfall of louisa. Structurally, how does this section mark the moment in the novel which the villains stand most triumphantly over the good characters?

Answer 24

as Harthouse and MRs.Sparst have desroyed Louisa emotionally; Bounderby and Tom have ruined Stephan’s good name

Question 25

The third book allows the characters an opportunity to improve the miserable conditions ending in the second Book, largely with the aid of whom?

Answer 25

Sissy

Question 26

What are the names of the three books?

Answer 26

“Sowing” “Reaping” “Garnering”

Question 27

The three books are named ““Sowing” “Reaping” “Garnering”“which run alongside the industrial focus of the novel. The literal meaning of “Garnering” literally means picking up the pieces of the harvest that were missed, how is this appropriate?

Answer 27

as the characters in book 3 attempt to restore the equilibrium to their lives, facing the future with new emotional resources

Question 28

What is ironic about the fact that in Book One, “Sowing”, Gradgrind declares his intention to “plant” only facts in his children’s minds and to “root out everything else” such as feeling and fancies?

Answer 28

as in doing so he aims to rid of all fanciful imagination and places his children within the confinements of the industrialised society upon which only economics and politics is of important; however this contradicts with the semantic field of nature. He fails to recognise the natural force of imagination and pastoral fancy and thus Dickens implies that his philosophy is inevitable in failure as one cannot ignore their instincts

Question 29

Louisa at the end of Book 2 “Reaping” asks her father while pointing to her heart “What have you done with the garden” explore

Answer 29

this implies that by placing all efforts on planting facts in the children minds, he has neglected to plant any sentiments in their heart, leaving her emotionally barren