3Chapter 1-3

Question 1

What is the name of the 3rd book?

Answer 1

Garnering

Question 2

What does Louisa say to Jane which reflects the positive effect Sissy’s Fancy has had on her childhood?

Answer 2

‘What a beaming face you have, Jane!’

Question 3

What is garnering?

Answer 3

to gather or collect

Question 4

Gradgrind remarks that “The ground on which I stand has ceased to be solid under my feet.” what can be interpreted from this?

Answer 4

not only does it literally represent the floor upon which Louisa had collapsed, but the shakiness also echoes Gradgrind’s trembling voice and his overall re-characterisation as a humbled man

Question 5

What does Gradgrind say to louisa about the ground?

Answer 5

The ground on which I stand has ceased to be solid under my feet.

Question 6

After an extended absence from the story, Sissy reappears as the archetypal heroine, how is there an intense contrast and reversal of fate for Sissy?

Answer 6

as she was once the “deserted girl” but now one whom towers over Louisa and cares for the young woman who is described as a metaphorical shipwreck and who Sissy shines for as a “beautiful light upon the darkness of the other”

Question 7

“the once _______ ____ shone like a beautiful light _____ ____ _________of the other.

Answer 7

beautful girl

upon the darkness

Question 8

Why does Gradgrind claim that he cannot help her?

Answer 8

as he has never learned “the wisdom of the Heart”

Question 9

the first three chapters “Another thing needful” “very ridiculous” and ‘very decided” are primarily concerned with Louisa’s fight for self understanding. Here thomas gargling reverses the thing needed and bears Dickens’ belief that what?

Answer 9

that people’s emotions cannot be measured in statistics

Question 10

In the first chapter of the novel the thing needed was a factual education;a concern of the ____; however in the first chapter of the final book, the thing needed is understanding and compassion; a concern of the ____.

Answer 10

head

heart

Question 11

Dickens’ takes great effort to continue the portrayal of the poor and the reversals of fortune that he began earlier in the novel; how does he do this early in the 3rd book?

Answer 11

by pitting Sissy against Harthouse, of which she is victorious

Question 12

How was Harthouse reduced by Sisys in chapter 2?

Answer 12

reduced by the paradox of “James Harthouse a Great Pyramid of failure”

Question 13

What can be said about “James Harthouse a Great Pyramid of failure”?

Answer 13

His self-image and characterisation as a Pyramid somehow leads to the idea of escaping altogether; in contrast to men like Blackpool, Arthouse has plenty of loopholes and opportunities for escape

Question 14

the imagery that surrounds Arthouse is largely negative. How is his hotel described?

Answer 14

as a symbolic hell, a “region of blackness”

Question 15

Arthouses’ idleness and inconsistency is desired as a moral weakness that is worse than the deliberate evils. The sharpest metaphor for Harhouses’ moral condition can be found in Dickens’ explanation of the man’s rhetoric, what quote?

Answer 15

“polishing of but an ugly surface”

Question 16

The sharpest metaphor for Harhouses’ moral condition can be found in Dickens’ explanation of the man’s rhetoric, “polishing of but an ugly surface” explain this?

Answer 16

Harthouse seeks to polish his appearance and justify his actions, but he is both guilty and superficial

Question 17

what does the title of chapter 1 echo “another thing needful”?

Answer 17

the title of the first chapter, One Thing Needful

Question 18

What is significant of the fact that the first chapter is named “One thing needful” and the first chapter of the final book is named “another thing needful”?

Answer 18

as this demonstrates that Gradgrind has realised that fact alone cannot sustain a happy and fulfilling existence

Question 19

As Louisa and her father are so accustomed to living their lives according to the philosophy of fact, learning how to change their mode is difficult, causing Gradgrind to announce what in chapter 1?

Answer 19

that “The ground on which I stand has ceased to be solid under my feet”- although he no longer believes fact alone is necessary, he does not know what it needed to make Louisa happy

Question 20

Through the meeting between Sissy and Harthouse we are reminded of the values that Sissy represents, compassion, forgiveness, joy, and the narrator establishes a contrast between these values and the sophisticated Harthouse’s self-centred manipulation of other people. Indeed, the narrator relates that Sissy’s good-natured repreoach touches Harthouse where?

Answer 20

“in the cavity where his heart should have been”, in suggesting that he has no heart, the narrator suggests that he has not been motivated by evil intentions but rather by a lack of good intentions- he is amoral rather than immoral.

Question 21

What can be said about how the narrator relates that Sissy’s good-natured repreoach touches Harthouse “in the cavity where his heart should have been”, ?

Answer 21

n suggesting that he has no heart, the narrator suggests that he has not been motivated by evil intentions but rather by a lack of good intentions- he is amoral rather than immoral. Harthouse himself acjonwledges that he had “no evil intentions” towards Louisa but merely “glided from one step to another” without realising the emotional havoc that his seduction might cause. Like Bounderby, Tom and Mrs.Sparsit, Harthouse is motivated only by his own interest and does not consider who his actions might impact other people.

Question 22

What does Dickens illustrate through the characters of Bounderby, Tom, Mrs.Sparsit and Hearthouse?

Answer 22

the moral dangers of a society that values fact more than feeling.

Question 23

Ultimately, Harthouse, the worldly cynic, is completely overpowered by Sissy Jupe, the loving innocent; sent from where?

Answer 23

Coketown

Question 24

How does Gradgrind respond to Boundary’s reaction in chapter 3 that if Louisa was not returned by noon the next day the marriage would be annulled?

Answer 24

he insists that marital union is not so casual a thing to be rejected and Bounderby is irritated by the repetition of words with which he once abused Blackpool

Question 25

the narrative structure of this chapter (3) works towards the plot coming full circle. Bounderby is frustrated by Grandgrinds words with which he once spoke to Blackpool. the heavily foreshadowed collapse of the Bounderby marriage has finally come about. With the dissolution of the marriages comes the imagery of loss and ruin especially through which character and how?

Answer 25

Mrs.Sparsit who is at the root of this unravelling and is characterised as a “classical ruin”

Question 26

Sparsit’s rise and fall come as a result of her own undoing. How is the use of the word “refuge” used as a sarcastic pun?

Answer 26

as this refers to Boundary’s speedy dismissal of Sparsit by coach

Question 27

how does Sparsit reveal the affair to Bounderby?

Answer 27

theatrically she falls to the feet of the great “self-made man” drenched and barely unable to talk after travelling as far to London to find him

Question 28

To his expected pattern what does he comment about Louisa?

Answer 28

that she wants “turtle soup and venison with a gold spoon”