Dickin Hard Times

776 Words2 Pages

Dickin Hard Times

Louisa was influenced by her father’s educational system, causing her to base all experiences on facts, without any imagination involved in determinism. She was forced by her fathers philosophy to learn that“ you musn’t fancy” (14) causing her to base all experiences exclusively on fact. This type of guidance restricted all emotions within her life. As a result of her fathers teachings throughout the novel Louisa slowly comes to a realization that she was dependent on others ideas, and doesn’t have any emotional experiences to guide her own positions. This is directly evident at two points in the text; First when she had been presented with a proposal for marriage, and on her voyage to visit her ill mother. By Louisa being able to distinguish the need for emotional experiences, Louisa is able to help her father see the negative impact of his philosophy of facts.

It becomes evident that Louisa had suffered from her fathers education system when Mr.Gradgrind had presented Louisa with Mr.Bounderby’s proposal of marriage. At this point her father is proud of her unimaginative attitude, “you are not impulsive, you are not ironic, you are accustomed to view everything from strong dispassionate ground of reason and calculation” (99). Upon Louisa’s response to the proposal, she goes through a series of questioning her father for the ‘right answer’, “does Mr Bounderby ask me to love him?”(101) “What would you advise me to use in its stead, father?”(100). The ...

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