1. List all the words and phrases that descrive Mr Bounderby.

- Mr. Bunderby was as near being Mr. Grandgrind’s bosom friend

- a man perfectly devoid of sentiment can approach that spiritual relationship

- He was a rich man: banker, merchant, manufacturer

- A big loud man, with stare and a metallic laugh. A man made out of a coarse material, which seemed to have been stretched to make so much of him. A man with a great puffed head and forehead, swelled veins in his temples, and such a strained skin to his face that it seemed to hold his eyes open, and lift his eyebrows up. A man with a pervading appearance on him of being inflated like a balloon

- A man who could never sufficiently vaunt himself a self-made man

- A man who was always proclaiming, through that brassy speaking-trumpet of a voice of his, his old ignorance and his old poverty. A man who was the Bully of humility

- Mr. Bounderby looked older… he hadn’t much hair.

2. Ring the 4 phrases which explicity convey the narrators opinion of Mr. Bounderby character and find in a dictionary adjectives with the same meaning.

- A man who was the Bully of humility

- A man who could never sufficiently vaunt himself a self-made man

- A man made out of a coarse material, which seemed to have been stretched to make so much of him

- A man with a pervading appearance on him of being inflated like a balloon, and ready to start.

The adjectives are: selfish, presumptuous, ignorant, rough, boorish, pedantic, self-important/ conceited.

3. Now, go back to the list you made for exercise 1. Which of items on it are connected with one or more author’s comments?

- The phrases about the description of Mr. Bounderby there are a lot of comments of the writer but they are implicit and he uses the irony.

4. The surname of the character contains the word bounder on purpose. Look it up in the dictionary. Which of the phrases you have listed renforces the meaning of the surname?

- The phrases that renforces the surname is “ A man who was the Bully of humility”.

5. Mr. Bounderby is described as coming from a poor family, without education and self-made. In other contexts these attributes may be presented as worthy of sympathy and/or admiration. Why aren’t they here?

-  because he is grown in a poor family but when he can assert himself in the society and improve his social position, he has became a bounder person, opportunist, selfish.

6. Now, go on reading and see Mr. Bounderby says his consistent of the description of his characters.

- He describes himself as a self-made man and he point on his past story to show his greatness.

7. Which aspects of Mr. Bounderby character is/are emphasizes in what he says?

- The aspects emphasizes are the extremely poverty in which the character lived in the past and his greatness to become a respectable man in the society.

8. Does what he referred confirm or modify hi portrait?

- The affirmation gives the point of view of the character that is different from the writer’s one.

9. Consider how Mr. Bounderby speaks:

a. underline any repetition on pronoums, words or sentence, sentence patter in the extract

b. how would you defined this way of talking? How does his way talking fit in this way character is described by the narrator?

- The repetition are: I was born, ditch, foot, my, I was, I suppose,

- the narrator uses the exaggeration  to underline the egocentric character. Mr. Bounderby considers himself perfect, a man with health values but in reality he is a petty person.