MURDERING THE INNOCENTS - Charles Dickens (exercises)

1.      What kind of person is Thomas Gradgrind?

Mr. Thomas Gradgrind is an assuming teacher. He has a materialistic attitude to life according to which even people happen to be numbers. He uses imperative verbs to communicate with his students.

2.      What kind of teaching do you expect he has adopted in his school?

I assume he is an assuming way of teaching. He probably doesn’t accept any other point of view but his own.

3.      The title Dickens gave to this chapter is “Murdering the Innocents”; who do you think the innocents are and how might they be murdered?

I believe that the innocents are Mr. Thomas Gradgrind’s students. They might be murdered because they haven’t got an identity: they are like numbers for the teacher. They are not accepted by the society as well because according to the Victorian belief children are pathetic figures.

4.      What kind of definition of a horse do you think will suit Mr. Thomas Gradgrind?

Mr. Thomas Gradgrind will be pleased by a materialistic view of a horse. He will not accept any subjective point of view, nor a metaphysical point of view.

INTERPRETATION

1.      What kind of narrator is used in Hard Times?

In the novel Hard Times Charles Dickens uses a third person intrusive narrator.

2.      What is the tone of the extract?

The tone of the extract is ironic. According to this rhetorical figure, the things said are not necessarily the truths but the opposite.

3.      Is it the same as in the other extracts?

I think it is the same tone of the other extracts. In this case Charles Dickens describes the teacher using the narrative technique of the grotesque.