MCorte - 5c. The Victorian Novel and Utilitarianism - Activities on Mr.Bounderby

1) He was a rich man: banker, merchant, manufacturer, and what not. A big, loud man, with a 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, and ready to start. 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.

2) Mr. Bounderby was as near being Mr. Gradgrind's bosom friend, as a man perfectly devoid of sentiment can approach that spiritual relationship towards another man perfectly devoid of sentiment
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
A man who was the Bully of humility

3) Mr. Bounderby was as near being Mr. Gradgrind's bosom friend, as a man perfectly devoid of sentiment can approach that spiritual relationship towards another man perfectly devoid of sentiment. So near was Mr. Bounderby - or, if the reader should prefer it, so far off.

4) Bounder = someone who is morally reprehensible
Dickens describes Mr.Bounderby as a cynical and hateful man; that is because he is interested only in economical interests and he is unable to feel any human emotion. It is a clear condemn to capitalist method cancelling humanity of people and makes them unmoral.

5)In this context, Mr.Bounderby uses his origins only to vaunt and to express his richness. In Oliver Twist, the main character is poor and makes feel compassion due to his sufferences. But in this case, Mr.Bounderby does not show any sufferance and he also uses his poverty to emphasize his economical abilities. He is rich and corrupted and he cannot make feel compassion

6) Mr.Bounderby refers continually to his past and his difficult conditions. These are to emphasize his determination and his ability to get rich. So his expressions confirm his way of life, only interested in richness and objective interests.

7) He emphasizes his determination , his desire of richness but also his loneliness(nobody to thank for my being here, but myself), an aspect not considered by Bounderby, interested only in money.

8) These features confirm description of Mr.Bounderby as man interested only in developing and unable to understand how he is lonely and without really friends or feelings.

9) a)Pronouns: I Words: a man who was/could
b) His way of talking is referred only to himself and his economical and pratical experiences; he never refers to his feelings or emotions but only to talk about his difficulties in poverty
c)His way of talking confirms again his egoistical personality