The extract I’m going to analyse is from the forth chapter of Charles Dickens’ novel Hard Times.

Right from the title (“Mr. Bounderby”) the narrator wants the reader to focus his/her own attention on the character surname thanks to the alliteration of sound “b” which sticks the surname in the reader’s mind. The narrator creates an association between the character and the meaning of the word “bounder”, which is someone who behaves immorally especially in relationships with women. So the reader has a very negative expectation toward the character in question and also wonders how the character acts to be gave such a name and why he behaves like that.

The extract begins with a question which contains a litote, a rhetorical device which allows the narrator to focus the reader’s attention on the subject not giving a clear definition and intriguing the reader.

The first paragraph is a rhetorical question which creates doubts in the reader’s mind since the character is contemporary introduced as a close friend to Mr. Gradgrind (“bosom friend”, synecdoche for close friend since “bosom” is the human front part of the chest) and as a “man perfectly devoid of sentiment”, so the question is: can a selfish man actually build a true friendship?

After having introduced the character through his name and friendship the narrator shifts to his social background: he is wealthy and moves between the sector of banks, trade, manufacture and more. Then the characterisation goes on with Mr. Bounderby’s physic appearance. Through the use of exaggeration and the rhetorical device of hyperbole in the description the narrator creates in the reader’s mind the idea of a grotesque figure, a rough man which results ridiculous. After hinted at his corpulent physique the narrator focuses on Mr. Bounderby face and every detail contributes to make the character a pathetic caricature. Then with a simile (“inflated balloon”) the narrator conveys Mr. Bounderby’s vanity. This paragraph is also filled with the same anaphor which regards a repeated syntactical structure: phrases always begin with “A man ...”, so the description results monotonous and the character boring.

With such a negative description the narrator wants first of all to entertain the reader, but, between lines, he also wants to criticise what Mr. Bounderby represents: the industrial system and the utilitarian philosophy.