The present extract is taken from the fourth chapter of Hard Times by Charles Dickens. It can be divided into three parts:

• The first part consists of a detailed description of Mr. Bounderby social status;
• The second one is mainly a physical and psychological characterisation;
• And the third is a dialogue between Mrs. Gradgrind and Mr. Bounderby.

The first part, which provides a social description of Mr. Bounderby, underlines that he represents Victorian Middle Class’s main values and features (a man perfectly devoid of sentiment can approach that spiritual relationship towards another man perfectly devoid of sentiment).

Right from the second part, the intelligent reader understands that the narrator passes from a social characterization to a physical and psychological one.

Moreover, the intelligent reader should also notice the use of the grotesque in the juxtaposition of the expressions “coarse” and "stretched", that refer to different ambits: the first to an abstract concept and the second to a matter of fact.

In addition to that, the expressions "bully of Humility", “A man who was always proclaiming […] his old poverty” and "could never sufficiently vaunt himself a self-made man" recalls the middle class role in the Victorian context: it was considere fundamental as the backbone for the human body ("backbone of the country”).

The third part, or dialogic paragraph, is the most crucial moment of the extract: Mr. Bounderby tells Mrs Gradgrind  about his difficult childhood. It’s very interesting to notice how Dickens emphasises Mr. Bounderby's narration of his previous condition.