Analysis of an extract taken from Charles Dickens’ Hard Times

1. List all the  words and phrases describing Mr. Bounderby

Mr. Bounderby was as near being Mr. Gradgrind's bosom friend

a man perfectly devoid of sentiment

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.

A year or two younger than his eminently practical friend, Mr. Bounderby looked older; his seven or eight and forty might have had the seven or eight added to it again, without surprising anybody. He had not much hair. One might have fancied he had talked it off; and that what was left, all standing up in disorder, was in that condition from being constantly blown about by his windy boastfulness. 

2. Collect the 4 phrases which explicitly convey  the narrator’s opinion of Mr. Bounderby’s character and find in a dictionary adjectives of the same meaning.

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

inflated = exaggerated, bloated, pretentious, pompous, high-flown

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

self-made man = self-reliant, audacious, able, confident, bold, resourceful, shrewd

A man who was the Bully of humility.

bully = tormentor, ruffian, tough, tyrant, hectorer, heckler, harasser

And that what was left, all standing up in disorder, was in that condition from being constantly blown about by his windy boastfulness. 

boastful = bragger, pretentious, egotistic, proud, arrogant

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

The characterization of Mr. Bounderby is strictly connected to the writer’s explicit comment on the character, since the description is filtered through a third person intrusive narrator, who is mouthpiece for the writer himself.

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 reinforces the meaning of the surname?

(bounder = canaglia furfante farabutto mascalzone)

Bounder is a pejorative adjective that characterizes an extreme ungentlemanly man. The phrase that more reinforces the meaning of the surname is “he 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 might be presented as worthy of sympathy and/or admiration. Why aren’t they here?

Though the poor origin of the character, lacking of education and self-made, might be presented as worthy of admiration, here they become negative attributes, because of the arrogant and pretentious way they are exhibited by Mr. Bonderby.

6. Now go on reading and see if what Bounderby says is consistent with the description of his character.

Reading Mr. Bounderby’s speech, the reader can notice that his words perfectly fit for the previous description of the character, his words translates and unveils Mr. Bounderby’s personality confirming the narrator’s comment.

7. Which aspect/s of Bounderby’s character is/are emphasised in what he says?

In Mr. Bounderby’s words, the stress is put on the self-reliant ascent of the character, on his determination and firmness, that makes him a perfect example of self-made man.

9. Consider the way Bounderby speaks.

a)  Underline any repetition of pronouns, words or sentence  pattern in the extract you have read .

b) How would you define his way of talking

c) How does his way of talking fit in with his character as described by the narrator?  

'I hadn't a shoe to my foot. As to a stocking, I didn't know such a thing by name. I passed the day in a ditch, and the night in a pigsty. That's the way I spent my tenth birthday. Not that a ditch was new to me, for I was born in a ditch.'  Mrs. Gradgrind, a little, thin, white, pink-eyed bundle of shawls, of surpassing feebleness, mental and bodily; who was always taking physic without any effect, and who, whenever she showed a symptom of coming to life, was invariably stunned by some weighty piece of fact tumbling on her; Mrs. Gradgrind hoped it was a dry ditch?  'No! As wet as a sop. A foot of water in it,' said Mr. Bounderby.  'Enough to give a baby cold,' Mrs. Gradgrind considered.  'Cold? I was born with inflammation of the lungs, and of everything else, I believe, that was capable of inflammation,' returned Mr. Bounderby. 'For years, ma'am, I was one of the most miserable little wretches ever seen. I was so sickly, that I was always moaning and groaning. I was so ragged and dirty, that you wouldn't have touched me with a pair of tongs.'  Mrs. Gradgrind faintly looked at the tongs, as the most appropriate thing her imbecility could think of doing.  'How I fought through it, I don't know,' said Bounderby. 'I was determined, I suppose. I have been a determined character in later life, and I suppose I was then. Here I am, Mrs. Gradgrind, anyhow, and nobody to thank for my being here, but myself.'

Mr. Bounderby’s way of talking is extremely focused on himself, as the repetition of the pronoun ‘I’ reveals. He is self-assured and confident in exhibiting his life: his words perfectly fit in with the character’s description made by the narrator.