MR BOUNDERBY: answer to the questions

1. List all the words and phrases describing Mr. Bounderby
“A big, loud man, with a stare, and a metallic laugh”
“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 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.” 
“looked older”
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. 
-“ constantly blown about by his windy boastfulness” 
  Boastfulness  arrogance
- “as a man perfectly devoid of sentiment can approach that spiritual relationship towards another man perfectly devoid of sentiment”
 Devoid of sentiment  cold
- “A man who could never sufficiently vaunt himself a self-made man”
  To vaunt  to boast
- “A man who was the Bully of humility”
  Bully of humility  vain
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 appearence of mr Boundary is linked to the narrator’s judgment, for example the loud and annoying voice remembers his vanity, whereas his arrogance is underlined by his physic, which is fat as a balloon. 
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? 
The phrases which better describe mr Boundary as a bounder are the first two I quoted in exercise 3. Indeed coldness and arrogance, which mark the man made him a strongly negative character. He actually appears as a bounderto the reader, so that he gives a different interpretation than the carachter to the final sentence: “Here I am, Mrs. Gradgrind, anyhow, and nobody to thank for my being here, but myself”.
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? 
The reader can’t feel sympathy to mr Boundary because he, despite his past and ability to improve his social condition, is ignorant and annoying. He exaggerates his sufferences in order to praise his intelligence, but the vanity makes him an ignorant and arrogant person and the reader immediatly understands it.
6. Which aspect/s of Bounderby’s character is/are emphasised in what he says?
Mr Boundary words are coherent to the description given by the writer. In paricular through his words is clear his vanity when he exaggerates the sufferences of his childhood:”I hadn't a shoe to my foot. As to a stocking, I didn't know such a thing by name”
8. Does what he says confirm or modify his portrait in the previous text? 
Yes, it does. Indeed what Mr Bournaby’s says has the purpose to highlight his intelligence and his new satus of self-made man. His words are the ones of a vain and ignorant man, just like the narrator told the reader before.
9. Consider the way Bounderby speaks. 
b) How would you define his way of talking: 
It’s evident the repetition of the pronoun “I”, whereas the senteces are short and simple. Thus Mr Bournaby’s way of talking is extremly simple, indeed his sentences are really like a child ones.
c) How does his way of talking fit in with his character as described by the narrator?
Mr Bournaby’s way of talking underlines his personality: the repetition of the pronoun “I” shows his vanity, wheras the simple syntax his ignorance.