“So colourless” the character of Louisa Gradgrind in the book “hard times” is of a cold

woman, who is educated with strict principals of factual belief and this turns her into a
woman who cannot express her feelings and puts her into a state of depression. With the use
of characterization and emotive diction her character is made a poignant one.

Louisa’s first appears in book 1 when she is caught by her father, Mr. Thomas Gradgrind
during the process of sneaking into the carnival with her brother Tom, and when Mr.
Gradgrind takes a look at his children in a very vengeful manner and was “disgraced” to see
his children going totally in contradiction of his life principles of factual education. He
believes committing the act of going to the carnival of gazing the “emotional” and “fancy”
side of life was an act of “buffoonery”. This act of rebelliousness in young Louisa portrays
how desperate she is to experience the emotional and the “fancy” side of the world. This act
of going against her father’s principles shows her keenness in the emotional side of life.
Furthermore, when Louisa gets scolded by her father she expresses her concerns and believes
that this “factual” and mechanical bringing has made her “tired” for a “very long time” this is
suggestive that the writer wants to show Louisa as a symbol of femininity in the books and
also shows that Louisa does not want to be trapped in the “barrel of facts” but wants to
experience emotions and wants to be a woman who is able to express herself. In addition to
this, Louisa believes that she is “tired of everything”, this is suggestive that the education or
the morale’s or the aura and environment she is being taught in doesn’t suit her and in a way
makes her mentally drained and makes her feel melancholic and trapped in a manner.
Louisa’s character can be compared to the women in the Jacobean era in a very different
manner. The women in the normal households were bound to households and did not have
freedom in a professional manner. Louisa is being educated but she does not have the
freedom to feel and express herself. With the use of characterisation, the character of Louisa
is made a poignant one.

Louisa believes that the “graces of her soul” have been taken away by her father’s way of
bringing her up. Throughout the stretch of the novel we see Louisa trying to express herself
and feel more alive. However, her fathers bringing up makes her a person fall prey for an ill
marriage as she is falsely tricked by her hedonist brother Tom to marry an influential and
wealthy coke town industrialist Bounderby. In addition to this, Louisa feels that she has
become so cold and distant from her own self that the truth and the happiness from her “soul”
has gone and now she lives with a rock heart and emotions, emotions which are inexpressible
and very pushed down her heart as being fancy and growing up with emotions and feelings is
what a “buffoon” would do. In the chapter 12 of book 2 “down” Louisa is finally seen to be
expressing her emotions, emotions which had been piled up for years. Finally, seeing Louisa
open up makes the readers feel emotional and her words and feelings portray and makes the
readers strongly reluctant against the theories of utilitarianism and the factual education
curriculum. This scene makes the readers emotional and sorrow after realising what Louisa
has been going through. Furthermore, Louisa blames her father and strongly holds him in
contempt for taking away the “sentiments of her heart”. This is suggestive of the negative and
horrendous effect her “factual” upbringing. The emotions and her feelings have been casted
away after being cheated and been lied upon. The sentiments could be representing love and
affection which was taken away by her father’s practicality. We see Louisa to be a very
gentle and a loving person but, the weights of industrialisation and practicality tear her heart
and empty it leaving no place for “sentiments” to exist. This melancholic conversation with
her father makes the readers realise that being educated in the mechanical manner will
eventually lead to the downfall of any human. We also see Louisa’s helping side when she
“saw that she was sobbing; and going to her, kissed her; took her hand, and sat down beside
her”. The she in this context is referred to sissy and this phrase makes the readers aware how
mentally and emotionally strong Louisa was, she could not solve her own misery but always
tried to solve other people’s problems and find a very helpful cure for them. the readers also
see another glimpse of her tenderness, when bounderby fires his employee Stephen
Blackpool in a very humiliating manner and she later visits him with a bag of money and
conveys that “she would like to be serviceable”, this again daubs a very helpful and caring
portrayal of Louisa in the reader’s mind. After being brought up in the city of “smoke”, she is
stuck in a loveless and emotionally-unstable marriage. Some hope in her life is ignited when
a gentleman named James Hart house enters her life and she encounters a romantic affair
with him. James harthouse after seeing how repressed and helpless Louisa is, His plans are
thwarted when Louisa goes to her father's house instead of rendezvousing with him to elope
and after this incident Louisa finally decides to confront her father about her bottled up
feelings and when she meets her “eminently practical” father she firmly states that she
“curses the hour” in which she was “born” this is suggestive that after being quiet and not
being to express her bottled up emotions she has a mental breakdown in front of her father
which makes the “man of facts” realise how big a blunder he did, by choosing the wrong
method of education and making his children “starve for imagination” this helps the reader in
the end feel sorry and in the end pleased. With the use of emotive diction the character of
Louisa is made a poignant one.

Louisa, a lady brought up in the city of “smoke” and educated with mechanical upbringing
makes her a prey of utilitarianism and eventually leads to her emotional downfall. With the
use of emotive diction and characterization the character of Louisa Gradgrind is made a
poignant one.