Sissy Jupe: More Than Just a Number

Sissy Jupe: More Than Just A Number

In Charles DickensТ novel Hard Times, he uses the characters to present the reader with many messages. One of these messages presented is that the Gradgrind system of education is faulty. Dickens is critical of an education system that only regards things that can be weighed or measured as being worthy. Thus, intangibles like imagination, emotion, and compassion are not considered worthy. The Gradgrind system of education can be seen as flawed through the examples of Sissy Jupe. The lack of individuality and creativity can be proven to be detrimental to those who ascribe to the Gradgrind system, which denies anything that isnТt factual. SissyТs caring; thoughts of fancy, and individualism have kept her from long-term sorrow, pity and loneliness. The Gradgrind system is also proven as flawed through Sissy in that her caring and ingenuity helps the other characters potentially realize how they have let the system flaw them. Also, SissyТs ability to ward of the systemТs teachings will prove useful and helping others escape the system, be it short term.

In the schoolroom scene, Sissy starts to show how the Gradgrind system only relies on fact. As Dickens describes the schoolroom, we see the following contrast: УBut, whereas the girl was so dark-eyed and dark-haired, that she seemed to received a deeper and more lustrous color from the sun when it shone upon her, the boy was so light-eyed and light-haired that the self-same rays appeared to draw out of him what little color he ever possessedФ (Dickens 7). Sissy is full of color and vitality because she lives a life that is full of imagination and compassion. This is in opposition to the other children who have been УbleachedФ of all imaginative thoughts and life because of the Gradgrind educational system. The factual basis of Gradgrind is further emphasized when is Sissy is addressed only as У СGirl number twentyТФ (6) by Gradgrind. A name shows individuality and is an expression of creativity. However, this is ultimately shunned in GradgrindТs system. In addition, a name leaves room for interpretation and can be shortened and changed. F.R. Leavis explains how being addressed as a number gives preciseness and fact to a person:

УSissyТs incapacity to acquire this kind of СfactТ of formula, her unaptness for education, is manifested to us, on the other hand, as part and parcel of her sovereign and indefeasible humanity: it is the virtue that makes it impossible for her to understand, or acquiesce in, an ethos for which she is Сgirl number twentyТ, or to think of any other human being as a unit for arithmetic.Ф (Leavis 367)

Arithmetic is an exact science and one by which Gradgrind abides by and uses as identification.

Another scene in which SissyТs compassion, positive outlook, and individuality go against GradgrindТs system is when her father abandons her. Despite the obvious cruelty in how her father left, she never gives into the thought that her father is leaving for his own reasons but rather to make life better for her. This is seen when she states:

СO my dear father, my good kind father, where are you gone? You are gone to try to do me some good, I know! You are gone away for my sake, I am sure. And how miserable and helpless you will be without me, poor, poor father, until you come back!Т (Dickens 32)

Gradgrind canТt believe that Sissy thinks he is doing this for her, and why should he? According to the Gradgrind system, Sissy isnТt basing her conclusion of why her father left on fact; it is being based on wishful thinking and УfancyФ as well as compassion. It is only natural of Sissy to believe that her father is doing what is best for her. This is reinforced when Bernard Shaw states, УBut Cissy is nothing if not naturalФ (Shaw 361). Of course, GradgrindТs system is anything but natural and doesnТt make sense to Sissy because it goes against the УnaturalФ grain of her upbringing of individuality and fancy. In fact, it is unnatural for Sissy to be subjected to a monocular way of thinking and viewing of the world as the Gradgrind system would dictate. Another action that goes against the Gradgrind system is that Sissy demands to hold on to the nine oils. This is seen when she exclaims:

СNo, no! Е Oh no! Pray let me keep it for father till he comes back! He will want it when he comes back. He had never though of going away, when he sent me for it. I must keep it for him, if you please!Т (Dickens 35)

This is just another example of SissyТs compassion since she is only concerned for her fatherТs well being and not the reality that her father has left her. However, to Gradgrind, it is a fact that SissyТs father is not coming back and he doesnТt understand why she wonТt see that as a fact. However, the Gradgrind system has no hold on SissyТs mind;