“It was very remarkable that a young gentlemen who had been
brought up under one continuous system of unnatural restraint, should be a
hypocritical; but it was certainly the case with Tom. It was very strange that
a young gentlemen who had never been left to his own guidance for five
consecutive minutes, should be incapable at last of governing himself; but so
it was with Tom. It was altogether unaccountable that a young gentleman whose
imagination had been strangled in his cradle should be still inconvenienced by
its ghost in the form of groveling sensualities; but such a monster, beyond all
doubt, was Tom (pg 131-132).”
In the above passage, Dickens makes use of situational irony by contrasting Tom’s current state with what one might have been expected of him, given his rigorous upbringing. This is seen when the narrator points how remarkable, strange, and unaccountable it is that Tom was brought up in a “continuous system of unnatural restraint” but yet is unable to responsibly restrain himself. Furthermore the narrator uses a repetitious structure to emphasize his point as all the sentences begin with how “strange” or ironic the situation is, and finish with some variation of “but so it was with Tom”. The purpose for this situational irony is that it allows Dickens to directly critique the effectiveness of Mr. Gradgrinds “unnatural” methods, and the mindset of Coketown as a whole. While one would not expect Thomas to be so irresponsible due to his upbringing, the fact that he turned out to be so reflects on the methods of Fact, and it is within this reflection that Dickens satirizes the industrial mindset: illuminating the negative effects it can have on an individual.
In the above passage, Dickens makes use of situational irony by contrasting Tom’s current state with what one might have been expected of him, given his rigorous upbringing. This is seen when the narrator points how remarkable, strange, and unaccountable it is that Tom was brought up in a “continuous system of unnatural restraint” but yet is unable to responsibly restrain himself. Furthermore the narrator uses a repetitious structure to emphasize his point as all the sentences begin with how “strange” or ironic the situation is, and finish with some variation of “but so it was with Tom”. The purpose for this situational irony is that it allows Dickens to directly critique the effectiveness of Mr. Gradgrinds “unnatural” methods, and the mindset of Coketown as a whole. While one would not expect Thomas to be so irresponsible due to his upbringing, the fact that he turned out to be so reflects on the methods of Fact, and it is within this reflection that Dickens satirizes the industrial mindset: illuminating the negative effects it can have on an individual.
I completely agree, I believe that this relates to which character's are most prepared for life. While it seems as though Tom should be prepared to succeed because of his education, his lack of any ability to have emotion hinders his development, and therefore he is unable to mature. This is why he ends up being the irresponsible young man that he is.
ReplyDelete-Jackson Jelinek
I agree with both of you. This irresponsibility can be directly seen when Tom has to resort to robbery to get himself out of debt. Tom heavily relies on Louisa for a good portion of the book to bail him out of his financial difficulties, but when she will no longer help him, he doesn't know what to do except steal from Bounderby's bank. The fact that Tom can't support himself shows how his education hindered his development.
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