At the end of this excellent novel, we are shown the
futures that the omniscient and god-like narrator assigns to each of the central
characters. There does seem to be a certain extent to which good characters are given
good endings and "bad" characters are given what they deserve. For example, Bounderby is
exposed as a big fraud and an imminent death, Mrs. Sparsit it sent away to an uncertain
and rather grim future with Lady Scadgers. Tom does escape being arrested but realises
the errors of his ways to late and dies pining for his sister. Sissy, as befitting her
morally good character, lives happily. The one exception is the fate of Stephen
Blackpool. Although it appears he welcomes death as an ending to what has been for him a
rather miserable life, he dies leaving Rachel to face the struggles of life alone
without him.
However, there are some characters who are not
classified into the narrow categories of "good" and "bad," and these characters offer
somewhat more interesting endings to be considered. Mr. Gradgrind for example is
ironically forced to rely on the circus, which he at the beginning of the novel deplored
as the place of fantasy and everything that opposed his fact-based philosophy, to save
his son. He is left at the end of the novel trying to help the poor but receiving scorn
from the very politicians he helped establish.
Louisa as
well is a very interesting example of a character whose fate we might wish to debate. We
are told that she has a very close relationship with Sissy's children and yet no family
of her own. On the one hand, she has her liberty and is not trapped by either Harthouse
or Bounderby, yet on the other hand her lonely existence could be regarded as slightly
unjust, and we are left questioning to what extent she was responsible for her own fate
and how much is her father to blame.
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