Characterisation (1): From Grotesques to Intimates

This chapter begins by examining how people are introduced into Dickens’s world. We know, from having read the novels, that a number of the characters are caricatured: often, one feature of their personality is so exaggerated as to become ridiculous. Typically, Dickens will have fun at their expense, but in terms of characterisation these are the simplest and shallowest figures in the novels. They are so one-dimensional that we can call them grotesques. We begin by looking at the reader’s first meeting with two of these figures in Hard Times. Here is the passage introducing Mrs. Sparsit, Bounderby’s housekeeper: