How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Book.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
'And what,' asked Mr. Gradgrind, in a still lower voice, 'did you read to your father, Jupe?' 'About the Fairies, sir, and the Dwarf, and the Hunchback, and the Genies,' she sobbed out; 'and about — ' 'Hush!' said Mr. Gradgrind, 'that is enough. Never breathe a word of such destructive nonsense any more.' (1.7.48-50)
Dickens is very defensive of fiction – as well he should be, since it's what he produces for a living.
Quote #5
There was a library in Coketown, to which general access was easy. Mr. Gradgrind greatly tormented his mind about what the people read in this library: a point whereon little rivers of tabular statements periodically flowed into the howling ocean of tabular statements, which no diver ever got to any depth in and came up sane. It was a disheartening circumstance, but a melancholy fact, that even these readers persisted in wondering. They wondered about human nature, human passions, human hopes and fears, the struggles, triumphs and defeats, the cares and joys and sorrows, the lives and deaths of common men and women! They sometimes, after fifteen hours' work, sat down to read mere fables about men and women, more or less like themselves, and about children, more or less like their own. (1.8.5)
For the factory workers, reading about the lives of people similar to themselves is a way to develop and cultivate empathy – an important part of the imaginary process. It would be interesting if instead of simply counting the books they were reading, a distancing and detached action, Gradgrind actually cracked a few of them open.
Quote #6
'she's a regular girl. A girl can get on anywhere. She has settled down to the life, and she don't mind. It does just as well as another. Besides, though Loo is a girl, she's not a common sort of girl. She can shut herself up within herself, and think — as I have often known her sit and watch the fire — for an hour at a stretch.' (2.3.34)
Tom's inability to see the world through Louisa's eyes is an excellent example of his disconnection from his sister. For him, her life is to be envied. He doesn't understand that she is married to an ogre and is clearly going crazy as evidenced by all the fire-staring.