How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Book.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
'Confining yourself rigidly to Fact, the question of Fact you state to yourself is: Does Mr. Bounderby ask me to marry him? Yes, he does. The sole remaining question then is: Shall I marry him? I think nothing can be plainer than that?' (1.15.24)
Gradgrind reduces even the most complex and significant of life's decisions to simple yes-or-no questions. This is how economics works, Dickens implies, without ever considering consequences.
Quote #8
'My sister Loo?' said Tom. 'She never cared for old Bounderby […] Why, you won't tell me, Mr. Harthouse, that you really suppose my sister Loo does care for old Bounderby.' 'My dear fellow,' returned the other, 'what am I bound to suppose, when I find two married people living in harmony and happiness?' (2.3.19-24)
Tom thinks nothing of betraying the ostensibly private bond of married life. He has never seen marriage as a partnership or as a union, just as a business deal.
Quote #9
'you know she didn't marry old Bounderby for her own sake, or for his sake, but for my sake. Then why doesn't she get what I want, out of him, for my sake? She is not obliged to say what she is going to do with it; she is sharp enough; she could manage to coax it out of him, if she chose. Then why doesn't she choose, when I tell her of what consequence it is? But no. There she sits in his company like a stone, instead of making herself agreeable and getting it easily. I don't know what you may call this, but I call it unnatural conduct.' (2.7.82)
Possibly the most self-condemning thing Tom ever says, besides confessing to pulling the bank robbery. He here shows himself to be beyond selfish.