How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Book.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
It was very remarkable that a young gentleman who had been brought up under one continuous system of unnatural restraint, should be a hypocrite; but it was certainly the case with Tom. It was very strange that a young gentleman 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. (2.3.1)
We hope you are hearing the sarcasm dripping from the text here. The narrator means the complete opposite of what he is saying. Naturally, Tom turns out like he does precisely because of the way he has been repressed all his life.
Quote #5
With the aid of a little more coaching for the political sages, a little more genteel listlessness for the general society, and a tolerable management of the assumed honesty in dishonesty, most effective and most patronized of the polite deadly sins, he speedily came to be considered of much promise. The not being troubled with earnestness was a grand point in his favour, enabling him to take to the hard Fact fellows with as good a grace as if he had been born one of the tribe, and to throw all other tribes overboard, as conscious hypocrites. 'Whom none of us believe, my dear Mrs. Bounderby, and who do not believe themselves. The only difference between us and the professors of virtue or benevolence, or philanthropy — never mind the name — is, that we know it is all meaningless, and say so; while they know it equally and will never say so.' Why should she be shocked or warned by this reiteration? It was not so unlike her father's principles, and her early training, that it need startle her. Where was the great difference between the two schools, when each chained her down to material realities, and inspired her with no faith in anything else? What was there in her soul for James Harthouse to destroy, which Thomas Gradgrind had nurtured there in its state of innocence! (2.7.1-3)
Harthouse's heartlessness is so similar to Louisa's father's heartlessness, that she very easily takes him up as her teacher. His lesson plan is basically that nothing moral or emotional matters, which is a soothing thing to hear if you're trapped in a loveless, miserable marriage.
Quote #6
I cannot possibly be hard upon your brother. I understand and share the wise consideration with which you regard his errors. With all possible respect both for Mr. Gradgrind and for Mr. Bounderby, I think I perceive that [Tom] has not been fortunate in his training. Bred at a disadvantage towards the society in which he has his part to play, he rushes into these extremes for himself, from opposite extremes that have long been forced — with the very best intentions we have no doubt — upon him. (2.7.49)
What does it mean that Harthouse is so intuitive and correct here? Especially since he's generally a negative character, whose philosophy of life may just be even more poisonous than the Gradgrind's.