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Hard Times | Book I, Chapters 1-2: Summary and Analysis

Chapter 1: The One Thing Needful
Chapter 2: Murdering the Innocents

New Characters:
Thomas Gradgrind: the proprietor of a model school

Mr. M’Choakumchild: the school teacher

Unnamed “Government Officer”: present to inspect schools

Bitzer: a model pupil

Sissy Jupe: another pupil, who answers inappropriately

Summary
In a plain, bare classroom, students sit in rows, listening to a speaker, a square-faced man who lectures them on the all-importance of Fact. This is Mr. Thomas Gradgrind, a “man of...



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