In Hard Times, Charles Dickens attacks the materialism of the Victorian period. At the beginning of the book, Thomas Gradgrind is explaining the system of his private school to the schoolmaster, Mr. M’Choakumchild; all that is required is facts. Later, Gradgrind explains that emotion, feelings, and fancy are weaknesses that must be eradicated if the human being is to be adapted to their environment. The results of this system of schooling are shown in the development of four pupils: Gradgrind’s son, Tom, a self-centered whelp who uses everyone around him for his own purposes and eventually turns out to be a thief; his daughter, Louisa, whose emotions have been so smothered that she allows herself to be forced into a loveless marriage that produces nothing but unhappiness; Bitzer, a creature who rises in the world by sneaking and spying to serve his own interests; and Sissy Jupe, upon whom the system has had no effect. She alone develops into a warm and delightful person. Through the character of Josiah Bounderby, Dickens shows the evils of the laissez faire system of enterprise, which grinds down powerless workers for the enrichment of the magnates. There is a close connection between the Gradgrind system of education and the prevailing economic theory, as both are practical and stripped of sentimentality.