Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Twisted Relationships

We have obviously talked about disgusting relationships, often sexual, in most all of the literature we have read. For example, incest has come up in several different readings. Does anyone else suspect a bizarre relationship between Bounderby and Louisa?

1 comment:

Samantha said...

Yes, Steven, I think "twisted" is a great word to explain the relationship between Bounderby and Louisa. Dickens explains that Bounderby is a friend of Gradgrind and that they are roughly the same age. Bounderby holds an inappropriate attraction toward Louisa, who happens to be the daughter of his friend. It is evident that Bounderby crosses the line as he asks Louisa for a kiss because this gesture makes the girl extremely uncomfortable. Consequently, she violently scrubs her face with a handkerchief in order to remove all traces of the kiss and her feelings of discomfort.