Role of Names in Hard Times by Charles Dickens

While reading this novel, the importance of names seemed to dominate all other symbolism. Interested by the names with obvious meanings, such as Gradgrind (which can either be seen as grinding students into graduates with facts and logic or the word grind can be associated with factories and machines) and McChoakumchild (which is a little too obvious), I decided to do a little research on some of the other names to see if I could find any other meanings. Louisa comes from Louis which comes from Ludwig. Ludwig means "fame from battle". Louisa therefore represents a warrior who is caught in the battle between facts and imagination, as she desires to visit the circus but is scolded by her father and brought back to Stone Lodge. Stone Lodge, the name of the home of the Gradgrinds is clearly supposed to evoke a feeling of coldness. The name of the city, Coketown, is also symbolic. Coke is a term for a mineral used in the process of iron making. Therefore, the town represents industrialization. The meaning of the name Bounderby is a little more confusing. This may be a stretch, but many of times I see his name, it is used in the phrase "Josiah Bounderby of Coketown", this exact phrase is used four times in one paragraph on pages 16 and 17. Ironically, the etymology of Josiah is "the fire of God". This confused me a bit. However, when I look at that phrase I see, "Josiah bounded by Coketown" or "The fire of God bounded by the power of industrialization". That's about as deep as I can get into Mr. Bounderby's name. Now my favorite discovery in my research of the etymology of names is Sissy's. Girl number 20 introduces herself as Sissy Jupe. Sissy is the pet name her father uses for her. Mr. Gradgrind quickly says, "Sissy is not a name. Don't call yourself Sissy. Call yourself Cecilia" (Dickens 3). It just so happens that Cecilia comes from the Latin term "caecus" meaning blind. So by calling her Cecilia, Mr. Gradgrind is blinding her to imagination.

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