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Why can't Stephen Blackpool break up with his wife?

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Why does Mr. Gradgrind get angry with Louisa and Tom when he sees them peeking at the circus?

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How does Cecilia Jupe's past affect her attitude towards the society and the family of Gradgrind?

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Why do you think that Mr. Bounderby always tells that his life was too hard when he was a little child?

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How the attitudes towards marriage/love of Stephen Blackpool and Mr. Gradgrind/Mr. Bounderby differ?

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What can you say about the roles of women in the novel?

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«It was a town of red brick, or of brick that would have been red if the smoke and ashes had allowed it; but as matters stood, it was a town of unnatural red and black like the painted face of a savage. It was a town of machinery and tall chimneys, out of which interminable serpents of smoke trailed themselves for ever and ever, and never got uncoiled. It had a black canal in it, and a river that ran purple with ill-smelling dye, and vast piles of building full of windows where there was a rattling and a trembling all day long, and where the piston of the steam-engine worked monotonously up and down, like the head of an elephant in a state of melancholy madness. It contained several large streets all very like one another, and many small streets still more like one another, inhabited by people equally like one another, who all went in and out at the same hours, with the same sound upon the same pavements, to do the same work, and to whom every day was the same as yesterday and to-morrow, and every year the counterpart of the last and the next.»
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Coketown is the personification of the society. This place is all black and white, there is no other colors. Even if they attempt to be so, the smoke(which is the representation of Facts) fades them away. All this machinery-stuff is a representation of the human-beings. There is no other place rather than factories, there is not any park, any place to have fun; it is a city of industrialization. The streets are all the same, they are like copies of each other and they are occupied by people also that are like the copies of each other: they do the requirements over again and again like they are one of the machines in one of the factories in Coketown.

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«Why, you'd have to go to Doctors' Commons with a suit, and you'd have to go to a court of Common Law with a suit, and you'd have to go to the House of Lords with a suit, and you'd have to get an Act of Parliament to enable you to marry again, and it would cost you (if it was a case of very plain sailing), I suppose from a thousand to fifteen hundred pound,' said Mr. Bounderby. 'Perhaps twice the money.'

'There's no other law?'

'Certainly not.‘

'Why then, sir,' said Stephen, turning white, and motioning with that right hand of his, as if he gave everything to the four winds, ''tis a muddle. 'Tis just a muddle a'toogether, an' the sooner I am dead, the better.»
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Stephen Blackpool who is unhappy with his wife and overall with his marriage goes to Mr. Bounderby, his boss, in order for him to give some advices, even help him. He asks how he can divorce his wife. In the time of the Society, once you are married, you shall stay married until the end of your life if you are not from the upper-class society. Whether you are happy or not, the marriage is seen as a contract which gathers two people together and they create baby-machines, dutiful human-beings who passes the same order to the next generation. It shows how the distinction of poor and rich effects even «love life» of the people. If a person does not have enough money, then s/he has to obey and live her/his life as it was before.

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«NOW, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them. This is the principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these children. Stick to Facts, sir!»
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The opening paragraph of the novel which starts with Thomas Gradgrind’s programmed words tells the reader about the general theme of the novel. In the era of industrialization and machinery, he describes human-beings as «reasoning animals», as like they are the products of the Factory of Facts. Like the characteristics of the era, they are brought up as walking machines, there is no place for emotions, imagination, and creativity in their life, and as a whole, this is what creates the main conflict in the book. Sticking to Facts and ignoring the imagination is needed for life and and only through this way, every individual can find a place in the society of Facts. Every person should be full of Facts and no other thing.

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A student of Mr. Bounderby's school. Cannot adopt the society of Facts. Used to live and work in the circus with his father.

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Josiah Bounderby. Self-made man. He is the owner of the factories in Coketown. He is the authority of the society which seems like he created it himself. Also loves Louisa, Mr. Bounderby's daughter.

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Thomas Gradgrind. Best friend of Mr. Bounderby. He is a man of principle, addicted to the Facts.

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Charles Dickens is the author of the novel.

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Almost the biggest influence over the book. Also can be an example of Coketown in order to imagine it easily.

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It is the illustration of the famous place where Mr. Bounderby lives.

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Siisy while she tries to describe "horse".

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That's when Rachel looks after Stephen's wife in one of those nights.

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It is a place in Coketown where some parts of the story takes place. Also it is the personification in the novel

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The novel begins with one of the main character’s, Thomas Gradgrind’,  speech about the meaning of life, what are the basic necessities for life. In the school, Mr. Gradgrind talks like a machine, uttering no word unnecessary, and emphasizing his words again and again. When he asks Sissy Jupe, one of the student, she responds emotionally which is not certainly approved by Mr. Gradgrind. He also asks the class some questions until he gets rational responses from them.  As he goes back from school to his home, he sees his two children, Louisa and Tom, “peeping at the circus.” He naturally gets angry with them. In Stone Lodge, we see Mr. Bounderby talking about himself, how he managed to come to this point in his life and Mrs. Gradgrind listening to him. When Mr. Gradgrind arrives home with children, he complains about them and finds the guilty one of his children’s idle imagination. As soon as possible, Mr. Bounderby and Mr. Gradgrind go to the place where Cecilia Jupe as they called—and his father live. However Cecilia's father has abononed her and Mr. Bounderby & Mr Gragdrind want to bring up Cecilia. In the tenth chapter, we see a new character: Stephen Blackpool. He is a worker in Mr. Bounderby’s factory in Coketown. He is in love with a woman called Rachael, but the problem is that he is married to another woman. He is not happy with his marriage and goes to Bounderby to ask for a solution but he cannot find a way. As the time passes, Louisa becomes a beautiful woman and Bounderby tells that he wants to marry her. After the marriage, they go to Lyon where there is another factory of Bounderby for honeymoon.