CHARACTER OF SISSY JUPE

Few characters are spared a thorough once-over from the master when they walk into a Charles Dickens
novel. He’ll pin them against a wall with a spotlight or put them on a pedestal, but either way they loom
large in our imaginations from the moment he’s finished his introductions.
When we first meet Sissy Jupe as a school girl in the opening scene of Dickens’ tenth novel, however, we
don’t get the usual nose to tail character assessment (or assassination) that we so relish in Dickens’
stories. Instead we have her headmaster Mr. Gradgrind’s definition, spoken in his
“inflexible, dry and dictatorial voice”.
He tells us - as the town’s well-respected upholder and purveyor of 'Fact' - the fleshless facts, so
squeakily, jarringly dry that you can hear them being scratched out on his blackboard:
“Girl number twenty unable to define a horse.”
Hard Times is set in the depressed industrial north of England, in Coketown, which is ruled by its bleach
bland utilitarianism. The daughter of a circus clown, Sissy (“learned in childish lore”) embodies the
virtues of imagination, and will eventually use it as force to gently wear down Mr. Gradgrind and topple
the wonderfully named Mr. M’Choakumchild, transforming the Fact factory into a real school.
There is some parallel between Sissy’s story and Dickens’ own. When he was 12 years old, Dickens was
sent to work at Warren’s Blacking Factory (Coketown, come on) after his father was imprisoned for debt.
Claire Tomalin asserts in her superb recent biography about Dickens that, when he was rescued by his
parents neither he nor they uttered a single word about it to one another. So, I suspect that Dickens was
strongly attached to Sissy in a very personal way. And for me, a world without Sissy Jupe would be a
world without Dickens.
The daughter of a circus performer, Sissy's background is of the lowest quality, but her imagination and
her heart are of the highest, thanks to her father's care when she was little. This father does desert her
when she is still a young girl, leaving her to be adopted by the Grad grinds, but his education has made its
mark on her, and nothing Mr. Gradgrind can try to teach her will undo it. She becomes the guardian and
the savior of the Gradgrind family: when Louisa nearly succumbs to Harthouse's proposal and when Tom
is nearly arrested, Sissy saves the day, saving their lives and their hearts.
Though Sissy is not the protagonist of the story, her personality is of the utmost importance in terms of
the main message of the author. She is kind and emotionally educated person. Sissy’s father is a circus
actor who forsook her; therefore, she was obliged to accept any offer which seemed to be the last chance
of normal living for her. Sissy comes to Mr. Gradgrind’s house as a servant and acts like a helping pill for
Louise and Tom. She is not attracted by the ideas of the host of a house and, that is why she does not take
into consideration Mr. Gradgrind’s philosophy.
Since Sissy is the only positive character of the story, the reader is really relieved whenever he encounters
the character of Cecilia. Even though, her education is not as good as the Gradgrinds’, she is the only
person to uncover Tom’s relation to the robbery of the bank. As we know, she was kind and sympathetic,
that is why Sissy helped Tom to make the arrangement of leaving the country and save his life.
Sissy’s benevolent attitude helps Louisa’s emotional recovery. However, their friendship undertook
several pitfalls by the plot, kind heart of Sissy couldn’t reject giving a helping hand to the needed woman.
The fact is that Ch. Dickens wanted to send a very significant message to his readers that being
emotionally healthy may help to get good work, loving family and caring friends. Cecilia is the only
character of the book which manages to live a happy life and disclose the world of maternity in peace and
safety from jealousy of the society.
Moreover, she didn’t despise her father for abandoning her lately. On her own example of pardoning her
dad, she helps Louisa excuse her selfish dad, Mr. Gradgrinds.