Significant Passage
“Her father might instinctively have loosened his hold, but
that he felt her strength departing from her, and saw a wild dilating fire in
the eyes steadfastly regarding him.”
-
Book 2, Chapter 12, page 211
Throughout the book up until this point the symbol of fire
is used quite frequently, especially pertaining to Louisa. But it is always a
calm, controlled fire that Louisa is looking at, longing for. The narrator
always makes it seem as though Louisa does not have this fire, or passion that
she wishes she could. But now after she lets all of her emotions and troubles
that have been building up out, the fire is inside her. Not only is it inside
her however, but it is also a “wild dilating fire”, much different than the
calm fire mentioned earlier in the book. What is interesting is that this
description of fire almost always comes from the narrator and not Louisa
herself. So now that Louisa has come out of her shell, the narrator sees a
change in her. This demonstrates the narrator’s changing opinion of Louisa,
that she is evolving into a woman of passion instead of complacency.
I agree with you, but I also interpreted this passage another way. When the narrator said "he felt her strength depart from her", the strength-according to Gradgrind here-would be the factual-life, and the cold, hard ways of his philosophy. So the dying strength suggests that this philosophy is dying in Louisa. The "dialating fire" represents the growing nature of emotion, and truth that she was kept away from and that she initially saw as "bright ashes" that "became extinct"(93),suggesting she could not have the best in life. But now since that fire is coming back, and since fire is often also a symbol of life, Dickens could be suggesting that the emotions and fancy that Gradgrind had tried to keep his daughter away from are actually necessary for everyone, for they are the essence of life.
ReplyDelete-Jessica K.
I definitely feel that the shift towards this "dilating fire" that is wild and growing, from the "light with nothing to rest upon, afire with nothing to burn"(19) is very significant. In the past the fire was unattainable, but is now strong and growing. So I would have to agree with Jessica that the weakness is only Gradgrind's perception since Louisa is moving from his beliefs and coming closer to the thing that "[Mr. Gradgrind] has missed, or forgotten"(194) according to Mrs. Gradgrind. To Mr. Gradgrind, this emotional crack in Louisa's factual facade shows weakness, but to Louisa it seems to be the long overdue, and overwhelming, release of feelings that had continually been suppressed.
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