Examples Of Utilitarianism In Tom Gradgrind By Tom Bounderby

“Now, what I want is facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plan nothing else, and root out nothing else.” These words were harsh words that were spoken to a classroom full of children. These few sentences are the opening words in the novel. The person who is reading the book is immediately put into the utilitarian way of thinking as soon as they open the book. The reader obtains most of the impressions, or understands the most feelings through the characters themselves and not from their own thoughts and ideas of the subject.
Mr. Thomas Gradgrind and Mr. Josiah Bounderby are the two characters that show us, the readers the perfect example of utilitarianism in the novel and are very good supporters of this system as well. In Mr. Gradgrind and Mr. …show more content…
Since he lives under his parents’ roof, he has to follow his parents rule and he and his sister are raised the same way. As you read farther into the book, you see that Tom is not a serious character. In the book, many time he is referred as the “whelp,” and his actions are doubtful when it comes to fairness. Tom could be considered the perfect example of utilitarianism because his actions are very self- centered. The consequences of his actions are determined by what he can get out of it. One example of this would be when he let everyone think that Steven Blackpool, was the one who robbed the bank, less people would get hurt than if he was to come clear and admit that he was the one who done it. If he came clear, he would have hurts his sister, his entire family, but by letting people believe it was not he, less people would end up getting hurt. Steven Blackpool was already unpopular, didn’t really have a family, and he was poor, so it was believable that he could have robbed the bank. Young Tom does live up to the utilitarian standard as much as any other character, but possibly even