54 Whether six three-fourths meant six pounds fifteen, or sixpence three farthings, or six foot three, or three quarters past six, or six somethings that he hadn't learnt yet, with three unknown something elses over, Paul rubbed his hands and looked straight at Miss Blimber. This scene might be compared with those of the Gradgrind's schooling. Miss Blimber dealt in abstractions rather than hard facts, but her abstract concepts were equally unsuitable. Paul could only understand what he could visualise. Many passages in Dickens's books deal with small boys being put through their arithmetical paces. In SKETCHES BY BOZ, he describes "a poor harmless creature, Mr Smith, who walks home to his little back room in Islington where he has his tea; perhaps solacing him self during the meal with the conversation of his landlady's little boy, whom he occasionally rewards with a penny for solving problems in simple arithmetic." Both Pip in GREAT EXPECTATIONS and David in DAVID COPPERFIELD are tested in arithmetic. Neither does well, because they are both bullied, though in different ways. In Pip's case, the bully is uncle Pumblechook. "I was hungry," says Pip, "but before I had swallowed a morsel, he began a running sum that lasted all through breakfast. Seven and four and eight, and six, and two, and ten and so on. In David's case, the bully is his stepfather, Mr Murdstone. As David describes the scene "When the lessons are done, the worst is yet to happen in the shape of an appalling sum. This is invented for me, and delivered to me orally - by Mr Murdstone. It begins "If I go into a cheesemonger's chop, and buy five thousand double- Gloster cheeses, at fourpence ha'penny each, present payment at which I see Miss Murdstone secretly overjoyed. I pore over these cheeses without any result or enlightenment until dinnertime, when, having made a mulatto of myself by getting the dirt of the slate into the pores of my skin, I have a slice of bread to help me out with the cheeses, and am considered in disgrace for the rest of the evening." There is, incidentally, an interesting comment on this by Angus Wilson in his book "The world of Charles Dickens"

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The Dutch Dickensian | 1985 | | pagina 56