# Murdering the Innocents explained — Hard Times > Chapter companion for Hard Times by Charles Dickens. ## What happens Thomas Gradgrind, a man devoted to facts and calculations, introduces his philosophy to a classroom of children. He rebukes Sissy Jupe for using the name 'Sissy' and demands she call herself 'Cecilia.' When asked to define a horse, Sissy cannot, but Bitzer provides a cold, factual definition. A government officer further instructs the children to reject fancy and imagination, insisting that only fact and utility should govern their lives. The chapter ends with Mr. M'Choakumchild beginning his lesson, having been trained like a factory product, and the narrator questions whether such education will kill or merely maim the imagination. ## Themes in this chapter ### Fact vs. Fancy The central conflict of the chapter: Gradgrind and the government officer demand that children reject fancy and imagination in favor of hard facts, as seen in the interrogation of Sissy and the prohibition of floral carpets. ### Education and Upbringing The chapter critiques the mechanistic, factory-like education system that prioritizes facts over creativity, embodied by Mr. M'Choakumchild's training and the classroom's oppressive atmosphere. ## Character check-ins ### Thomas Gradgrind Introduces himself as a man of facts and calculations, and interrogates Sissy Jupe and Bitzer about the definition of a horse. ### Sissy Jupe Called 'Girl number twenty,' she is embarrassed when she cannot define a horse, and later expresses a love for flowers and fancy, which is immediately suppressed. ### Bitzer Provides a cold, factual definition of a horse, described as pale and bloodless, embodying the Gradgrindian ideal. ### Mr. M'Choakumchild The schoolmaster, recently trained in a factory-like system, begins his lesson, filled with facts but lacking the ability to nurture imagination. ## Key lines > Thomas Gradgrind, sir. A man of realities. A man of facts and calculations. A man who proceeds upon the principle that two and two are four, and nothing over, and who is not to be talked into allowing for anything over. Thomas Gradgrind is introduced as a man who believes only in facts and arithmetic, rejecting any possibility of nuance or imagination. _This establishes Gradgrind's rigid, fact-based worldview._ > You are to be in all things regulated and governed by fact. We hope to have, before long, a board of fact, composed of commissioners of fact, who will force the people to be a people of fact, and of nothing but fact. The government officer declares that everyone must be controlled by facts, and envisions a future where a board of fact enforces this on the entire population. _This highlights the extreme application of Utilitarian ideology to society._ > If he had only learnt a little less, how infinitely better he might have taught much more! The narrator suggests that M'Choakumchild's excessive factual knowledge actually hinders his ability to teach effectively. _This criticizes the quantity-over-quality approach in education._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/hard_times_se/chapters/ii-murdering-the-innocents - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/hard_times_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/hard_times_se/chapters