xcerpt from Hard Times Charles Dickens The scene was a plain, bare, monotonous vault of a school-room, and the speaker's square
forefinger emphasized his observations by underscoring every sentence with a line on the schoolmaster's sleeve. The emphasis was helped by the speaker's square wall of a forehead, which had his eyebrows for its base, while his eyes found commodious cellarage in two dark caves, overshadowed by the wall. The emphasis was helped by the speaker's mouth, which was wide, thin, and hard set. The emphasis was helped by the speaker's voice, which was inflexible, dry, and dictatorial. The emphasis was helped by the speaker's hair, which bristled on the skirts of his bald head, a plantation of firs to keep the wind from its shining surface, all covered with knobs, like the crust of a plum pie, as if the head had scarcely warehouse-room for the hard facts stored inside. The narrator repeats the term the emphasis throughout the passage. To what is he referring? A) the logic used by the speaker B) the odd sound of the speaker's voice C) the strange appearance of the speaker D) the speaker’s insistence on the study of facts
The main theme is the fragility of sanity, guilt versus innocence, and the unrelenting passage of time. The fragility of sanity: the narrator's attempt to prove his sanity, his erratic mannerisms while he explains his meticulous plans for killing the old man only prove his madness.
