Equating Extremes

Discussion Question 1:
"'Oh,' returned Tom, with contemptuous patronage, 'she's a regular girl. A girl can get on anywhere. She has settled down to the life, and she don't mind. It does just as well as another. Besides, though Loo is a girl, she's not a common sort of girl. She can shut herself up within herself, and think -- as I have often known her sit and watch the fire -- for an hour at a stretch.'
'Ay,ay? Has resources of her own,' said Harthouse, smoking quietly" (Dickens 134-135)

In this passage, fire is used in the two extreme translations one of tranquility and life, and the other of destruction in order to indicate that society must take balance between the two for successful functioning to occur. Louisa is described by Tom and Harthouse as having a serene and calm nature, whereas Harthouses' vicious nature is proclaimed. Dickens uses the words "sit" and "watch" to show Louisa's simple and effortless actions when looking at the fire. He also mentions that she goes on for an "hour" and refers to it as a "stretch." Dickens uses imagery in the word stretch to show the vast amount of time Louisa can concentrate on the fire. In this example, the "fire" is used to represent Louisa's innermost creativity and livelihood, and the serenity and longevity with which she concentrates on the fire emits a benevolent tone to show that people must coincide with creativity. The passage goes on to show Harthouse's response as he is "smoking". The general connotation that revolves are smoking is one of negativity and death because of the harmful side effects. The juxtaposition of the harmful version of the fire that Harthouse is described as having, versus the livelihood that Louisa embodies, as they build off each other, shows that they are both necessary even though they are generally thought of as clashing forces. Thus, fire is used in two ways to illuminate that society must balance life and destruction to function properly.

-Alex Wleklinski