As factual as Mr. Gradgrind is, so full of feeling is Cecilia Jupe, the second character that is introduced. The first sign that the reader gets of this is the ray of sunlight that shines on her and on a young boy named Bitzer. This ray contrasts the two, making Cecilia more radiant and full of warmth and Bitzer even colder and more transparent. Cecilia is the absolute opposite of Mr. Gradgrind. She is a personification of warmth, feeling, imagination, fantasy and emotional knowledge, instead of the factual counterpart that Mr. Grandgrind stands for. "She looked as if she were frightened by the matter of fact prospect the world afforded".
Because she was brought up in a circus, she knows all about imagination, entertainment, fancy and all that Mr. Grandgrind opposes. She also knows everything about horses, but when asked to give the definition of a horse she is unable to do this. Bitzer (her counterpart), however, provides Mr. Gradgrind with the correct definition. Dickens" sense of irony is very clear here because it is obvious that Cecilia knows all about horses and Bitzer does not, he can simply give a useless definition. Another example of Dickens" irony is the fact that Sissy ends up being the heroin and saves the Gradgrind family. It turns out that the use of emotion, rather than fact, is what is needed to salvage the situation.
These characters are very obvious in what they stand for; they are counter poles in every way imaginable. Now the reader comes in contact with some rather less obvious characters in Dickens" story of fact versus fancy, Gradgrind's children Louisa and Tom. Being raised in the "Gradgrind way" they both turned out quite differently. Louisa is Mr. Gradgrind's pride and example of the justness of his method. What he does not know is that Louisa is not completely devoid of feeling, she has simply been maimed in that way. Deep inside there is still a part of her that craves emotion and wonder, it is precisely this that causes her relapse in later life.