In this passage, Dickens describes James Harthouse’s impression of Louisa upon meeting her for the first time. Dickens uses a number of oxymorons to express how difficult it is for Harthouse to read her:
[Louisa] was so constrained, and yet so careless; so reserved, and yet so watchful; so cold and so proud, and yet so sensitively ashamed of her husband’s braggart humility [...]
Louisa is “constrained,” “reserved,” “cold,” and “proud,” a portrait of Victorian restraint and repression. Equally, she is “watchful” and “sensitively ashamed” of her husband’s behavior. On the one hand, Louisa appears aloof and unemotional. On the other, she is present, intuitive, and sensitive to the comfort of those around her. What is going on here?
These oxymorons illustrate how conflicted Louisa is within herself. Louisa is a naturally curious, imaginative person who has been raised to repress and hide these traits. Louisa is so caught between who she is, and who those around her think she should be, that even a stranger like Harthouse can sense that beneath her unassuming facade lies a mess of inner conflict and contradiction. Dickens even describes her as “careless,” as if Louisa’s emotions are so pent up that they may blow any moment, revealing all of those characteristics she has worked so hard to hide.
Dickens also makes note of Bounderby’s “braggart humility,” here and in several parts of the book. The two words oppose one another in meaning to the degree that the first cancels out the second. The contradiction within the oxymoron draws attention to how ridiculous Bounderby’s behavior is. This oxymoron makes it clear that Bounderby’s attempts at affecting humility are false and unconvincing.
