Why did the gentleman disapprove of having pictures of horses as wallpapers?

Gradgrind tells his students at his school that wallpaper with horses on it is unrealistic because horses do not in fact live on walls,

I interpret this as Dickens showing how extreme this philosophy can become—rejecting beauty and imagination in favor of cold logic. In my view, it highlights one of the novel’s central criticisms: that an education system based purely on facts risks stripping away essential human qualities like curiosity and emotional depth.

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Gradgrind disapproves because he sees the horse wallpaper as another example of imagination replacing facts. His point is that horses belong in stables or fields, not on walls, so even a decorative picture becomes something he treats as false or misleading. Dickens uses the moment to make Gradgrind’s belief in strict factual education seem excessive. The issue is less about the wallpaper itself and more about his refusal to give imagination any value.

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