Josiah Bounderby exhibits many qualities which make him believable. First of all, Bounderby tries fervently to uphold his image. As a member of the middle-class, he leads everyone to believe that he worked very hard to achieve his position as a wealthy factory owner. Any champion of the middle-class works hard to get where he is, and works hard to stay there. He gets to enjoy the fruits of his labor, yet does not have enough free time to become bored with life. His plight, as he presents it, tugs at the reader's heart strings, or at least, is supposed to:

' I hadn't a shoe to my foot. As to a stocking, I didn't know such a thing by name. I passed the day in a ditch, and the night in a pigsty. ... 'I was born with inflammation of the lungs, and of everything else, I believe, that was capable of inflammation.' ... ' How I fought through it, I don't know,' said Bounderby. 'I was determined, I suppose. I have been a determined character in later life and I suppose I was then. Here I am Mrs. Gradgrind, anyhow, and nobody to thank for my being here, but myself'

Bounderby maintains that he fought his way, tooth and nail, to gain his present position. This is a very admirable accomplishment. Everyone takes Bounderby's story for the gospel until his Mother, Mrs. Pegler, uncovers his scheme. She did not abandon him, as he claimed, and he did not work his way up from obscurity. This is what makes Bounderby a believable character. Acceptance is a vital human quality, but admiration is the most sought after.

If Bounderby goes by the truth, then he gains just the acceptance of society. If, however, he concocts this story about fighting his way up from a ditch, then he gains the admiration of his peers. What's more, he also undermines the feeling that the poor will forever be poor and the rich for ever rich: in other words, his lies about his past actually help justify the rigid class system he claims he has overcome. His behaviour when Gradgrind discovers that Cissy Jupe has been abandoned by her father shows that his upper-class prejudiced have survived intact and that hehas no sympathy for the working class people on whom his wealth depends.

His taking of Louisa as a bride offends modern tastes. He has watched the girl grow up and has a place in her family akin, in behaviour if not in blood, to that of an uncle. To modern readers his taking of Louisa for a bride seems at best unsavoury.

Bounderby is not an attractive character in Hard Times.