how is poverty presented in a christmas carol essay

Poverty & Victorian Christmas

Workhouses and the poor.

Charles Dickens felt strongly that Victorian society ignored the poverty of its underclass.

• Victorian England saw a dramatic rise in the number of workhouses – the population was rapidly increasing and, therefore, there was a huge increase in the poor population.
• Working hours in these workhouses were very long, and the pay was very low.

Tax and resentment

• Before 1834, the cost of looking after the poorer people of society was growing rapidly – by 1830, it reached approximately £7 million (around £555 million today). This money came from the tax paid by the middle and upper-class people.
• This caused bad feelings towards the lower classes, as the middle and upper classes suspected that the poorer people were deliberately being lazy and avoiding work.

Poor Law Amendment Act

• Before this Act, parishes were grouped into unions and each union had a workhouse. People could stay in their own homes, but access help when they needed it.
• The Poor Law Act of 1834 meant that people who needed aid due to poverty could only get help if they were prepared to leave their home and go into the workhouses.

Workhouse conditions

• Workhouses were degrading and humiliating.
• Upon arrival at the workhouse gates, people would be interviewed, then stripped, washed and given a haircut.
• People had their own clothes thrown away (sometimes burnt) and they would be given a uniform made from coarse material.
• Families were split up – men, women and children were housed separately and not allowed to communicate with one another, even in any communal areas.

Message in A Christmas Carol

• Dickens uses A Christmas Carol to suggest that people needed to recognise the problems in society and not ignore them.
• He wanted people to try to help one another, not just be obsessed with how to make themselves better, but genuinely help those in need.
• Dickens advocated the idea of people accepting social responsibility – not just throwing poor people into poor houses, but helping them to have good lives.

A Victorian Christmas

A lot of the Christmas traditions currently practiced in England are thought to have originated in the Victorian era.

Christmas tree

• After Queen Victoria and Prince Albert got married, Albert brought the idea of a decorated Christmas tree from Germany to England (in 1841).
• Many homes then adopted this Christmas decoration as well.

Christmas cards

• In 1843, the first Christmas cards began to be circulated – they were expensive to buy, so many people began to make their own.

Turkey and carols

• The Victorians introduced the idea of eating turkey and singing carols at Christmas.

Kindness and goodwill

• One of the key ideas around Christmas in the Victorian era was that it was a time for kindness and goodwill to all people, regardless of their social class or financial situation.
• This plays a key role in this novella, as we see Scrooge refusing to comply to this idea until he is educated about the consequences of his actions.

1 Plot Summary

1.1 Plot Summary

1.1.1 Outline

1.1.2 Introducing Scrooge & Marley

1.1.3 Stave 1

1.1.4 Stave 2

1.1.5 Stave 3

1.1.6 End of Topic Test - Staves 1-3

1.1.7 Stave 4

1.1.8 Stave 5

1.1.9 End of Topic Test - Staves 4-5

2 Key Characters & Quotes

2.1 Ebenezer Scrooge

2.1.1 Outline & Stave 1

2.1.2 Stave 2

2.1.3 Stave 3

2.1.4 Stave 4

2.1.5 Stave 5 & Key Quotes

2.1.6 End of Topic Test - Ebeneezer Scrooge

2.2 Other Characters

2.2.1 Bob Cratchit

2.2.2 Tiny Tim

2.2.4 The Ghosts Pt 1

2.2.5 The Ghosts Pt 2

2.2.6 End of Topic Test - Other Characters

2.3 Grade 9 - Key Characters

2.3.1 Grade 9 - Key Characters

2.3.2 Grade 9 - Extract Analysis

3 Key Ideas

3.1 Key Ideas

3.1.1 Inequality, Ignorance & Want

3.1.2 Duality, Family & Love

3.1.3 Christianity & Redemption

3.1.4 End of Topic Test - Key Ideas

3.1.5 Grade 9 - Key Themes

4.1 Context

4.1.1 Dickens & Victorian England

4.1.2 Poverty & Victorian Christmas

4.1.3 Exam-Style Questions - Poverty

4.1.4 Gothic Fiction

4.1.5 Gothic Fiction & Victorian England

4.1.6 End of Topic Test - Context

5 Authorial Method

5.1 Structure & Techniques

5.1.1 Structure & Time

5.1.2 Time Frame & Pace

5.1.3 Narrative Voice & Tone

5.1.4 Settings, Similes & Metaphors

5.1.5 End of Topic Test - Authorial Method

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Dickens & Victorian England

Exam-Style Questions - Poverty

A Christmas Carol

Charles dickens, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

A Christmas Carol has attracted generations of readers with its clear parable-like structure and compelling ghost story. It’s a moral tale that has proven timeless, but Dickens also wrote the story with a very present problem in mind, and his structure was designed to make the real issues of Victorian London stand out and provide greater awareness in the reading masses. For instance, the two gentlemen that ask for Scrooge ’s charity are kindly but unable to inspire Scrooge’s sympathies. In Scrooge’s easy assurance that the poor not only belong in but actually deserve to live in the poor house, the story conveys a message about the visibility and effectiveness of charity being swamped by common misconceptions that the poor house is a functional institution keeping poor people usefully employed. In fact, the poor house was an institution that did nothing to help the poor. Rather, it was a terrible place that served primarily to keep the poor out of view of those who were better off. Scrooge’s repetition of his dismissive phrase “Humbug!” is a symbol of the insensitivity and ignorance of the middle class looking down on and dismissing the poor.

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come shows us not only Scrooge’s miserable future but also the future of his contemporaries, the traders and bankers that are discussing his funeral lunch and not caring at all that he has died. Dickens shows us that meanness is often connected to the pursuit of wealth. Further, he shows how such meanness is a cycle, almost catching. Scrooge, then, transforms a larger fate than his own when he discovers charity.

In fact, A Christmas Carol has had a tangible effect on poverty, at least on a small, individual scale – stories abound of factory owners and merchants being so affected by readings of A Christmas Carol that they sent their workers gifts and changed harsh conditions.

Social Dissatisfaction and the Poor Laws ThemeTracker

Social Dissatisfaction and the Poor Laws Quotes in A Christmas Carol

Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster.

'Business!' cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. 'Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!'

The sight of these poor revellers appeared to interest the Spirit very much, for he stood with Scrooge beside him in a baker's doorway, and taking off the covers as their bearers passed, sprinkled incense on their dinners from his torch.

'If he wanted to keep them after he was dead, a wicked old screw,' pursued the woman, 'why wasn't he natural in his lifetime? If he had been, he'd have had somebody to look after him when he was struck with Death, instead of lying gasping out his last there, alone by himself.'

He went to church, and walked about the streets, and watched the people hurrying to and fro, and patted children on the head, and questioned beggars, and looked down into the kitchens of houses, and up to the windows, and found that everything could yield him pleasure. He had never dreamed that any walk – that anything – could give him so much happiness.

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GCSE Grade9 full essay on the theme of ‘Poverty’ in ‘A Christmas Carol’

Subject: English

Age range: 14-16

Resource type: Assessment and revision

Last updated

21 April 2023

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Was awarded full marks and was written in timed conditions - this is therefore the perfect balance of quote analysis, play coverage, complex and unconventional points (YOU WILL STAND OUT!!), context and bringing the paragraphs back to the main question/theme.

11 solid paragraphs, 1146 words, 2 pages and a bit font size 12 Some of the points covered: Solid introduction Dickens’ political diatribe Scrooge’s character and his treatment of others and Christmas The Ghost of Christmas Past forcing Scrooge to reflect on his past actions The Cratchit family in Stave 3 Tiny Tim Scrooge’s transformation Solid Conclusion

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How Scrooge Changes

How is scrooge presented as being selfish, the point behind the paragraph ao1 - big picture (plot) ao2 - zooming in (language) ao3 - context, during the opening of the novel, scrooge is presented as a selfish, closed character who only thinks of himself. the first section of the novel takes the form of a long piece of description where dickens highlights just how selfish scrooge is. he’s described as being “squeezing,” “wrenching,” and “grasping.” all these active verbs suggest different ways that he takes things. squeezing suggests that he holds things close to himself and won’t let them go. “wrenching” means to take things; to snatch them. this might refer to how he runs his business, snatching back what’s his own, as though he’s a selfish spoilt child who won’t share. “grasping” means to reach desperately for something, which isn’t something we’d associate with someone as wealthy as scrooge. equally, he’s described as being “solitary as an oyster.” this wonderful simile perfectly illustrates just how closed off scrooge is: he has a hard shell to keep himself away from the rest of the world. throughout the rest of stave 1 we see more examples of his selfishness: he refuses to go to fred’s house, arguing that christmas is a “humbug;” he refuses to give to the portly gentleman’s charity, saying that the poor should go to workhouses, prisons or simply die if they can’t afford to live and he resents giving bob cratchit the day off for christmas, thinking himself “ill-used.” scrooge clearly thinks only of himself. he doesn’t “make merry” at christmas, and he “can’t afford” to make anyone else merry either. here, dickens uses scrooge to shine a light on the selfishness of the victorian upper classes, who would happily sit by their firesides eating rich food while their poorer brothers froze in the dirt outside. it is also worth remembering, however, that the issue of poverty is not one that is consigned to victorian england; it’s very much alive today, and we would all do well to look outside of our bubbles to see those who suffer in the world around us ., the text above would represent one paragraph from an essay about scrooge being presented as selfish. the second paragraph would look at how scrooge learnt to be less selfish, while the last would focus on how scrooge was presented by the end. each paragraph would have a point, some language analysis (ao2), some key moments of plot (ao1) and a reference to context (ao3)., the extract, during the opening of the novel, and in the extract, scrooge is presented as a “tight-fisted hand at the grindstone.” this is to say that he doesn’t like sharing – he is tight fisted – while the “grindstone” image represents him at work. this image suggests that he drives people hard at work but doesn’t pay them much for it. and this is certainly true of scrooge. dickens also uses a string of verbs to describe his miserly hero: “squeezing, wrenching, grasping, clutching;” all of them imply that he is taking things and holding on to them. he’s described as “hard and sharp as flint” – which implies that he is difficult and even dangerous – “from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire” which implies that one thing flint does well is something scrooge is incapable of, because fire is warm and looks after others. most interestingly, however, scrooge is described as “edging his way along the crowded paths of life, warning all human sympathy to keep its distance.” this is an interesting image as it implies a certain strange compassion from scrooge. in fact, he isn’t just rude or obnoxious, it’s as though he recognised that he is socially and emotionally dysfunctional and now “warns” other humans to keep away., by the end of the book, however, he has changed and he does this by realising a few very important things., firstly, he understands that people and emotions are more important than money. at the beginning of the book scrooge things money equates to happiness – he says that “i can’t afford to make idle people merry,” suggesting that happiness can only be provided through financial means. during his visits with the ghost of christmas past, however, he sees his old manager fezziwig throwing a party and comments that “the happiness he gives is quite as great as if it had cost a fortune.” here, he shows the beginnings of an understanding that happiness isn’t just financial. throughout stave 3, also, scrooge sees people enjoying christmas without any money. he is taken across the country from the poor tin-mines in cornwall to the most distant lighthouses and even across the sea to where he sees people singing and laughing and making merry despite being on meagre means. he also sees the cratchitts enjoying christmas with next to nothing – with their chipped glasses and broken custard cups holding the drinks as well as “golden goblets.” dickens repeatedly uses references to gold in the book, and at one point bob mentions that tiny tim is “as good as gold and better.” here, bob is clearly celebrating the key theme of the book: that people and human relationships are more important than money. by the end of the book, with the third spirit, scrooge seems changed. he says “lead on, time is precious to me.” here he recognises that time – which is irreplaceable – is actually the most valuable commodity on earth and he seems changed., also, scrooge is changed by the compassion he sees other’s treating him with. when belle speaks to him, she does so with “tenderness” – suggesting that even at this moment of deepest sadness, she feels sorry for him, and not resentful. also, bob toasts him over their dinner, raising a glass to celebrate him. through this scrooge is forced to reflect on the fact that he is supported and loved despite his behaviour. his nephew, fred, also insists on defending him – albeit that he playfully teases him in the group’s game – when he says that he insists inviting scrooge to dinner every year – “for i pity him.” again, the compassion and sympathy felt by others would have affected scrooge and softened him, melting his cold and bitter heart, rather than making him angry and isolated. finally, scrooge allows himself to become absorbed in society when he becomes tiny tim’s “second father.” this final statement shows clearly that scrooge is now a fully-fledged member of society, and even though he had no relationship with his own family, he has an adopted, extended family that he can be a part of., it’s also worth noting, that the first person scrooge feels compassion for is himself. in the school room, when he “wept” to see his “poor forgotten self” scrooge shows sympathy for his own plight. it could well be that his father – the father that fanny didn’t have to feel “afraid” of anymore – was the source of scrooge’s anger and resentment. in this respect, you could easily argue that scrooge was deserted by those who were closest to him and, in turn, deserted those around him; however, by the end, an extended family of society have proven that they care for scrooge and can forgive him, and in this way he learns to feel compassion again., a christmas carol and death, a churchyard. here, then; the wretched man whose name he had now to learn, lay underneath the ground. it was a worthy place. walled in by houses; overrun by grass and weeds, the growth of vegetation’s death, not life; choked up with too much burying; fat with repleted appetite. a worthy place, the spirit stood among the graves, and pointed down to one. he advanced towards it trembling. the phantom was exactly as it had been, but he dreaded that he saw new meaning in its solemn shape., “before i draw nearer to that stone to which you point,” said scrooge, “answer me one question. are these the shadows of the things that will be, or are they shadows of things that may be, only”, still the ghost pointed downward to the grave by which it stood., “men’s courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead,” said scrooge. “but if the courses be departed from, the ends will change. say it is thus with what you show me”, the spirit was immovable as ever., scrooge crept towards it, trembling as he went; and following the finger, read upon the stone of the neglected grave his own name, ebenezer scrooge., the extract is from the end of stave 4 and explores scrooge’s final realisation of his fate as the ghost of christmas yet to come points to his grave. overall, death is a prevalent theme in the novella, one which haunts scrooge at every turn, enough to finally transform him for the better., at the beginning of the novel, scrooge’s encounter with the terrifying spectre of death, his old business partner jacob marley sows the early seeds of receptiveness to a new way of life. at first, scrooge refuses to believe that anything dead could return, joking ‘there’s more gravy than the grave about you’ however, the chilling horror of marley’s appearance ‘i wear the chains i forged in life’ –which are constructed of financial elements: purses, and sales ledgers, suggest an unhealthy obsession with money and the way one’s profession will manifest itself and weigh you down after death. also, the clear warning to scrooge ‘mankind was my business’ and the image he shows outside scrooge’s window of dead people desperately trying in vain to change their ways and reconcile themselves with their families, is a message that once one is dead, there is no opportunity for redemption and change. in this section, dickens draws on his knowledge of the gothic genre –churches, door knockers that turn into the face of marley, and marley’s stories from beyond the grave that to chill the victorian reader to the core. of course, they would also be only too aware of the potential of hell, something that dickens was sceptical of, but a huge proportion of his readership would have believed in., another aspect of death that strikes a chord with scrooge early in the novella is when the ghost of xmas past reveals the scene when his sister, fan came to take him home from the boarding school for christmas. this is clearly a treasured memory for scrooge and the reader learns of what a strong bond the two had. ‘fan, fan, dear fan’ and she reminds him ‘father has changed’. the ghost reminds scrooge of the fact she has died and has only one surviving relative, her son, fred. scrooge instantly feels guilty about how he treated fred at the beginning when he received his usual invite to xmas dinner. dickens conveys here how a memory of a death has a significant impact on scrooge’s gradual transformation into a more caring person., in the extract, the reader is presented with the final scene from the ghost of xmas future and scrooge’s terror reaches a dramatic peak. the setting is described as ‘a worthy place’ with this adjective from dickens’ narrator serving to identify the bleak spot as one which scrooge heartily deserves. pathetic fallacy is used to convey the place with lines like ‘overrun by grass and weeds –the growth of vegetation’s death’ indicating how the unwanted weeds, a clear metaphor for death, have destroyed any flowers, and made the location one that resembles the fate that potentially awaited scrooge: one where no-one would tend his grave. it is even ‘walled in by houses’ and at the start the reader learns ‘the furniture was not the same’ in his office. this suggests that in death, everything continues on as normal –someone will take scrooge’s place as a loan shark, and no-one will notice or visit his grave as it is hidden from view., the mood of this piece builds in dramatic tension as scrooge desperately implores the ghost to speak and to reassure him that ‘if the courses be departed from, the ends will change. say it is thus’ but the short sentence ‘the spirit was as immovable as ever’ conveys how dickens allies death with silence and that perhaps it is not god or anyone else who will change our life’s path, only by reaching within one’s self that a genuine transformation can occur., further evidence of scrooge’s doom laden panic as he faces up to the reality of his own death is found in the verb ‘trembling’ as he approaches his own grave, the question ‘am i the man who lay upon the bed’ and the repeated exclamations ‘no, spirit oh, no’ overall, it is an extract that encapsulates the horror of facing up to one’s death, and the added fear for scrooge that no-one will remember him. it is the final catalyst in making him change his ways., the cratchits, cratchits extract, intro / “happy, grateful pleased” vs scrooge at school “not afraid” // “shut out the darkness” vs fred welcoming scrooge // “in a glow” vs belle’s family // grave / as good as gold, charles dickens wrote a christmas carol during the victorian times, when the gap between rich and poor was very big. in the novel dickens shows that money is not as important as family when it comes to happiness. he was inspired partly because his father had been taken into debtors’ prison when he was younger, something that would have left dickens understanding just how much more important family was than money., the first paragraph of this extract deals with the cratchits, who are not wealthy – as shown by their “scanty” clothes – but are happy. dickens uses four key adjectives to describe them: “happy, grateful, pleased” and “contented.” these adjectives show that despite the fact that they didn’t have any of the things that victorian society would have valued, they are still capable of being happy in a range of different ways. this contrasts directly with scrooge’s younger years, where he was “forgotten” by his family and left in school. scrooge is rescued by his younger sister, fanny, who comes to tell him that he is welcomed back because their father doesn’t make her feel “afraid” anymore. this adjective gives us a suggestion that their father may have been abusive to them, and would go some way towards understanding why scrooge rejects family so firmly later in his life., despite fanny’s death – another desertion that would have affected scrooge – her spirit lives on through her son, scrooge’s nephew fred, who repeatedly invites scrooge to his house for christmas dinner. scrooge repeatedly refuses with his famous “bah humbug” line, but fred insists that he will keep inviting him for “i pity” him. the fact that fred pities scrooge for being rude, shows just how far family will go to remain loyal to each other. this idea is also shown in the extract, where the families prepare to close their curtains so they can “shut out the darkness.” in many ways, these curtains could be seen as metaphoric blinds that help keep families together; they keep out the outside and sometimes even blind each other to our failings in order that the family unit is kept happy., the second paragraph also describes some “handsome girls, all hooded and fur-booted” who enter a house “in a glow.” here, dickens makes the point that family is not just for poor people, but is something that unites us all (like the “trip to the grave” that fred mentions in a speech earlier in the book.) the fact that they are “in a glow” suggests that they aren’t just happy, but are actually glowing – a symbol of light that is used repeatedly through christmas carol. also, the preposition “in” suggests that they are within this glow, protected by it, in the same way that families protect us all. in one of the most heart-breaking scenes in the book, scrooge is taken to see his former girlfriend with her new family, a family that could have been his own, had scrooge not chosen worship his “golden idol” above her., in the end though, it is the lack of respect given to his death that really changes scrooge for the better. once he’s seen his own “neglected” grave, he understands the true cost of being alone and understands the reasons why tiny tim’s father calls him, proudly, “as good as gold – and better”.

In this extract, we see how the Cratchit family are happy despite their poverty. The novella was published in 1893 which was in the middle of the Industrial Revolution, so many people were moving into cities, leading them to become overcrowded and therefore poverty-stricken. This poverty is evident here in the quote ‘ the family display of glass’ which we then learn consists of ‘two tumblers’ and a ‘custard cup without a handle’. The word ‘display’ shows just how little they own, as they seem proud to showcase these small dilapidated objects off, as this is all they have. However, they seem content as such trivial matters don’t change how they feel towards each other. Dickens compares the cups to ‘golden goblets’ which to me suggests that the Cratchits feel enriched simply by each other’s company, which is worth more to them than anything materialistic.

Earlier in the same scene, we learn first how vibrant the scene is among this family when Dickens personifies even the potatoes, saying they were ‘knocking’ to get out of their pan, as if the joyous atmosphere was so desirable to be amongst that even inanimate objects wanted to be part of the festivities. In the extract, we are told that the chestnuts cracked ‘noisily’ which conveys the same ideas, building a feeling of community despite the poverty in the scene.

The Ghost of Christmas present first takes Scrooge to see the Cratchits Chirstmas, which makes him realise the importance of family at this time, then continues this theme of company by showing him other scenes brought to life by Christmas spirit. For example, when the ghost takes him to a lighthouse, the poor workers there are described as having ‘horny hands’. This suggests that they have struggled through great hardships and have suffered more in their life than Scrooge ever would, and yet their show of unison when they all sing together at Christmas let them disregard their struggles for a time. By comparing the Cratchits and these workers, Dickens shows how the poor could overcome their lack of materialistic value and settle for things of emotional value.

One member of the Cratchit family who strongly highlights the struggles of the poor is Tiny Tim. In this extract his hand is described as a ‘withered little hand’ suggesting it has prematurely withered like a flower with no light. As the word ‘withered’ has connotations of a flower, to me, this could perhaps be seen as a metaphor for how something beautiful has been hindered and killed by the tight fistedness of the rich in society which is something that Dickens was strongly trying to convey in this novella. Light is often a symbol of hope so this flower could be shrivelled due to a lack of light, which is the lack of generosity from the upper classes. Dickens may have untended ‘withered little’ as a juxtaposition, as we would normally associate ‘withered’ with age and ‘little’ with childhood. This contrast highlights how wrong it is that an innocent child should be so shunned by society due to his wealth and status, and this demonstrates Dickens’ frustration over the inequality.

Dickens uses a similar adjective to describe the hands of the children Ignorance and Want. The word ‘shrivelled’ is used here, which compares these children, who are also victims of the struggles of poverty [sic] to Tiny Tim. It creates a similar image of premature decay to highlight the neglect of lower classes in society. The boy in this scene represents Ignorance and the ghost of Christmas Present tells Scrooge to ‘most of all beware the boy’. This strongly conveys Dickens’ message about poverty and the poor, as he is trying to tell society that ignoring the struggles and problems of the poor will be their downfall .

This is demonstrated in Stave 4 when Tiny Tim dies, and the Cratchits say that when Bob had Tiny Tim on his shoulders he walked ‘very fast indeed’. When we have a weight on our shoulders, the phrases normally implies a burden and a worry. However here I think that Tiny Tim represents the burden that the rich think the poor put upon society. Here, Dickens could be saying that if we only realised the potential of the poor they may actually prove helpful and contribute to society, however they are seen only dead weight on the shoulders of society due to the ignorance of the rich.

A Christmas Carol and Family

Question: How does Dickens present family as important to society in A Christmas Carol?

Dicken’s presents family as incredibly important in his allegorical novella ‘A Christmas Carol’ as Dicken’s own father was put in prison when he was young, having a profound effect on him. Scrooge juxtaposes other characters as he rejects the possibility of his own family, we see joy in the Cratchitt’s (despite their poverty) and finally Fred’s kindness is also shown towards his family.

In Stave 2 Scrooge rejects his fiancée by not protesting that he will love her and care for her. Belle uses the metaphor “a golden idol has replaced me” when she “releases” Scrooge from his engagement to her. This suggests that money and wealth are infinitely more important to him than his own family. The Ghost of the Past is instrumental in showing Scrooge what could have been when Belle is described as a “comely Matro” by the omniscient narrator to suggest that she has aged well, is happy and content due to her family. Furthermore, she is “surrounded by children” which shows her large family and how this could have been Scrooge’s fate if he had not loved wealth as much. Family was comforting in the Victorian society as the Welfare State was not in existence meaning families has to look after their elderly relations or they would end up in workhouses (which was the worst fate for the poor). In Stave one Fred is also introduced to us as Scrooge’s nephew and also rejected by him with the repetition of “Good Afternoon” showing how dismissive Scrooge can be when there is no financial gain. Fred shows kindness and caring towards him, but he rejects his offer of “Christmas Dinner” and to “dine with us” suggesting Scrooge likes his isolation and lonely, money-filled life.

Throughout the extract the family is seen as paramount to the happiness of the Cratchitt family. Bob is crushed with disappointment when he thinks Martha is not coming for Christmas dinner suggesting love, tenderness and a family bond towards his child. The adjective in “sudden declension in his high spirits” shows how disappointed he is. Tiny Trim and his siblings are extremely caring towards each other when the younger one “spirit him off” so he can “hear the pudding sing” which seems a simple pleasure, but shows that the little things in life matter and that siblings kindness is important, especially as Tiny Tim is the “cripple” and represents Christian goodwill and charity. Perhaps, Dickens was showing the effects of poverty through the presentation of the symbolic Tiny Tim who encourages the people in church to see him as Christmas is about Jesus and he “made beggars walk and blind men see” showing that although Tiny Tim is crippled he is the heart of the family and represents the way people should be towards each other. Christianity is a recurring theme in the novella and Dicken’s may have been highlighting the juxtaposition in the teachings of the bible and the actions of the wealthy in Victorian London and how Christian values were often bent to suit the opinions and thoughts of the wealthy. Dicken’s appears to be criticising through the charitable and kind and loving Cratchitt’ s the way family is rejected by Scrooge, due to his avarice, while those with the least are celebrated and celebrating Christianity and Christian values. It is ironic that Scrooge covets money and wealth more than he covets family and humanity. Further focus on the love and happiness reflected in the Cratchitt household is the way they all join together and share in the chores “in high procession” is used by Dickens to reflect the joyful atmosphere that is created in the small household when the “goose” is brought in for carving. The enthusiasm with which the goose is met is contagious and all the Cratchitt household join in the celebration of the goose “one murmur of delight” describes vividly the whole family gasping in joy at the sight of the food they have for Christmas dinner, despite the clear evidence of poverty that abounds in the household. Mrs Cratchitt is “brave in ribbons” which metaphorically describes the way she has made do and mended her dress to make it appear more festive as a piece of ribbon would have been a relatively cheap way of dressing up, while a new dress would have been an unquestionable expense and out of reach for the family. Although, poor she shows pride in her appearance and wants to look her best for the festivities and not disappoint Bob, her loving husband. Family here is shown as important as they all collectively share in the hardship and even though they are poor they don’t complain or grumble, they just focus on making the best of their situation. Symbolically, the Cratchitt family are the antithesis of Scrooge and his cruel hearted rejection of his own family.

Earlier in the novella, when the Ghost of the Past took him to the boarding school, we see a glimpse of humanity and caring towards family when “Little Fan” arrives to “take him home”. He exclaims that she is “quite a woman” showing his admiration, love and affection for her and his sadness at the reminder that she “died a young woman” which implies that perhaps, like many women at the time, childbirth was too much for her and she died. Dickens doesn’t explicitly state that childbirth was the cause of her death but there is the implication that Fred, Scrooge’s nephew, is a painful reminder of his loving sister to Scrooge and this could be why Scrooge continues to harden his heart against Fred. Alternatively, his hardened nature and his inability to love could be a mechanism that he has used over the years as he became more and more isolated and less interested in sharing experiences with other people. Scrooge’s behaviour, therefore could indicate fear and an unwillingness to open himself up to loss again, as in Stave 2 it is incredibly evident that Scrooge does have a heart and is capable of love and Fan, his sister, has experienced this love and attention from Scrooge. Scrooge’s nephew Fred is also an excellent example of how family should stick together through all the pain and heartache life can throw at people. Fred arrives at the “counting-house” on a bleak, dark and foggy Christmas Eve in stave one with the pathetic fallacy reflecting the inner sadness and miserly nature of Scrooge. Fred is cheerful and welcoming towards his grumpy uncle, who rejects the offer of Christmas dinner and in Stave 3 we see Scrooge become the butt of the joke during a game of “Guess Who”. Scrooge watches amused and seems to ironically miss the fact that he is being compared to an animal of some sort “Uncle Sccccrooooogggeee” is used in the game, too much hilarity as an example that no-one can guess initially. Scrooge watches on with the Ghost of the Present wistfully and plays along with the games, even though he can’t be seen or heard by Fred and the other guests. Although, they are being slightly unkind and poking fun at Scrooge there is some clear evidence of affection for him, due to the fact that he is family. In this scene family is again seen to be normal, caring and loving and everyone is together, looking out for each other and enjoying each other’s company. Dickens presents Fred’s Christmas as a larger and more opulent affair than the Cratchitt’ s but the day seems to represent a wider sort of family gathering with friends and nieces invited to the festivities as well, suggesting that we are all part of the same human race and that there are more similarities between us than differences.

Towards the end of the novella Dickens introduces us to the idea that Scrooge has changed and has reflected on how family is important and why he should join in and become a part of the family, both the Cratchitt family and his own nephew Scrooge. At the end of the novella Tiny Tim utters the phrase that is synonymous with his good nature “God bless us everyone!” which summarises the change that overcame Scrooge. Tim lived because Scrooge changed and became a better man. Scrooge vowed after seeing the Ghost of the Future, the death of Tiny Tim and the death of himself that he would “live in the past, the present and the future” showing that he understood the importance of being a better person. His first act of kindness after this proclamation is to send a “Turkey to the Cratchitt family” which was a huge gesture and showed that he valued their family and really did not want to see Tiny Tim die, he asks the Ghost of the Future “Will Tiny Tim live?” and this rhetorical question reveals that he already knows the answer to this. Without Scrooge’s epiphany and change Tim will die, so Scrooge shows that he recognises how pivotal to happiness Tiny Tim is by sending the food to them. Due to the way family is presented throughout the novella it is obvious that Scrooge begins to understand that family keeps people together and makes them more humane. In the end Scrooge goes to Fred’s house and is invited in. He also becomes “like a second father” to Tiny Tim and shows that he understands the importance of being a better person and the role that having a family plays in this.

Evidently, Dickens felt that family was centrally important to the novella as he places the Cratchitt family in the heart of it. They are show to us in Stave 3 during the Ghost of the Present’s revelations to Scrooge and arguably the scene with the Cratchitt family helps to change Scrooge from being a unkind, miserly and covetous man to a more charitable, kind and loving man. The presentation of family was extremely important in showing Scrooge that he could be a much better man.

ANOTHER ONE

They were a boy and a girl. Yellow, meagre, ragged, scowling, wolfish; but prostrate, too, in their humility. Where graceful youth should have filled their features out, and touched them with its freshest tints, a stale and shrivelled hand, like that of age, had pinched, and twisted them, and pulled them into shreds. Where angels might have sat enthroned, devils lurked, and glared out menacing. No change, no degradation, no perversion of humanity, in any grade, through all the mysteries of wonderful creation, has monsters half so horrible and dread.

Scrooge started back, appalled. Having them shown to him in this way, he tried to say they were fine children, but the words choked themselves, rather than be parties to a lie of such enormous magnitude. "Spirit, are they yours?" Scrooge could say no more.

"They are Man's," said the Spirit, looking down upon them. "And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased. Deny it!" cried the Spirit, stretching out its hand towards the city. "Slander those who tell it ye. Admit it for your factious purposes, and make it worse. And abide the end." "Have they no refuge or resource?" cried Scrooge. "Are there no prisons?" said the Spirit, turning on him for the last time with his own words. "Are there no workhouses?"

In A Christmas Carol, Dickens continually returns the readers’ focus on the children in Victorian society. The recurring character and the famous child in the novella is “Tiny” Tim Cratchit who becomes a metonym for thousands of faceless proletariat children neglected by a ruthless self-serving capitalist society. However, the shocking introduction of the minor characters of Ignorance and Want allows Dickens to create a political diatribe against the greed, selfishness and neglect of working-class children. These children contrasted against the earlier childhood version of Scrooge, serve to expose the dichotomy between the poor and rich in a deeply unequal and uneven society.

In this passage, Ignorance and Want become a metaphorical paradigm of society’s abandonment of the poor and the consequence of their inability to take social responsibility for poverty. The children have a primarily allegorical purpose evidenced in the focus of their physical features. The boy and girl are old before their time as Dickens says their faces are absent of “graceful youth” and the neglect of their physical, emotional and mental wellbeing is emphasised in the image of their “pinched” and “twisted” features. These adjectives heighten the idea of their youth being robbed and their childhood destroyed by physical hardships particularly given “twisted” is synonymous with something that is misshapen and grotesque. Their faces are described as being the antithesis of childhood innocence as Dickens uses hyperbolic language and describes how “devils lurked” in their faces and “glared out menacingly”. The use of hellish imagery accentuates the impression that their existence has been made unbearable by poverty and in turn has tainted and corrupted their view of the world as well as wrecked their own goodness and innocence. The children’s hostility, distrust and hatred of the Christian society meant to protect them is manifested in the verb “glared”, which is emblematic of their disillusionment and discontent. Dickens uses animal imagery to describe the children as “wolfish” which bolsters the impression of working-class children’s metamorphosis from innocent creatures to starving and exploited children hardened by their suffering. The colour “yellow” is symptomatic of sickness and ill health and furthers the idea of their physical and mental decay within a laissez faire society (where no welfare state or support to lift working class children out of absolute poverty exists). The philosopher John Locke theorised man is born a blank slate and our nature is changed by nurture; this idea is evidenced in the way in which societal neglect changes the nature of the children. It is clear that Dickens subverts the image of childhood innocence and sharply juxtaposes Ignorance and Want’s damaged childhood to the wealthy Scrooge’s happier memories of his powerful education (in which his imagination came alive by his schooling), in order to create pathos for working class children and force his contemporary Victorian readers to examine their conscience, particularly their lack of support for the “ragged” poor and homeless children in society.

Dickens believed how a society treated its children, revealed their social mores. He makes it evident that society is to blame for the suffering and dehumanisation of working-class children especially as the spirits uses the short declarative “They are man’s” to indicate societal responsibility and its moral failing. The hypocrisy of a Christian society is exemplified in the way in which the ghost mocks Scrooge and repeats his infamous questions back to him: “Are there no prisons?” and “Are there no workhouses?” The callousness of society and its evasion of social responsibility to take care of the most vulnerable is emphasised in the repetition of the nouns “prison” and “workhouses” which reminds contemporary readers that they marginalised and disenfranchisedinnocent working-class children by socially excluding them and denying them a good quality of life.

Dickens more importantly uses the recurring character construct of Tiny Tim to dispel the damaging societal stereotype that the working class are deserving of their poverty. In Stave 3, Tiny Tim is romanticised by Dickens to symbolise the beauty and goodness of working-class children who deserve society’s love and charity. He is poor but shows immense courage and huge generosity of spirit. When Tiny Tim uses the biblical story of how Jesus helped the blind and poor, and hopes the bourgeoise remember the poor during Christmas, he becomes a symbol of Jesus and once again exposes the hypocrisy of a Christian society that claims to help the poor but instead neglects them. Though Tiny Tim is dying, he shows courage and endless love and devotion to his family, best demonstrated when he says “God bless us everyone” as he sits next to his dad. Tiny Tim does not ask for anything for himself, but he is the antithesis to Scrooge because he is altruistic and puts others before him. In an increasingly amoral Victorian society, Tiny Tim provides comforting moral guidance on how to live a good life. However, Tiny Tim becomes a symbol of the abandonment of working-class children as he is powerless to improve his situation and is shown to die, leaving his family “still” and destroyed by their grief. His death symbolises how the bourgeoise have the power to change his fate and that of thousands of other vulnerable children but fail to do so, leaving innocent families broken by the death of their babies. The focus on the grief of the family after Tiny Tim dies creates intense pathos and is deliberate as Dickens reminds his readers of their shocking contextual reality - that one in five children in Victorian society did not live to see their fifth birthday.

The fairy-tale reversal in Tiny Tim’s death in Stave 5 is a piercing reminder that a progressive and utopic society is possible, but only if the bourgeoisie (represented by Scrooge) learn to love its children and take social responsibility by improving their poverty-stricken situations and therefore preventing their needless deaths. In this stave, Scrooge becomes a “second father” to Tiny Tim. This lexical phrase is highly symbolic because while it literally shows Scrooge has become more responsible and compassionate, it is an important metaphorical reminder that working-class parents desperately need the support of society to help raise their children and provide a good quality of life for them. The lexical choice “Second” is synonymous here with something that is additional and surplus and so consequently is a strong reminder of the importance of a more responsible and engaged society that is not ignorant or myopic of working-class suffering and exploitation. To reinforce this idea, In Stave 3, Dickens briefly uses the childhood character of Martha Cratchit to remind his readers of the exploitation and premature growing up of Victorian children. In this stave the children are working in the kitchen and Martha arrives home late as she has been working. She is responsible for bringing the goose. She is embraced by her mother. The image of Mrs Cratchit embracing her working child reminds readers how adult breadwinners simply could not support their family and relied upon them sacrificing their childhood. There is no doubt that these moments have great verisimilitude for modern readers, particularly given how two thirds of children living in poverty in the UK have working parents, painfully reminding new readers how the exploitation of the poor is as real as ever.

Finally, the gaiety of Fred's family dinner, contrasted against the hardship of the merry but compromised Cratchit family, is a strong reminder of the terrible and tragic disparity between the lives of the working class and wealthy in society, a context greatly affecting the Cratchit children. To conclude Dickens uses the recurring characters of children to explore society’s lack of responsibility towards its children but also its power to change the fate of these children simply by showing greater compassion and ensuring social justice happens.

https://money.com/ebenezer-scrooge-defense-charles-dickens-christmas-carol/

How Is Poverty Presented In A Christmas Carol Essay

This sample essay on How Is Poverty Presented In A Christmas Carol Essay offers an extensive list of facts and arguments related to it. The essay’s introduction, body paragraphs, and the conclusion are provided below.

With reference to the themes of wealth and poverty, what lessons do you think Charles Dickens wanted his audience to learn from the story of Scrooge’s changing character? Charles Dickens was using ‘A Christmas Carol’ as an attempt to challenge his audience of rich contemporaries into action to combat the problem of the mistreatment of the poor in London at that time.

Proficient in: A Christmas Carol

“ She followed all my directions. It was really easy to contact her and respond very fast as well. ”

Poverty at this time was rife in London. The penny-pinching, tight-fisted, upper and middle classes exploited the poor and underprivileged around them. Charles Dickens wished to change this with his novella ‘A Christmas Carol’.

He wished to communicate to them the problems that the poor were facing and that they should be helped and not just put in poor houses and prisons to ‘decrease the surplus population’.

He felt that the poor were being grossly mistreated and that his work will be able to get through to people as nothing else would. He hoped it would be widely read and would influence people especially at the time of Christmas as people tend to be kinder to their fellow human beings at that time of year. He wished to bring relief to the problems that the poor face day on day.

The Theme Of Poverty In A Christmas Carol

In Stave One, we are presented with the character of Scrooge at his most miserly, the embodiment of all of the appalling qualities of the Victorian money lenders at that time. Dickens uses the linguistic tool of pathetic fallacy in the introduction of this stave to great effect in his description of Scrooge: “He carried his own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the dogdays; and didn’t thaw it one degree at Christmas”. This is also a good example of how in his descriptions of people he only creates impossibly bad and evil characters (in this case Scrooge) and impossibly good and perfect characters as well (e.

g. the Cratchits). Another linguistic technique that Dickens uses powerfully in this book is listing adjectives and present participle verbs to build up a vivid picture of the characters, especially Scrooge. An example of this comes close to the beginning of stave one as Scrooge is being introduced to the reader: “Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! ” This is also a good example of the hyperbole Dickens uses to hammer home his message of the need for social reform.

We are then presented with Scrooge’s nephew at the counting house. He is juxtaposed with Scrooge, thus emphasising the awful qualities of his uncle. The portly gentlemen that visit the counting house next are used as a device to show Scrooge’s lack of social conscience. This works because of Scrooge’s response to their request of charity to the poor: ‘Are there no prisons? ‘ This is a direct response to the quote ‘Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire’ meaning that Scrooge was very unyielding with money.

Dickens brings the element of social commentary into the book again. When Scrooge returns from the counting house to his own deserted apartment he is visited by the ghost of his long dead partner Jacob Marley. Marley warns him of the trouble that will befall him if he doesn’t change his exploitative ways and informs him of the three spirits. They will show him where he has gone wrong in life and what the world will be like if he doesn’t change his life for the better. Stave Two begins with Scrooge being brought by the first spirit to his school with him as a child.

He is secluded from other people at this school during the Christmas holidays; his peers have somewhere to go during the break and Scrooge has nowhere. This shows to the reader where Scrooge’s hatred for Christmas comes from and also his feeling that all Christmas has done for him is ill. His solitude is heightened through the line, ‘One Christmas time, when yonder solitary child was left here all alone, he did come, for the first time, just like that. Poor boy. ‘ He is talking about himself here in the third person emphasising to the reader his feelings of loneliness at this time and how they shaped him later in life.

Another quotation from the text to support this argument is: ‘Then, with a rapidity of transition very foreign to his usual character, he said, in pity for his former self, “Poor boy! ” and cried again. ‘ I think Dicken’s message to his audience in this passage is that even if you have reasons for being the person you are now, you can still change. When Scrooge is brought to Fezziwig’s warehouse and office building we are shown an example of how a good businessman should act towards his employees and apprentices at Christmas. It also shows Scrooge’s guilty conscience.

He later says: ‘I should like to be able to say a word or two to my clerk just now. That’s all. ‘, after viewing how well Fezziwig treats his underlings. There is a realisation on Scrooge’s part of how badly he treats his employees compared to how he could when he remarks ‘He has the power to render us happy or unhappy; to make our service light or burdensome; a pleasure or a toil. Say that his power lies in words and looks; in things so slight and insignificant that it is impossible to add and count them up: what then? The happiness he gives, is quite as great as if it cost a fortune.

‘ He sees how differently he could behave towards Bob Cratchit and this is the beginning of Scrooge changing as a person. We are next brought to a Christmas later on when Scrooge’s infatuation with money has become so great that his fianci? is leaving him because of his love of money ”It matters little,’ she said, softly. ‘To you, very little. Another idol has displaced me; and if it can cheer and comfort you in time to come, as I would have tried to do, I have no just cause to grieve. ‘ ‘What Idol has displaced you? ‘ he rejoined. ‘A golden one. ”

This quote is a warning from Dickens to his audience of the dangers of becoming money-obsessed. It can drive away the people that you hold to be the most important to you and therefore this is to be avoided. This, I feel, is the beginning of Scrooge’s transformation and, through the line ”Spirit,’ said Scrooge, ‘show me no more. Conduct me home. Why do you delight to torture me? ‘,’ Scrooge’s realisation as to what he has lost. Dickens wanted to show his educated, rich audience that the pursuit of wealth was not everything in life. People should think of others, and that will bring happiness to them too.

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Themes and Analysis

A christmas carol, by charles dickens.

'A Christmas Carol' is a well-loved and commonly read novel that focuses on themes of Christmas and poverty.

About the Book

Article written by Lee-James Bovey

P.G.C.E degree.

Part of the reason that ‘ A Christmas Carol ‘ is so widely studied is the abundance of different themes that it touches upon. Below one can explore the themes, symbols, and more that appear throughout the novel.

A Christmas Carol Themes

Meaning of christmas.

With the title of the book being ‘ A Christmas Carol ‘ you would expect Christmas to feature prominently throughout the novel. What is interesting is that a lot of the traditions that Dickens writes about weren’t quite so commonplace before his novella. So while he did not invent these particular traditions many people credit him with popularizing them. The book also explores what you might call “the true meaning of Christmas” and while this might not be true from a Christian standpoint, from a morality/spiritual view, you could claim that it really does help to make that point.

The Poor in Victorian England

Of course, there is still a massive equality gap between the rich and the poor. I’m sure you will all e familiar with the “one percent” statistic. However, how the poor were treated was far more extreme in Victorian England. Any study of the time will tell you about the working conditions for the lower classes. Workhouses were a terrible place and menial and dangerous jobs such as sweeping chimneys still existed.

Charles Dickens only really scratched the surface of this. I think he wanted to make it accessible to all classes so he could better spread his message. I think this is why the character of Fezziwig exists to show that Scrooge is not representative of all the upper classes. He is designed to show that the wealthy can make a significant difference.

Gothic Conventions

‘ A Christmas Carol ‘ is rarely classified as a gothic novel. Partially because of the nature of its main character. But it does share a lot of gothic conventions. For a start, there is the use of ghosts throughout. Ghost stories were very popular during the Victorian era. Then there are some of the settings contained in ‘ A Christmas Carol ‘. Such as the graveyard at the end.

A Christmas Carol : Key Moments

Being such a short story there is very little that is extraneous. Of course, Dickens does use his trademark lengthy descriptions but nearly everything has a point. However, some of the scenes are to help develop Scrooge’s character and add backstory. So we have tried where possible to focus on the most vital sections of the novella.

Scrooge meets the charity collectors

At this point, Scrooge’s character has become fairly well established but the reason that this particular meeting is of such importance is that it highlight’s Scrooge’s outlook towards the poor as well as provides his comments about how the poor should be treated. These words are then used against him by the ghost of the Christmas present.

Scrooge meets the ghost of Jacob Marley

Jacob Marley’s demise is possibly part of what shaped Scrooge into the person that he is. Losing a business partner around Christmas time could not have been easy. That being said the fact that Marley is suffering damnation suggests that he too led a similar path to Scrooge. Marley’s ghost is the one that kicks everything off but also acts as a mirror to Scrooge to show him the error of his ways. However, this in itself would probably not have been enough to alter his ways.

Fezziwig’s party

Fezziwig’s character is an understated part of the story of ‘ A Christmas Carol ‘ . It acts as a mirror for Scrooge’s wealth and position but also as a stark contrast in approach. Fezziwg really represents what Scrooge has and what he could (and eventually does) become. This scene is very clever as well because not only does seeing the Fezziwig’s party give Scrooge’s character the chance to see how much power he wields and how that influence could be used but it also offers us the opportunity to see some of the aspects that shaped Scrooge into the person that he was.

Seeing Tiny Tim

If you watch any of the adaptations of ‘ A Christmas Carol ‘ Tiny Tim is almost always one of the loveable characters and with good reason. In many ways, it is the child who can most tug on Scrooge’s heartstrings.

We see when Scrooge is presented with the poor children (Want and Ignorance) how instinctively and perhaps despite his character that he is compelled to want to help. However, these are two children that he has no control over. When he sees Tiny Tim and his jubilance despite his disadvantages, Scrooge cannot help but feel compassion and by association guilt, as he has seen from the effect Fezziwg had on his staff that he could have a similar influence on Tiny Tim.

Hearing comments made about himself

Dickens is very clever in his use of dialogue in this section of the story as the Ghost of Future Yet To Come shows Scrooge the people that are talking about his death. There is a very real suggestion that Scrooge knows that the people are describing him. And perhaps it’s because we know the story so well, or maybe because it is pretty obvious, most readers will probably understand that they are in fact commenting on Scrooge. Of course, the suggestion that people might be talking about him is beastly to Scrooge.

The idea that anybody would be so callous about the dead is quite jarring and would have been especially impactful with a conservative Victorian readership. Of course, the fact that this is obvious does not detract from the big reveal due to the way that Dickens masterfully creates tension.

Being given a second chance

You could make a strong argument for this being a tale of redemption. Scrooge can see the error of his ways and then acts accordingly to become a better person. Of course, these changes seldom happen so quickly in reality and perhaps that’s part of the reason that ‘ A Christmas Carol ‘ does not receive the critical acclaim that you could argue it deserves.

What I think is really clever is that the story is framed so that when we see the ghost of Christmas past, seeing the things that shaped Scrooge into the man he is at the beginning of the play starts to let us feel sympathy for him so that when he is offered a second chance as a reader, we are glad he gets to redeem himself.

Style, Tone, and Figurative Language

The style of ‘ A Christmas Carol ‘ is conversational and direct. His narrator describes events as they happened and doesn’t spend a great deal of time on extraneous details. The tone is impatient as he does so. The speaker is clearly fed up with Scrooge’s behaviour and wants him to get to the end of his journey and realize his mistakes as soon as possible.

Throughout the book, Dickens makes use of metaphors, personification, imagery, and more. For example, the first ghost is a metaphor for how memories and the past shape one’s experience, while the last ghost is a metaphor for death and one’s legacy.

A Christmas Carol Symbols

Marley’s chains.

Marley’s chains symbolize the mistakes he’s made in life and the greed that controlled him. They now drag him down in death, and he’s forced to wander the earth, unable to undo what he did before.

The Ghost of Christmas Future

The ghost of Christmas future symbolizes death and the mistakes that are sure to haunt him after his death. Without the ghost of Christmas future, Scrooge would’ve been unlikely to change.

The Ghost of Christmas Past

The ghost of Christmas yet to come is a symbol of the effect that memories have on someone as they age. Without the trauma from Scrooge’s youth and the death of his sister, Fran, it’s unlikely that he would’ve become the person that he did.

What are the 4 major themes of A Christmas Carol ?

4 major themes of this novel are forgiveness, the influence of the past, greed, and poverty.

What does fire symbolize in A Christmas Carol ?

Fire symbolizes emotion and warmth. The dying fire at the beginning of the novel symbolizes Scrooge’s lack of either.

What is the problem in A Christmas Carol ?

The problem is internal, within Scrooge’s heart. He begins with no compassion for others but eventually learns a better way to live.

About Lee-James Bovey

Lee-James, a.k.a. LJ, has been a Book Analysis team member since it was first created. During the day, he's an English Teacher. During the night, he provides in-depth analysis and summary of books.

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• A Christmas Carol

How Does Dickens Portray Poverty In A Christmas Carol.

How Does Dickens Portray Poverty In A Christmas Carol

Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in October 1843. It was the voice of the poor in London at that period. There was a great divide between the classes, Dickens wrote a Christmas Carol so that his readers could learn about the class divide and the suffering of the poor in London; Dickens shows the contrast very well in A Christmas Carol.

Dickens came from a family who experienced debt. Charles’ younger years where evidently very hard, although he quoted that himself and his family ‘loved Christmas and celebrated it with a smile’, even thought he family lived on a low wage. When Dickens started to write A Christmas Carol he often walked the streets of London gathering ideas and looking at the poor people living in their slums.

There is no doubt that Dickens’ life encouraged him to write A Christmas Carol, his father was thrown in prison for being in debt and Charles had to work at a boot blackening factory on the banks of the Thames.

In A Christmas Carol we meet Scrooge ‘a tight fisted’ and very rich man, who lived life on as little as possible so not to ‘waste his well earned money’.

In a Christmas carol he is a caricature – the worst possible person anyone could have met.  Dickens lists negatives in the story to display the kind of man he is; Scrooge was a “squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner” Dickens also uses similes to describe him through out the book, it begins on a simile as ‘dead as a door nail’ this is a clichéd simile – a simile that is constantly used in common vocabulary. Dickens used a cliché because the poor and uneducated would have recognised and enjoyed his language, and the wealthy would realize the unarguable nature of the fact.  He also uses then to describe Scrooge he was “as solitary as an oyster” he refuses to speak with anyone long terms at the start of the book, Dickens writes that “even blind mans dogs even hide form him”, backing up that scrooge was a caricature.

 Scrooge plays the part of the upper classes in London, not noticing the divide in society. The upper classes believed that the poor where too lazy to work. Therefore the Victorians created workhouses – a place where the poor worked for a bed and food for them self and their families. These places were help slightly by the work of the philanthropists.

 Scrooge also does not like philanthropists – people who want to collect money to help the poor ``are there no prisons?'' asked Scrooge.  ``The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?'' said Scrooge.  ``Both very busy, sir.''

This show that Scrooge considers money over human welfare, and that he does not want to learn about the plight of the poor; this reflects the views of many wealthy businessmen of the day.  ``I'm very glad to hear it'' answers Scrooge to help the philanthropists regarding the workhouse. ``Many can't go there; and many would rather die.'' This depicts the truly callous side to the class division.

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``If they would rather die,'' said Scrooge, ``they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population”. The poor law was the only way of collecting money for the poor, and this tax was so very little that it hardly helped any of the poor or needy.

The first ghost Scrooge is haunted by is that of his old business partner Jacob Marley. He warns of three other ghosts that will haunt Scrooge in the coming night. Jacob and Scrooge ran the business of loan agents their aim was to target the poor people of London lending them large amounts of money, money these people could ill afford and when the deadline came to pay him back; and may couldn’t they where thrown into prison and their belongings sold. Marley wore chains ``I wear the chain I forged in life,'' said Marley ``I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it”. Marley wore the chains because of every bad thing he did in his lifetime another link was added to the chain. This shows us that Marley was not a kind person. “Is its pattern strange to you ?” The ghost questions Scrooge. Marley is warning Scrooge that when he dies he shall have a chain of his own due to all his bad deeds. Marley states that making money was his business “mankind was my business”

At one o’clock, the ghost appears, the features of the ghost were ever changing an old man a young child. This portrays the two ages that would suffer the most at Christmas time; it also shows the in fluctuation between past – Scrooges youth and the present -Scrooge nowadays.

The Ghost shows Scrooge a person; Scrooge knew him very well it was his former self. “He wept to see his poor forgotten self as he used to be”. He Remember how he used to celebrate Christmas and enjoy doing so, this was a contrast to what he is now a sad lonely old man. He wept with pity again. This section of the text is considered to be semi-autobiographical. No wonder Dickens was moved to help the poor Scrooge  (Dickens) lived his childhood in squalor and poverty. ``Let us see another Christmas!” said the ghost soothingly to Scrooge. A child has been left alone by a woman, a woman Scrooge knew well, “she died when she was a woman” This child is Scrooges nephew, they argue about Christmas every year, his nephew loves Christmas even thought he is poor, and he is also very positive. Scrooge’s nephew is happy and joyous despite being poor. Dickens tells the businessman to invest in their families rather then purely business.

At the end of this stave Dickens wants the readers to feel sympathy and to pity Scrooge. We see a challenge a head of Scrooge making us want to read on. In A Christmas carol Fezziewig is portrayed as a caricature the total opposite to Scrooge, where as Scrooge is a “tight fisted old man” Fezziewig is a happy, joyful, energetic man. Scrooge reacts with excitement and happiness – a sign of his former self, to see his former boss, “Scrooge cried in great excitement” scrooge had happy memories of the time he spent at Fezziewigs. There are many different classes of people at Fezziewigs party, he treats them all with equality and kindness – Dickens is trying to set the standard for a good boss, “In came the housemaid, with her cousin, the baker. In came the cook, with her brother's particular friend, the milkman. In came the boy from over the way, who was suspected of not having board enough from his master. The way Scrooge reacts shows us that he was one a very happy man; Dickens uses Fezziewig as an ideal.

Dickens tells us that all the classes of society are welcome. In Dickens’s view Fezziewig is an ideal employer and the antithesis of Scrooge. Dickens wants employers to consider their own actions.

The spirit takes Scrooge to see his former love Belle. This former relationship was one that would of effected Scrooge greatly as he grew older however his interests where more for work rather than love. Belle says that she has been replaced by a ‘golden idol’ Scrooge shows signs of avarice and greed. This suggests that he puts wealth over emotions. The relentless Ghost told him to observe what happened next. When Belle agreed to marry they where both poor adolescents who had the rest of their lives to look forward to, Scrooge does not he his now very rich Belle on the other hand is not. Belles’ emotions are mixed to concerning Scrooge, anger and sadness.

“She left him and they parted”

The ghost then goes on to show Belle and her now present family. She is not rich but she is still extremely happy. She is sharing her full heartedness with her children and her husband. Dickens want people to think that if people act like Scrooge will not find love and will lead a lonely life.

Scrooge collapses and finds himself in his room.

When the clock struck the next hour the ghost appeared but much different to the first. “The ghost sat in the middle of a room, this room was full of Heaped up on the floor, to form a kind of throne, were turkeys, geese, game, poultry, brawn, great joints of meat, sucking-pigs, long wreaths of sausages, mince-pies, plum-puddings, barrels of oysters, red-hot chestnuts, cherry-cheeked apples, juicy oranges, luscious pears, immense twelfth-cakes, and seething bowls of punch, that made the chamber dim. This list shows all of the luxurious good that wealthy people would class as mandatory at Christmas, but of which the poor can only dream of. ``Come in!'' exclaimed the Ghost. ``Come in. and know me better, man!'' The ghost of Christmas present symbolises goodness and benevolence. Much like a man everybody associates with Christmas: Santa Clause.

The ghost shows Scrooge, Bob Cratchit   and his Christmas, the Cratchits have an extremely good Christmas considering what Scrooge pays Bob. Tiny Tim is Bobs crippled son and he was close to death but on this occasion even though he was so weak and feeble he still manages to enjoy Christmas on what little money the Cratchits owned. Bob stated that at church Tim was “As good as gold, and better”. This shows the slow down fall of his child and how Tim thinks about his life “He told me, coming home, that he hoped the people saw him in the church, because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to remember upon Christmas Day, who made lame beggars walk, and blind men see.” Dickens intrudes here to put across the Christian point of Christmas that Jesus watches and judges us all. Bob finds wealth in his family unlike Scrooge.

The Cratchits sit and eat their Christmas meal, Nobody comments on the size of it they just enjoy what Bobs little money has provided them with. “eeked out with apple sauce”. The small bird is made to feed a family because of the cheap thing they have done and served with it.

Scrooge notices something from the spirits legs. ``Forgive me if I am not justified in what I ask,'' said Scrooge, looking intently at the Spirit's robe, ``but I see something strange, and not belonging to yourself, protruding from your skirts. Is it a foot or a claw!'' Hidden in the sprits robe are two children. The Victorians believed in innocent and the vulnerability of the children this would have shocked the readers. They were a boy and girl. Yellow, meagre, ragged, scowling, wolfish; but prostrate, too, in their humility. Ignorance – the boy implies the wealthy do not want to know the plight of the poor. The girl – want tells of all the things the poor people want and do not have. This shows the true disgust of the children. The major theme in A Christmas Carol was rooted in Dickens' observations of the plight of the children of London's poor. It has been said of the times that sex was the only affordable pleasure for the poor; the result was thousands of children living in unimaginable poverty, filth, and disease.

In 1839 it was estimated that nearly half of all funerals in London were for children under the age of ten. Those who survived grew up without education or resource and virtually no chance to escape the cycle of poverty. Dickens felt that this cycle of poverty could only be broken through education and became interested in the Ragged Schools in London. Scrooge finds himself soon after in his room awaiting the Ghost of Christmas yet to come. On the third toll of the bell he came, he was dressed in robes of black long and dark, this resembles the grim reaper also having connections to death. The ghost haunts Scrooge by not speaking just pointing with his finger and nodding his head. The ghost takes Scrooge to a town, not unknown to Scrooge. Where a group of low lifed merchants where talking about their possessions one had bedclothes one had nightgown and one has curtains they where talking with disgust about who they had these items from. ``Every person has a right to take care of themselves. He  always did! ''This shows that the person is dead and they have stolen from them. This person is Scrooge, but little does Scrooge know it. The ghost then takes Scrooge to the Cratchits house Scrooge is happy to see the house, but his happiness dithers when he sees inside. Tiny Tim is dead . This is pathos, Dickens uses Tim’s death to make the wealthy of London be aware of the influence they had on people’s lives. We are lead to believe that Tim has died due to the lack of medical treatment provided this is because of lack of money. The ghost takes the weeping Scrooge to a cemetery a ghost points to a headstone. Scrooge reluctantly wipes off the frost from the stone with his bear hand. He shakily ran over to the sprit and grabbed his robes shaking them violently.

``Spirit!'' he cried, tight clutching at its robe, ``hear me! I am not the man I was. I will not be the man I must have been but for this intercourse. Why show me this, if I am past all hope?”

Stave five is titled the end of it all” as indeed it is. Dickens shows his readers Scrooge’s redemption of his former self “I am as happy as an angel”

Dickens shows that anybody can change, he troughs down the challenge to the wealthy.

“He had no further intercourse with Spirits, but lived upon the Total Abstinence Principle, ever afterwards; and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God Bless Us, Every One!”

By Joshua Charles 10JGM

Document Details

• Word Count 2404
• Page Count 4
• Subject English

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Suffering of the Poor as a Social Problem in Christmas Carol

• Category: Literature , Social Issues
• Topic: A Christmas Carol , Charles Dickens , Hunger

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