Year 11 literature exam text Charles Dickens ‘A Christmas Carol’

A Christmas Carol OBJ: To gain an overview of the themes in the novel, and set it in historical context

Who was Charles Dickens? Born in Portsea, 1812-1870. One of eight children Family became poor over the years, and his Father was the first of his family to go to jail. Charles lived with a family friend, but to pay for boarding, he was forced to leave school and work in a factory for 10 hrs a day. He eventually got a better job in a law office, then as a junior clerk, then as a freelance journalist before he wrote his own books.

Dickens stories A Christmas Carol The Adventures of Oliver Twist Great Expectations A Tale Of Two Cities Hard Times Bleak House ……..

Themes in Dickens Poverty Unfair society Hunger Working conditions Child labour Poor and work houses Crime Rich and poor divide Kindness in people, despite their hardships horrible histories working children in Victorian times video clips of victorian life

Themes in ‘A Christmas carol’ Compassion and forgiveness In A Christmas Carol, compassion is the main ingredient put forward by Dickens. Scrooge experiences contrast between those people who are willing to feel pity towards him (his ex-fiancée, his nephew, his clerk) and those who coldly dismiss him as he does them (fellow business people, his servants, the pawn shop owner). Then he reaches deep inside himself and finds a whole bunch of empathy that's he's been repressing, and he's flooded with nothing but good vibes toward those around him!

Themes in ‘A Christmas carol’ Isolation Of all the scary visions and horrible emotions ‘A Christmas Carol’ describes, there is pretty much none that is quite so overwhelmingly devastating as being all alone. Over and over again we get to see people who have been geographically or mentally isolated by their life circumstances. In all of these cases, everyone we see struggles as best they can to reverse the isolation and to seek out other humans. That's what makes Scrooge such a monstrous character; he has isolated himself rather than being forced into that state.

Themes in ‘A Christmas carol’ Transformation ‘A Christmas Carol’ has all sorts of supernatural transformations, and readers are constantly invited to feast their eyes on the way an object, a person, or even a whole scene melts into another, often totally without commentary from the characters who are living it. All this is fitting for a work which is in itself a story of two transformations—a young lonely boy's gradual evolution into an embittered old man, and the Herculean efforts necessary to reconnect that old man back to the emotionally available person he once used to be.

Themes in ‘A Christmas carol’ Family ‘A Christmas Carol’ presents family life as the most normal and healthiest experience that all humans should aspire to. How Victorian! (Context!)The inspirational characters are members of large families or family groupings—Bob Cratchit, Fezziwig, the miner, and Scrooge's ex-fiancée. But even the family-less folks strive to connect in family-like groupings. In the end, it is not enough that Scrooge simply be rehabilitated as a person—he also has to be re-incorporated into family life as Fred's uncle and father figure to Tiny Tim.

Themes in ‘A Christmas carol’ Memories and the past One of the most magical elements of ‘A Christmas Carol’ is that memories are totally accessible. Scrooge doesn't have to remember them—he lives them, which means his memories aren't tainted by, well, other memories and lessons learned (or unlearned). With the right guides, Scrooge is able to examine and draw conclusions from specifically those memories that are most relevant to the problems he faces in real time. At the same time, these same memories are used to humanise and explain the otherwise monstrous and almost inhuman Scrooge—to make readers sympathise with him rather writing him off a monster.

Themes in ‘A Christmas carol’ Guilt and blame Although ‘A Christmas Carol’ focuses on generosity and compassion, the novella argues for another, equally important motivator for good behaviour—feeling guilty when doing bad deeds. A large part of what makes Scrooge such a monster is that he appears to feel no remorse for his cruel indifference and no sense of responsibility for the welfare of others. As he remembers and works through his many bad deeds through the visions brought by the Christmas Ghosts, Scrooge gradually regains his ability to feel shame about what he has done, which means he can police his own behaviour in the future.

Themes in ‘A Christmas carol’ Christmas and Tradition A Christmas Carol was published as a Christmas story, and takes the form of a Christian morality tale containing a moral lesson that the highly religious and traditional English population of Dickens’ time would enjoy. Its structure, with five “staves” instead of chapters, is a metaphor for a simple song, with a beginning, middle and end. Dickens uses the idea of singing to connect the story to the joyful Christian traditions of the season, such as caroling, while at the same filling it with more serious, politically-minded themes.

Themes in ‘A Christmas carol’ Greed Scrooge is a caricature of a miser, greedy and mean in every way. He spends all day in his counting house looking after his money but is so cheap that he keeps his house in darkness, his fire small and allows no extravagance even on Christmas day. But we soon learn that he is the most impoverished character – he is lacking love, warmth and the spirit of Christmas, all of which make lives like Bob Cratchit’s so worth living despite their hardships.

Themes in ‘A Christmas carol’ Victorian society and the Poor Laws ‘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. 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 of 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.

A 10 step perfect essay plan…… • 1. MOMENTS: 4-6 moments in the play/prose that link to the question • 2. PLOT: 4 parts of the plot that link to the question • 3. QUOTATIONS: 8 relevant quotations • 4. CHARACTERS: what do we learn about them and how do they interact with each other? • 5. THEMES: what ideas does the play/prose explore? • 6. MESSAGE: what did the writer want us to think about? • 7. CONTEXT: what was relevant at the time of writing? • 8. SETTING: where is it set, how does it link to the themes, message and characters? • 9. FEELINGS: of the reader; what does the writer want the reader to feel? • 10. PERSONAL: your response to the play/prose?