A Christmas Carol Context
- Created by: LioraSilas
- Created on: 18-03-19 20:37
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- A Christmas Carol Context
- Charles Dickens
- Grew up in poverty
- Made his view of the poor different to other successful people
- Wanted to influence others with his writing about the poor's needs
- Worked in a factory at 12
- Made his view of the poor different to other successful people
- Wrote the novella to explore the problem of poverty and criticize the rich
- Rich were dismissing/ ignoring the problem
- If the poor were paid fairly there would be less need for charity laws
- Many of society's problems were caused by lack of education
- Shown by the child Ignorance in STAVE 3 - showed how lack of education doomed the poor to a life of poverty
- Dickens' ideas of Christianity compared to society's view
- Society's view
- A good Christian attended church, avoided alcohol and sex ect. (moral code)
- Dickens' view
- A good Christian was a good PERSON - charitable, humble, forgiving - not necessarily religious
- Society's view
- Grew up in poverty
- Written in 1843
- Industrial revolution
- Many moved from rural areas to cities
- Led to overpopulation
- Poverty
- Many lived in packed slums, no healthcare, no hygiene, disease, hunger crime, exploitation etc
- Poverty
- Led to overpopulation
- Lots of new machines built
- People lost their jobs
- Poverty
- Many lived in packed slums, no healthcare, no hygiene, disease, hunger crime, exploitation etc
- Poverty
- People lost their jobs
- Many moved from rural areas to cities
- Industrial revolution
- Message is that the behavior of the rich needs to change - social reform
- Social responsibility!
- People have a duty to help the less fortunate
- Social responsibility!
- Set at Christmas
- Dickens believed it is a time where everyone is treated with kindness and everyone is equal
- Contrast between characters shows how bad the poverty was
- Scrooge is very rich
- Could easily help lots of poor people but chooses not to out of spite and greed
- Bob Cratchit is very poor
- Can hardly provide for his family and ill son
- Scrooge is very rich
- Thomas Malthus 1798
- Said that the human population would always be higher than food supplies leading to famine
- So people should have smaller families to stop overpopulation
- Scrooge says something similar to this theory in the novella in Stave 1
- "If they'd rather die... they'd better do it and decrease the surplus population"
- Scrooge says something similar to this theory in the novella in Stave 1
- So people should have smaller families to stop overpopulation
- Dickens disagreed with the theory as he thought there was enough food to go around if the rich would share it with the poor
- In Stave 3 the Ghost of Christmas Present shows Scrooge all the food on display in shops - the poor couldn't afford it but it was enough to feed them
- Said that the human population would always be higher than food supplies leading to famine
- 1834 Poor Law
- Introduced to reduce financial help available to the poor
- Unemployed people must go to workhouses for food and shelter
- Terrible places, used to discourage the poor from seeking help
- People thought previous Poor Laws helped the poor TOO much - made them lazy
- Proof in novel of Victorian views/ Dickens' towards the poor
- STAVE 1
- Scrooge says he can't afford to make "idle people merry" - he support workhouses + prisons
- Dickens uses the phrase "once upon a time" to describe Scrooge's father being kinder when he was younger - shows that people can change from good - bad / bad - good
- STAVE 2
- STAVE 3
- STAVE 4
- STAVE 5
- Scrooge says "I will try to honour Christmas in my heat, and try to keep it all year" - shows Dickens' belief that Christmas isn't the only day to treat others well
- STAVE 1
- Industrial revolution
- created a society where there was a huge gap between the rich and the poor
- Most people were only concerned with having money - enough to support themselves, or just because they wanted more
- Not many cared for others like Bob Cratchit
- Can be seen when Scrooge only cares about money and when the poor steal the clothes off of Scrooge's dead body in desperation
- Not many cared for others like Bob Cratchit
- Charles Dickens
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