Dickens describes the weather to be “cold, bleak, biting” on Christmas Eve (The day in which the story is set). The environment he’s in is similar to his personality and it appears to be that he is distant from everyone else; it is obvious that he prefers it this way. You can tell there is something going to happen (but you don’t know what) because the atmosphere is dark, candle lit, there is fog, and by the sounds of it, it is fairly quiet, apart from the sound of people outside shuffling and wheezing. This creates a little bit of suspense.
In this paragraph I am going to look at is Scrooge’s actual description, the language Dickens uses in this emphasises his cold heartedness fantastically.
A quote from this describes his physical appearance “The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice.” The language he uses here is very descriptive and he describes each feature of Scrooge in a very unappealing way to the reader.
Another quote from this paragraph shows Scrooges personality “External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he,” This once again has very descriptive language used, basically implying that he is a cold hearted; bitter old man. Both of these previous quotes put together portrays an image of Scrooge in the readers mind as being stern looking; cold hearted; old man; that keeps himself to himself.
In this paragraph I am going to look at the social, historical and cultural context of the novel. The novel was written in a different era than today, and was written in the Victorian era. This era was all about being wealthy or not, the trend set was that the poor were looked down upon and the wealthier members of society were just plain greedy. Scrooge is the representative of the greedy uncaring wealthy society in this novel that have no care for the welfare of people and only care about how much money they have. A fine example of when Scrooge portrays this is in the following quote, when Scrooge sends away two charity men without a penny to help the cause.
“’What shall I put you down for?’
‘Nothing!’ Scrooge replied.
‘You wish to be anonymous?’
I wish to be left alone’ said Scrooge”
This shows how uncaring he is to not want to help the less fortunate as he, and greedy because he does not want to hand over any of his own well earned money. The Victorians attitude to the poor was that it was basically their fault and well deserved so they put them in ‘Union workhouses’; ‘Treadmills’; ‘Prisons’ and there was a ‘Poor Law’ all of which are told by Scrooge himself as being the place for the poor, this shows he has no regard for anyone but himself. The opening chapter provokes the reader for the hatred to follow in the novel to Scrooge, as it gives us a great description of his physical appearance, his personality and how other people react to him. Making us feel the same way instantly.
Charles Dickens thoughts and feelings about selfishness and kindness are portrayed through this novel. I think he is trying to teach the reader a lesson. He does this by producing a caricature (Scrooge) of the Victorian era of meanness, the way he is portrayed gives you hatred towards him and therefore does not make you want to be like him, as he badly treats the poor and selfish with his money. Dickens’ message is very clear that, is you are not kind to people then you will have something bad happen to you in your afterlife. This is proved clear when Marley’s ghost appears, and explains to Scrooge that there is “’No rest, no peace. Incessant torture of remorse’” as he when he was living acted just as Scrooge does.
Dickens portrays Scrooge in many different but excellent ways and makes you feel a real sense of hatred for him by doing this. By setting the novel in the Victorian era it helps to create an image of the destitute poor and how badly people like Scrooge treat them. The actual setting he is in is similar to Scrooges personality and features, the use of similes and other descriptive language all add to Scrooges nasty nature. To sum up what the reader is encouraged to feel in the first chapter is basic hatred for Scrooge.
GCSE ENGLISH
A Christmas Carol