A Prose Study - Charles Dickens's 'A Christmas Carol'

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Ruth Pates

A Prose Study -

Charles Dickens’s

‘A Christmas Carol’

Scrooge has become one of the most commonly know characters from Charles Dickens’s novels, in the respect that he is the most horrible and callus of all his characters, this dastardly individual was used to convey a serious social message about the extreme neglect of Victorian employees.

The first chapter of ‘A Christmas Carol’ prepares the reader for the rest of the novel. Dickens does this by creating antipathy for scrooge and by introducing gothic elements to prepare the reader for the arrival of the spirits later on in the book. In the 18th century Charles Dickens was one of the most important and listened to social commentators. ‘A Christmas Carol’ was written to convey Dickens’s social message to the rich.

Dickens creates antipathy for scrooge because he wants his readers to dislike scrooge and reject his way of life. Scrooge represented everything Dickens hated in the rich and this dislike is conveyed using Dickens own didactic voice; through the way scrooge behaves towards others; and through the description of scrooges house and home.

By using his own didactic voice Dickens directs the readers thoughts. Charles Dickens portrays Scrooge as inhuman and unfeeling. This is shown through the author’s use of the comparison of Scrooge to the weather:

“No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting rain was less open to entreaty”

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The fact Scrooge is said by Dickens to be ‘bitterer’ than the wind gets across the idea of the coldness of Scrooges nature. By comparing Scrooge to the weather and suggesting he was less merciful than the weather, Dickens is indicating how heartless scrooge is, using the repetition of ‘no’ and the rule of three to stress this idea.

By describing and showing scrooges behaviour towards others Dickens is allowing the reader to make a judgement of scrooge for themselves.

Scrooge’s attitude to his late, only friend, Marley, shows how cold and unfeeling scrooge is:

“An excellent man of business ...

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