"Dickens had intended through a stirring and entertaining tale, to awaken his readers' minds and hearts to the suffering of the poor." Did he succeed?

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Dickens had intended through a stirring and entertaining tale, to awaken his readers’ minds and hearts to the suffering of the poor.”  Did he succeed?

Dickens’s concern in ‘A Christmas Carol’ was to make his reading public aware of the very real abuses in society.  When Dickens wrote ‘A Christmas Carol’ in 1843 the terrible plight of the poor seemed unnoticed by many educated people so Dickens knew that a stirring tale would be more effective in pointing out the evils in society than a dull, worthy tract.  I intend to prove that Dickens had intended to awaken his readers’ minds and hearts and show them the suffering of the poor through a stirring and entertaining tale.  

Dickens knew that it was useless to write a mere polemic.  The readers must be entertained, amused, enthralled and moved.  He planned a Christmas book because ghost stories were traditional at Christmas and also, because the new German way of celebrating Christmas emphasized present giving and concern for children.

Middle class Victorian Children were considered very precious and were much sheltered from the realness of life.  Working class children were treated as economic units and expected to earn their keep from an early age.  Have a look at some of the characters:

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Martha Cratchit is a milliner, a trade notorious for its low pay and appalling working conditions.  Many girls resorted to prostitution in order to make enough money to have dinner on the table.

Tiny Tim is crippled by an unspecified disease and children like him die at very young age.

        Although a few times Dickens does describe the conditions directly, most of the time he does, it is done indirectly.  Dickens doesn’t wish to offend anyone in the writing of the book, and a note of this is made in the preface.  He says that he doesn’t want to “Put ...

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