How does Charles Dickens use language to give us a portrait of life in Victorian England. A Christmas Carol

The clothing that people wore in the Victorian times were waistcoats, tights, boots, tassels on the lather bristling, coat-skirts, hooded and fur booted, theses all describe the clothing that the well off people wore during that period, on the other hand the poor had shoes that were way from waterproof, the clothes that they wore were scanty and the only place they would be able to buy things from is the pawnbrokers. The poor differed so much compare to the rich it was too easy to tell where they came from.

The weather in London on the Victorian times was the thing that made London look too dark, but still gives us a description on the cold, and misty feeling, "the yard was so dark that even Scrooge, who knew its every stone, was frain to grope his hands. The fog and frost so hung about the black old gateway of the house, that it seemed as if the genius of the weather sat in mournful threshold", this description gives the readers or audience a feeling of the weather and what it felt like there are many more descriptions that have the weather and the way that the atmosphere was like.

This is also a quote that explains the weather, "getting dark and snowing pretty heavily", it helps the readers or audience to visualise what its really like.

"Bleak and desert moor, were monstrous masses of rude stone were cast about, as though it were the burial place of giants; and water spread itself whosesoever it listed", this quote definitely helps the readers or audience feel the Victorian times, because it refers to something that isn't there "as though it were the burial place for giants" it helps the readers or audience visualise with a picture on how large the masses of rude stone were.

"the frost that held its prisoner; and nothing grew but moss, and coarse, rank grass.", this describes the way that the floor looked like. As rank grass with moss growing over it. It gives the readers or audience a bad view to the way that the grass looked like, but is also effective because it shows that all the dark and mist made the moss grown and the grass couldn't live without enough light, but the grass is trying to grow just cant well enough because of the weather.

Some of the language that Charles used in the book we don't understand, this is because times have moved on. The only way you could read the book and understand it is by reading the whole sentences and that gives us an effect of what the word meant for instance "melancholy tavern" a lot of people wouldn't understand what is going on but if you read the rest of the sentence "scrooge took his melancholy dinner in his usual melancholy tavern" this tells the readers or audience that the tavern must be a posh word to use for a restaurant.

On the other hand Charles doesn't only have descriptions of the place and what it looked like he also has a description on the people, the food and the clothing that people wore during that time for example, "turkeys, geese, gane, poultry brawn, great joints of meat sucking pigs, long wreaths of sausages, mince pies, plum puddings, barrels of oysters, red hot chestnuts, cherry cheeked apples, juicy oranges, luscious pears, immense twelfth callus, and seething bowls of punch" this is giving the readers or audience an overview on what the food was like in that time and who was it for. The richer people ate this sort of food for Christmas dinners and as they eating the most delicious food there was also another side that the poor had.