How does Dickens explore the possibility of change in A Christmas Carol?

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How does Dickens explore the possibility of change in ‘‘A Christmas Carol’’?

A Christmas Carol was first published on 19th December 1843 which was written by Charles Dickens, one of the best known writers of all time. It took Dickens six weeks to write the novel. The novel tells a story about ‘‘cold hearted, misery old man’’ Ebenzer Scrooge (the protagonist), a businessman who hates everyone and only cares about himself and his business. He refuses to give money to charities and scares carol singers away at Christmas time. His behaviour towards the people in his community is extremely rude and selfish. Everyone in the community hates Scrooge and doesn’t even care if he dies. One Christmas Eve when Scrooge is on his own at his house, he is haunted by his dead business partner, Marley. Scrooge is told by Marley about his disgusting attitude towards others and also informs him that three ghosts, Ghost of Christmas Past, Present and Yet To Come will visit him each night. At first, Ghost of Christmas Past visits Scrooge and shows him his happy past life. He remembers those days that he is shown and tears fall from his eyes but he refuses that he cried. He tells Ghost of Christmas Past to ‘‘show him no more’’. He doesn’t want to see anymore of his happy life because his heart is still cold. Then, Ghost of Christmas Present visits him. The Ghost shows him people around the world celebrating Christmas, Fred (his nephew), Cratchit family suffering. Seeing all this, Scrooge has a sign of regret and understanding but he is still not fully changed. Finally, The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come visits Scrooge. The Ghost shows Scrooge his death and horrible things that could happen if the things stay the same. Seeing all those things, Scrooge realizes his mistakes and changes for good. He realizes that all three ghosts visited him at one night. At Christmas day, he sends out a massive turkey to the Cratchit family, finds the charity collectors that he refused to donate earlier and donates a lot of money, goes to Fred to celebrate Christmas with his family and he lives happily ever after. Charles Dickens wanted the book to make the readers think that everyone has the capacity to change no matter how cruel a person is. Dickens wanted the book to entertain the readers but at the same time he wanted to give out a clear message that ‘‘if everyone is more generous, then world would be so much better than what it is now’’.  

Charles Dickens faced many difficulties in his childhood. He was born in England on February 7, 1812 to a father named John Dickens, a clerk who worked at the Navy Pay Office and to a mother named Elizabeth Dickens. He was the second of eight children. By having such a huge family, his dad couldn’t afford to buy everyone what they wanted and often faced financial difficulties. Dickens’ family moved to London in 1814 then two years later, they moved to Chaltham, Kent where he spent his early childhood. Dickens had to move again due to the difficulties to pay of the rent. The family then moved to Camden Town, London. It was one of the poorest area of London at that time. This helped Dickens realise how hard life was at that time for Low-class publics. Dickens faced even more difficulties after his dad, John Dickens was imprisoned in Marshalsea Prison because of the debt that he couldn’t pay off. His whole family had to go to the prison except him because he was put to work at Warren’s Blacking Factory, where he was paid six shillings a week wrapping shoe-black bottles to help his family out. Because of this, he had to leave school which he did not really want. He was upset and never forgot the experience. This also made Dickens mentally strong as he had to work very hard every single day at such a young age. After couple of months, his father was released from prison which allowed him to go back to school. He studied as a day pupil at school in London. When Dickens turned 15, he found employment as an office boy at an attorney’s while he studied at night. In 1829, he became a reporter at Doctor’s Common Court. By 1832, he had become a very successful shorthand reporter of Parliamentary debates in the House of Commons, and began work as a reporter for a newspaper. His work experience at Blacking Factory haunted him all of his life. His difficult childhood inspired him to be a successful person and make sure that his kids wouldn’t have to go through what he experienced in his childhood. Most of Dickens’ novels are about poverty and he mostly wanted higher class society to read his books. Dickens wanted to give out a message to his readers about treating fairly, having some heart. He wanted higher class society to think and be more generous to a working class society. His main objective in his mind was that ‘‘society needs to change’’.

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We first meet Scrooge through the eyes of the narrator in a very negative way. Dickens deliberately uses narrator to describe Scrooge because he wants the readers to already have a negative thought about Scrooge before meeting him. He is described as ‘‘squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner!”

Dickens uses lists to describe Scrooge in every detail. Scrooge is described as “The repetition and negative verbs that are rhythmic emphasizes the harshness that is inside Scrooge’s mind.  

‘‘Hard and sharp as a flint’’ (simile) is also another technique used by Dickens to describe Scrooge. This ...

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