How Does Dickens Portray Poverty In A Christmas Carol.

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How Does Dickens Portray Poverty In A Christmas Carol

Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in October 1843. It was the voice of the poor in London at that period. There was a great divide between the classes, Dickens wrote a Christmas Carol so that his readers could learn about the class divide and the suffering of the poor in London; Dickens shows the contrast very well in A Christmas Carol.

Dickens came from a family who experienced debt. Charles’ younger years where evidently very hard, although he quoted that himself and his family ‘loved Christmas and celebrated it with a smile’, even thought he family lived on a low wage. When Dickens started to write A Christmas Carol he often walked the streets of London gathering ideas and looking at the poor people living in their slums.

There is no doubt that Dickens’ life encouraged him to write A Christmas Carol, his father was thrown in prison for being in debt and Charles had to work at a boot blackening factory on the banks of the Thames.

In A Christmas Carol we meet Scrooge ‘a tight fisted’ and very rich man, who lived life on as little as possible so not to ‘waste his well earned money’.

In a Christmas carol he is a caricature – the worst possible person anyone could have met.  Dickens lists negatives in the story to display the kind of man he is; Scrooge was a “squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner” Dickens also uses similes to describe him through out the book, it begins on a simile as ‘dead as a door nail’ this is a clichéd simile – a simile that is constantly used in common vocabulary. Dickens used a cliché because the poor and uneducated would have recognised and enjoyed his language, and the wealthy would realize the unarguable nature of the fact.  He also uses then to describe Scrooge he was “as solitary as an oyster” he refuses to speak with anyone long terms at the start of the book, Dickens writes that “even blind mans dogs even hide form him”, backing up that scrooge was a caricature.

 Scrooge plays the part of the upper classes in London, not noticing the divide in society. The upper classes believed that the poor where too lazy to work. Therefore the Victorians created workhouses – a place where the poor worked for a bed and food for them self and their families. These places were help slightly by the work of the philanthropists.

 Scrooge also does not like philanthropists – people who want to collect money to help the poor ``are there no prisons?'' asked Scrooge.  ``The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?'' said Scrooge.  ``Both very busy, sir.''

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This show that Scrooge considers money over human welfare, and that he does not want to learn about the plight of the poor; this reflects the views of many wealthy businessmen of the day.  ``I'm very glad to hear it'' answers Scrooge to help the philanthropists regarding the workhouse. ``Many can't go there; and many would rather die.'' This depicts the truly callous side to the class division.

``If they would rather die,'' said Scrooge, ``they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population”. The poor law was the only way of collecting money for the poor, and ...

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