How Does Dickens Portray Poverty In A Christmas Carol.
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Introduction
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. ...read more.
Middle
There are many different classes of people at Fezziewigs party, he treats them all with equality and kindness - Dickens is trying to set the standard for a good boss, "In came the housemaid, with her cousin, the baker. In came the cook, with her brother's particular friend, the milkman. In came the boy from over the way, who was suspected of not having board enough from his master. The way Scrooge reacts shows us that he was one a very happy man; Dickens uses Fezziewig as an ideal. Dickens tells us that all the classes of society are welcome. In Dickens's view Fezziewig is an ideal employer and the antithesis of Scrooge. Dickens wants employers to consider their own actions. The spirit takes Scrooge to see his former love Belle. This former relationship was one that would of effected Scrooge greatly as he grew older however his interests where more for work rather than love. Belle says that she has been replaced by a 'golden idol' Scrooge shows signs of avarice and greed. This suggests that he puts wealth over emotions. The relentless Ghost told him to observe what happened next. When Belle agreed to marry they where both poor adolescents who had the rest of their lives to look forward to, Scrooge does not he his now very rich Belle on the other hand is not. ...read more.
Conclusion
Tiny Tim is dead. This is pathos, Dickens uses Tim's death to make the wealthy of London be aware of the influence they had on people's lives. We are lead to believe that Tim has died due to the lack of medical treatment provided this is because of lack of money. The ghost takes the weeping Scrooge to a cemetery a ghost points to a headstone. Scrooge reluctantly wipes off the frost from the stone with his bear hand. He shakily ran over to the sprit and grabbed his robes shaking them violently. ``Spirit!'' he cried, tight clutching at its robe, ``hear me! I am not the man I was. I will not be the man I must have been but for this intercourse. Why show me this, if I am past all hope?" Stave five is titled the end of it all" as indeed it is. Dickens shows his readers Scrooge's redemption of his former self "I am as happy as an angel" Dickens shows that anybody can change, he troughs down the challenge to the wealthy. "He had no further intercourse with Spirits, but lived upon the Total Abstinence Principle, ever afterwards; and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God Bless Us, Every One!" By Joshua Charles 10JGM ...read more.
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