“If quite convenient, sir.”
“It’s not convenient,” Said Scrooge, “and it’s not fair. If I was to stop half a crown for it, you’d think yourself ill used, I’ll be bound?”
This shows you that the rich in the Victorian era were very harsh with their money and wouldn’t let their workers take a day off for free. I think this evidence supports the saying by Benjamin Disraeli that nineteenth century Britain was ‘Two nations… The rich and the poor.’
In Charles Dickens’ novel, “A Christmas carol”, food plays a big part in the Christmas day scenes at the Cratchits’ house. Due to how poor they are the Cratchits can only afford a meager Christmas dinner. This quote describes the scene best.
‘Such a bustle ensued that you might have thought a goose the rarest of all birds; a feathered phenomenon, to which a black swan was a matter of course; and in truth it was something very like it in that house.’ This quote tells you a lot about the food in the Victorian era for poor people. A goose would be a necessity for the rich but would be a ‘Phenomenon’ to the poor. This really highlights the difference between the rich and poor society.
As you can imagine there was a few differences between the clothing of the rich people and the clothing of the poor. Bob Cratchit’s wife is an example of how the poor people dressed. ‘Dressed out but poorly in a twice turned gown.’ Is how her clothing’s described and would probably be a fair representation of all of the Cratchit family members. Scrooge, on the other hand, is described as wearing luxurious clothing that you’d expect a rich person to be wearing. ‘Scrooge took off his cravat; put on his dressing gown and slippers and night cap,’ this presents a very different picture to that of Mrs. Cratchit. The final quote is about the clothing of Bob Cratchit. It again shows how clothes aren’t that important to the poor people. ‘His threadbare clothes darned up and brushed to look seasonable.’ Again, this shows that the rich and poor are worlds apart let alone nations.
Housing for rich and poor are different even these days so it’s obvious that this would be the same back then. Linked with housing is health. If you are living in cold conditions then you are likely to pick up viruses and alike. The only mention of ill health for Scrooge was ‘He had a cold upon him at that time.’ It is likely that Scrooge is mainly good in health because his housing is warm and clean. Tiny Tim, Who’s Bob Cratchit’s son, is very ill and is close to death. This quote describes him. ‘He bore a little crutch, and had his limbs supported by an iron frame.’ This shows you the extent of Tiny Tim’s illness. Possibly his housing conditions don’t help him. The main quote that tells you the size of the Cratchit’s house is ‘And yet the Ghost of Christmas Present blessed his 4-roomed house!’ With the size of the Cratchit family, they would’ve struggled to live in four rooms.
Education doesn’t play a major part in this Dickens’ novel. There is a slight mention that Scrooge went to a boarding school but maybe the lack of education is a factor. It doesn’t seem like the Cratchit children actually go to school so the lack of education comes due to a lack of wealth. Only the rich were able to receive an education that will enable them to get a good job when they’re older.
Having looked at many quotes, I think that the novel “A Christmas carol” supports the saying by Benjamin Disraeli. The rich and poor people were nations apart in the nineteenth century. They had the nice houses and the education and the poor people had poor clothing and meager food. I enjoyed reading “A Christmas carol” although it didn’t always follow the rule of no conjunctives after full stops, which made it difficult to read at times.
