At the beginning of the novel Dickens wants us to dislike Scrooge. Dickens uses numerous language techniques

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Tim Coll                11Gr

A Christmas Carol

Charles Dickens wrote ‘A Christmas Carol’ in the Victorian period. It was written because he thought that it was wrong for people to starve and wanted to change this. He saw how many families lived in extreme poverty and had to beg, steal and go into prostitution just to get the money they needed. He used Scrooge as a mouthpiece to represent all businessmen and tried to influence them into changing into tolerable people and assisting the less fortunate. Dickens wanted to change the social injustices and inequalities of the time. The rich usually socialised with people of their own wealth and the poor people socialised with people who were living in the same conditions as themselves. Therefore each was ignorant in each other’s light.

At the beginning of the novel Dickens wants us to dislike Scrooge. Dickens uses numerous language techniques to show why the reader should dislike him. Dickens portrays the main character as a cold old man, and ‘tight fisted’. In the opening paragraph he describes Scrooges personality ‘wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching.’ Dickens uses these descriptive words in a long list, to emphasise strongly the unkind personality Scrooge has. By using the technique of a long list of negative words, really makes an impression and sticks in the reader’s mind. Dickens also uses similes to describe the personality of Scrooge, ‘as solitary as an oyster.’ An oyster spends its life isolated from everything, as does Scrooge. Dickens then begins to describe Scrooges physical appearance, ‘frosty time on his head’ ‘wiry chin.’ By describing his hair and using grey it highlights his negative character and uses the feature of coldness Scrooge carries with him. Dickens also personalities the weather, ‘no warmth could warm him, no wintry weather chill him.’ This shows us that Scrooge has no emotions and is insensitive. Again Dickens shows us his negative character. He shows us how people respond to Scrooge, ‘no beggars implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what o’clock it was’ this shows us that Scrooge has a presence which is quite threatening so people would avoid him. They ignore him because they don’t want to acknowledge someone as cold as he is. Dickens uses repetition of the word, ‘no’ which creates a negative effect.  In the opening Scrooge is discussing with his employee the concept of wages, ‘You don’t think me ill used when I pay a days wages for no work’ which shows he is very much in love with his money and is quite selfish. This again demonstrates his love for money. It is further demonstrated when he is visited by the charity workers asking for donations and he just states ‘I pay enough taxes let them die and decrease the surplus population.’

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This makes him sound very self-centred’ and highlights his ignorance for

the less fortunate. From this beginning we can tell that Scrooge is not a nice character. Dickens uses Scrooge’s ex partner Jacob Marley to highlight why Scrooge should change.

When Scrooge first sees the face of his dead ex partner on the doorknocker of his home he refuses to believe it but it does leave him rather shaken. He then meets the ghost in full, but still Scrooge does not believe what his eyes show him and he convinces himself that what he see before him ...

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