The story begins on Christmas Eve in the offices of Scrooge and Marley, a business partnership long ago dissolved by death
I. THE AUTHOR Charles Dickens, one of the greatest novelists in the English language, was born in 1812 into a middle-class family of precarious economic status. His father was a clerk in the Navy Pay Office at the time of Dickens's birth; by the time Charles was ten, however, his father was in debtor's prison, a victim of bad luck, mismanagement, and irresponsibility. In order to help support the family during this time of crisis, young Dickens went to work in the packing department of a factory that manufactured blacking--a compound of charcoal, soot, sugar, oil, and fat used to polish boots. This was a period of dirty and draining labor which one critic has described as an experience of "heartrending monotony and ignominy." Throughout his life Dickens would remember the harshness of the working conditions imposed on himself and the other boys in that blacking factory, and would direct much of his energy as a writer and moralist toward the reform of such oppressive conditions. He would also always resent the humiliation and pain caused by his father's imprisonment, despising both the folly of his parent and the cruelty of the legal system that punished it so harshly. Thus, Dickens's outlook on life was shaped by an intimate awareness of poverty, filth, social humiliation, legal oppression, adult irresponsibility, and industrial squalor. It was also shaped by a
How does Dickens use the character of Scrooge to teach his readers, old and young, his moral and social lessons?
How does Dickens use the character of Scrooge to teach his readers, old and young, his moral and social lessons? Charles Dickens is the author of A Christmas Carol. He came from a less privileged background of debt as his father had to work in a debtor's prison. Eager to get his father out of prison, he worked hard to earn money to end his fathers debt. Charles Dickens had chosen to write the book at Christmas, because it was a time of giving and celebration, yet there were many people at this time who weren't as fortunate - people who were poorer. Many of the poor worked in various places such as the workhouses under the poor law, and the people who managed the poor took advantage and made lots of money out of them. Dickens has written this story for two audiences, the first is for the entertainment of children, and the book would be read to them by the second audience - the adults. Society back then was much harsher - Dickens was angry in the way people were suffering, and it gave Dickens inspiration to write this book in the hope that it could improve society. The book is set in 1843 and the main character or caricature is Scrooge. Because he is a caricature, we have to suspend our disbelief in order to understand fully what Dickens is doing with Scrooge in wider detail. In the book, Scrooge, a greedy middle class businessmen gets visited by spirits who open his
Dickens is a writer whose work reflected the concerns of the society in which he lived. What are those concerns and how does he convey them to the reader of A Christmas Carol?
Dickens is a writer whose work reflected the concerns of the society in which he lived. What are those concerns and how does he convey them to the reader of A Christmas Carol? 'A Christmas Carol' was written in 1843 by Charles Dickens. Dickens was appalled when he visited the Field Lane Ragged School, in which Dickens couldn't believe how awful the conditions were. The children there were poor, starving and near death and Dickens decided he needed to do something about it. At first Dickens thought of writing a pamphlet to appeal to the people of England, and tell them this atrocity needs to be stopped. However he realised that it would have more effect if he wrote a novel instead, because Dickens was a very successful and admired author and had already written works that included Oliver Twist and The Old Curiosity Shop. The novel meant more people would read it and take notice. Dickens based a lot of his novels on his own experiences in his life and this including the time when his father was imprisoned for debt and Dickens was forced to work in a blacking factory. Dickens found this a reprehensible experience and it inspired much of his later fiction such as one of his most recognized books - Oliver Twist. Dickens was always interested in the current social problems and was known as a reformer, namely someone who endeavoured to change society for the better. Examples
What Moral is Dickens trying to elicit in his readers?
A Christmas Carol A Christmas Carol is a novel written by Charles Dickens (1812-1870) during the Victorian age, an era that took its name from Queen Victoria, England titular ruler from 1819-1901. Under Queen Victoria's rule, London reigned the worlds dominate city country and the country's incomparable center of commerce, culture and government. At this time London's industrial age contributed to a large share of the manpower and capital that brought the country to a position of world economic dominance. However there was a downside to the industrial age, industrialization had altered the physical, social and cultural landscapes of Great Britain. The rise of the factory system had drawn rural peasants to the great urban centers in numbers, incomparable in history, creating dangerous conditions of overcrowding and feeding, developing modern problems of social displacement, crime and poverty. Within London the River Thames was filled with sewage and industrial waste. The air was contaminated with soot and pollution which emptied from residential and industrial chimneys. Until the second half of the 19th century London residents were still drinking water from the very same portions of the Thames that the open sewers were discharging into. Inside the factories, the place of economic production, self-interested owners paid poverty level wages for fourteen hour days and
A Christmas Carol Assignment - Charles Dickens
A Christmas Carol Assignment I got 24/25 for this an A* Introduction Charles Dickens was born in Landport, Hampshire, in 1812 and died in 1870. His father was a clerk in the navy pay office and family life was occasionally hard, especially when his father had to go to the debtor's prison. The young twelve year old Charles became the main money-maker in the family at this time and worked in a blocking factory. Charles' father was released a year later and Charles was able to go to school. After school he became a clerk for solicitors, later becoming a journalist, a reporter at Doctors' Commons and at 22 joined a London newspaper. He published various papers in the Monthly Magazine, following this up with sketches and articles for the Evening Chronicle. In 1836 his sketches by Boz and Pickwick Papers were published and also in this year Charles married Catherine who was the daughter of his friend George Hogarth. They had ten children, but were separated in 1858. Dickens produced several successful novels which created a Shakespearean gallery of characters and also campaigned against many of the social evils of his time. I believe Charles had many successful novels because he had lots of different experiences which provided different subjects for his novels. His novels first appeared in monthly instalments, Oliver Twist (1837-9), Nicholas Nickleby (1838-9) and The
A Christmas carol.
English Assignment A Christmas Carol By Julhaz Miah Charles Dickens was born in 1812. Charles had a very unstable upbringing. During his turbulent childhood, he and his family lived in increasing poverty. Charles has projected this onto many of his novels and works. By 1843 his work was immensely famous and popular and he was commissioned to write a series of Christmas books, one a year for five years. The first and most popular of these is A Christmas carol. Dickens used the setting and characters to show the reality of the terrible working conditions the poor endured during the Victorian period. The opening of the novel provides the reader with some insight into the character of Ebenezer Scrooge. We begin to learn about his lifestyle, his wealth, his attitude towards his employee and his opinion of the poor. Scrooge is described as being "Scrooge ! A squeezing, wretching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner ! Hard as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out a generous fire." This shows what kind of person he is; a stingy man with unreasonable and uncompromisable demands. From this quote I also get the feeling that Scrooge's personality is one of a bitter, cold-hearted and short tempered old man with an unhealthy obsessive love for money e.g. "Clutching" emphasizes this point. Scrooge is described as being cold-hearted and unreachable "No steel had
How Does Dickens Convey His Moral Message In a Christmas Carol?
HOW DOES DICKENS CONVEY HIS MORAL MESSAGE IN A CHRISTMAS CAROL? CONSIDER; CHARACTER, USE OF LANGUAGE AND THE STRUCTURE OF THE NOVEL. 'Scrooge! A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching covetous old sinner! Hard and sharp as a flint , from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire ; secret and self contained , and solitary as an oyster' Charles Dickens coveys his moral message in 'a christmas carol' by raising awareness of the poor and peoples perceptions of the poor in the Victorian times. Most of his literary works concerned the poor and how they lived. Another of his famous novels was 'Oliver Twist' about an orphaned boy. He wrote about this issue because he had experienced abject poverty himself. When he was only nine, his father, mother, and his seven brothers and sisters were sent to debtor's prison. This left Dickens out in the cold as a child labourer. After his family were released, Charles Dickens was fortunate enough to go back into education and became a law clerk. He then wrote these novels to describe the desperate poverty in society and raise people's awareness. Throughout his life, Charles Dickens was a philanthropist, doing many good deeds for his community. He was going to bring the poverty issue to the attention of his readers by producing a campaign leaflet but then realised that more people could relate to a story and more people
What have you learnt about Victorian society from your reading of Dickenss novel A Christmas Carol?
GCSE English Literature Coursework: "A Christmas Carol" Question: What have you learnt about Victorian society from your reading of Dickens's novel "A Christmas Carol"? Christmas is a time for happiness, family, holiday and charity. At least that is what it should be, and that's what Charles Dickens wanted it to be like. By using his novel, "A Christmas Carol", he shows the reader, through the old miser Ebenezer Scrooge, what Christmas should be like and what it actually was like in the Victorian times. Dickens also educates the reader about Victorian poverty, child labour, living conditions and working conditions. Dickens's life was very complicated and full of troubles. He was born on 7th February 1812, in Portsmouth. His family had many problems, especially with money. As a result of this, they had to move around a lot and at age twelve, Dickens had to drop out of school, so he could work in a blacking factory, to help support his struggling family. This was not enough, as his father was sent to prison as he couldn't pay the rent, and his family soon followed, as they had nowhere to live. Dickens gained inspiration and influence, for his later books, and he gained respect for money, while in prison. In 1824, at age twelve, his mother died and didn't leave him a lot of money. He then went to school for two years, and became a clerk for a solicitor at age fifteen. He then
What do you see as Dickens' social aims in
What do you see as Dickens' social aims in "A Christmas Carol" and how does he go about achieving them. In this essay I am going to explain in detail; what Dickens is trying to achieve by writing "A Christmas Carol". This will involve his aims, which is that the poor should be treated with more compassion and how he is going to achieve this, which involves opening the eyes of people with enough wealth and power and by educating people to get rid of any ignorance. Dickens' tool that he creates and uses within his novel is a caricature of the problem that he is aiming to put right, which is that the poor should be treated with more compassion. This character is known as Ebenezer Scrooge. Dickens also uses the festival of Christmas to his advantage as it is a time for kindness and giving, so dickens creates Scrooge to an exact contrast of them two things. Scrooge is described in the novel as "Tight-fisted hand at the grindstone", "a squeezing, and wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner! Hard and sharp as a flint, from which no steel had ever stuck out a generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster." This description of Scrooge emphasises what Dickens is trying to get across to the reader. The last bit of this description is the most important, "Solitary as an oyster" because an oyster is hard on the outside but inside it contains
In my opinion, it is possible for a novel to deliver a serious message and offer entertainment for the reader. In order to demonstrate this, I am using Stone Cold by Robert Swindells and The Black Veil by Charles Dickens.
Wide Reading Assignment In my opinion, it is possible for a novel to deliver a serious message and offer entertainment for the reader. In order to demonstrate this, I am using Stone Cold by Robert Swindells and The Black Veil by Charles Dickens. Set in the cold hard streets of London, Stone Cold is a definite warning for those planning to run away from home in the near future. Not only is it a rough, painful life full of poverty, but there's also an insane killer on the loose. When Link's newly found friend, Ginger, mysteriously goes missing one day, Link begins to get worried. 'All the time I was looking for him, and he didn't show.' - Link While Link is looking for his friend, he finds something sinister about the man living at Nine Mornington Place, because he was the last person to see Ginger. But as Link closes in, so does danger. With the mysterious 'Shelter' on his tail, Link will be lucky if he gets away alive. But he does get away, with a little help from Gail, who is really a reporter in disguise. Shelter is taken away, leaving Link worse off than before, with no friends and no hope of a life. One evening, a young doctor is sat in front of a warm fire, simply waiting for patient. His first patient enters, dressed in black with her face covered with a black veil. While speaking is peculiar riddles, she tries to explain her situation to the doctor. '...How can I