Explore how the theme of the Victorians society is present by Charles Dickens in ‘A Christmas carol.’ What comments do you think the writer might be making about his own time?
Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth in 1812 and died in 1870. He was not poor when his parents were not poor when he was born but his dad went bankrupt when he was twelve years old and they were all sent to debtor’s prison. Charles Dickens was then sent to work in a blacking factory and earned six shillings a week, he did that until his aunt died and they used the money that was left for them to repay all their debts. When they moved to London he decided to become a writer and decided to write about the poor, to raise the awareness of the rich Victorians who did not care about the injustices of their society.
The conditions in London in the Victorian times was not very good because there was a constant smog over it and people drank the unfiltered water from the River Thames. The streets were full of dung, which led to the spread of disease; the houses were overcrowded (30 people to 1 house). There was no proper sewage or housing and many poor people were sent to workhouses or prisons. Many turned to crime as a means of support.
Christmas in the Victorian time would have been good if you were rich but if you were poor it was the worst time of the year. The poor would get some coal, nuts and oranges in the stocking. They would also have to pay to the baker to cook their goose because they wouldn’t have enough room to cook it by them selves. By comparison the rich at Christmas would get rocking horses and other wooden toys. They would have cooks doing everything for them and they would eat turkey instead of goose. Our views of a Victorian Christmas tend to be idealised and exaggerated influenced by images on Christmas cards. Dickens wanted to show his readers the true reality. Scrooge is the central character of the novel ‘A Christmas carol’. Scrooge was a tight fisted hand to the grindstone. He was a ‘ squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained as an oyster. The cold within him froze his features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and the spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice.’
