A Christmas Carol

• Queen Victoria reigned in 1837
• Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in 1843
• There was a huge rich/poor divide
• Poor people lived and worked in workhouses
• Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol to make people aware of how bad poverty was and to make people want to donate to charity 

• 'but the srangest thing abut it was that from the crown of its head there sprug a bright dear jet of light'
• Some say that the light from the ghost represents memory; some say it represents the need for people to remember their past; and some say it represents the need for people to learn from their past

Quote that show how The Ghost of Christmas Past treats Scrooge

• "what is the matter?" asked the Sprit'
• 'clased him gently by the arm'
• 'laying it upon his heart'
• 'the ghost smiled thoughtfully, and waved its hand: saying as it did so, "let us see anoher Christmas" 

• The Ghost of Christmas Present speaks in a commanding tone, though his eyes are 'clear and kind'.
• The transformed room that the spirit is in is described in detail before the focus shifts to the figure sitting in it. This spirit is associated with the traditions nd celebrations that take place at Christmas.
• 'The moment Scrooge's hand was on the lock, a strange voice called him by his name and bade him enter. he obeyed"

• This family represents poverty and helps Dicken's readers to emphasise with them and consider poverty. They are a microcosm of poverty.
• 'they were not a handsome family; they were not well dresed; their shoes were far from being waterproof; their clothes were scanty; and Peter might have known, and very likely did, the inside of a pawn-broker's."
• 'but they were happy, grateful, pleased with one another and contented with the time; and when they faded, and looked happier yet in the bright sprinklings of the spirits torch at parting, Scrooge had his eye upon them, and especially on Tiny Tim, until the last"
• Tiny Tim represents the ill children and that his family cannot afford medicine 

• The two children are allegories of two social problems: ignorance and want. They represent these problems in human form.
• They have capita letters to show that they are names 

• 'a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner!'
• 'and as solitary as an oyster'
• 'Scrooge crept towards it, trembling as he went; and following the finger, read upon the stone of the neglected grave his own name, Ebenezer Scrooge.'
• 'show me no more!'

• Scrooge's business partner
• Died 7 years ago on Christmas Eve
• He was in chains weighed down by the bad things that he did in life
• Marley's purpose is to tell Scrooge that if he doesn't change he will tay the same. 

• 5 staves (musical, links to carol)
• Dickens uses listing,and semi colons regulary