a christmas carol

a christmas carol - charles dickens

THEMES

• isolation and (the value of) family
  • dickens had experienced isolation
  • scrooge CHOOSES isolation over family in order to make more money
  • scrooge's nephew tries to include him
  • end of the novel - scrooge realises what he has lost by choosing isolation over family
• poverty, charity, greed
  • contrast of working class family with scrooge
  • references to charity in the story
  • dickens wants the wealthy to help the poor with charity
  • scrooge is greedy at the beginning of the novel and does not believe in charity (or being kind to those in need)
  • however, by the end of the novel, scrooge has a change of heart and pledges to help the workers ("i'll raise your salary, and endeavor to assist your struggling family") - becomes charitable, acknowledges need for kindness in such a harsh world
• redemption
  • scrooge's transformation through the novel - character arc, redeemed man
  • dickens suggests that those who see the error of their ways should be forgiven
  • scrooge gets a hard shock (from the 3 ghosts) and it is this that causes him to change his ways
  • dickens wants the readers to be encouraged by scrooge's transformation and to even perhaps change their ways as a result of reading the novel
• time
  • time is a huge theme in the novel
  • scrooge is running out of time…