Attitudes towards the poor Flashcards
Three points on the theme of Attitudes towards the poor in the beginning of ACC.
-Scrooge rejects notions of charity depicting a careless neglect of the poor
-Scrooge exploits the poor to reflect how he feels the poor are of little worth
-Fezziwig acts as a foil to Scrooge’s discriminative behaviour by being open to all people at his party in stave 2
-Marley’s revenant spirit acts a foil to scrooge’s exploitation and mistreatment of the poor
Quote for Scrooge rejecting notions of charity in the beginning of ACC
“I can’t afford to make idle people merry”
“they had better do it and decrease the surplus population”
“It’s not my business”
“Are there no prisons?…and the Union Workhouses?”
“the fog and darkness thickened”
“the cold became intense”
analysis for the quote: “I can’t afford to make idle people merry”
Scrooge repeats Victorian beliefs that the poor suffer because of their own ‘laziness’
Scrooge uses this to justify his exploitation and mistreatment of the lower class, making him a microcosm of the upper class.
analysis for the quote: “they had better do it and decrease the surplus population”
Dickens uses scrooge as a vehicle to highlight the brutal economic ideology of the Malthusian theory
-it connotes a detachment from humanity hyperbolising his callousness and lack of social responsibility
-dickens illustrates how the lives of poor people were deemed as worthless and objects to be disposed of
analysis for the quote: “it’s not my business”
-metaphor indicates scrooge only sees human life if it is beneficial to him financially
-This creates Irony as scrooge has only gained his wealth from exploiting the people he feels do not benefit him.
analysis for the quotes: “the fog and darkness thickened” and “the cold became intense.”
the fog symbolises the moral decay within Victorian society society. This was commonly used by 19th century gothic writers, Dickens uses it to reflect Scrooge’s lack of morality.
The pathetic fallacy creates an oppressive atmosphere mirroring the oppressive nature of the Victorian upper class and of scrooge. It also allows dickens to heighten the threat of vice in Victorian England and scrooge
Quotes for Scrooge exploiting the poor in the beginning off ACC?
“dismal little cell”
“kept his eye upon his clerk”
“one coal”
Analysis for the quote:” kept his eye upon his clerk”
possessive pronoun ‘his’ evokes power and dominance that scrooge has over bob. Bob being a microcosm for the lower classes and Scrooge being a microcosm for the upper class. Dickens illustrates the power the upper class felt they had over the lower class, emphasising the notion of exploitation of the poorest, most vulnerable people in society, heightening this sense of immorality within the Victorian society which dickens tries to expose.
analysis for the quote: “dismal little cell”
the adjectives describing the cell renders bob a prisoner to scrooge mirroring this sense of entrapment that many lower class people faced in Victorian England due to things like the poor laws and workhouses
analysis for the quote: “one coal”
The depiction of a single piece of coal emphasises this notion of depravation which all lower class people in Victorian England were subjected to. Scrooge only giving Bob one coal further emphasises his vice as his exploits his workers, by not giving him ideal working conditions, but the irony is it that without the lower class to exploit he would not have any wealth to begin with. This idea subverts the very common beliefs that the poor were useless and were not needed in society.
Analysis for the quote “In came…In came…In came…In came the housemaid”
Quotes for Fezziwig acts as a foil to Scrooge:
“In came…In came…In came…In came the housemaid”
“shaking hands with every person individually”
