Background and Context Flashcards
What was the Industrial Revolution?
This was where most people in Britain went from working in farming to working in manufacturing.
Why did the population of cities grow rapidly between 1800 and 1900?
Millions of people moved from the countryside to cities in search of work in the factories.
Who suffered the most from poor living conditions?
Children
Poverty in A Christmas Carol
- Cratchits
- Stave 4
- Children
- He contrasts the wealth of Scrooge with the poverty of Bob Cratchit. Scrooge lives alone in a large building with a grand staircase while the Cratchits are crammed into a four-roomed house in the suburbs
- In Stave 4, Scrooge visits a part of London that ‘‘reeked with crime, with filth and with misery’’ and the people who live there are described as ‘‘half-naked,drunken,ugly’’
- The death of Tiny and Tim and the appearance of the doomed children, Ignorance and Want, highlight the suffering of children in poverty.
Who argued that poverty was inevitable?
Malthus
Did Dickens agree with Malthus?
If so / if not, where is this evident in the text?
Dickens disagreed - he thought there was plenty of food to go around but only if the rich were more generous. He thought it was wrong that the poor should suffer because the rich were too selfish to share their wealth
This is evident in Stave 3 - The Ghost of Christmas Present takes Scrooge to the bustling shops where it shows him the huge amount of food on display. The lengthy, mouth-watering description emphasises Dicken’s point.
How does Dickens highlight how cruel Malthus’s views seemed to be?
Scrooge tells the charity collectors if poor people would die and ‘‘decrease the surplus population’’
What the 1834 Poor Law?
It was introduced to reduce the financial help avaliable to the poor. It ruled, if the poor wanted help, they’d have to go to a workhouse
What increased the gap between the rich and the poor?
The Industrial Revolution
What did Dickens believe the solution to poverty was?
Education
What does Dickens use to criticize to poor’s lack of education?
The child, Ignorance. The Ghost of Christmas Present suggests that without education, those who live in ignorance and want have no refuge except prisons and workhouses.
