Christmas Carol Flashcards
Context points
- poverty
- Christianity
- Malthus and Poor Law
- education
Poverty
- 1780 Industrial Revolution made new jobs in city factories
- factory workers lived in poverty - slums
- slums - overcrowding, disease, hunger, crime, sewage problems
Malthus and Poor Law
- economist who thought population getting too large, would lead to famine
- 1834 - new Poor Law meant unemployed had to go to workhouse for food/shelter
Christianity
- most Victorians Christian
- Dickens - thought Christians should do good deeds, anti-Sabbatarian (poor people couldn’t enjoy day off)
- Christmas most important religious + secular celebration
Education
- Dickens’ solution to poverty
- he supported Ragged schools - education/clothing to poor
Scrooge
- represents selfish Victorian upper class
- purpose - to criticise
Cratchit
- represents Victorians in poverty
- purpose - to portray poor people in positive light
Marley
- represents Scrooge’s fate (similar business partner), Scrooge’s will be worse as he had +7 yrs
Tiny Tim
- represents vunerable poor people
- purpose - evoke sympathy of poor people more subceptible to disease
Ghost of christmas past
- represent memory
- light represents enlightenment
Ghost of christmas present
Represents generosity
Foils
- Scrooge and Fezziwig - generosity
- Scrooge and Fred - christmas spirit + isolation
- Scrooge and Cratchit - family
Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner!
Christmas setting → contrasts Scrooge’s cold attitude with festive warmth of others
3 exclamation marks → urgency of his need to change
Asyndetic verb list → overwhelming greed/selfishness
Harsh alliteration → reflects cruelty, coldness
‘Hand’ metaphor → unfeeling; alt- could represent whole upper class
Sibilance → sinister tone (start), softens later (foreshadowing change)
sentence syntax → ending with ‘sinner’ emphasises his unchristian behaviour
CON - ‘sinner’ → Christian message; Scrooge must change unlike sinful society
I don’t make merry at Christmas and I can’t afford to make idle people merry
‘Idle’ → reflects Victorian stereotype of poor as lazy
Repetition of ‘I’ → self-absorbed, lacks empathy
Alliteration of ‘m’ → mimics sneering tone, shows disgust
Irony → wealthy enough to help, yet refuses to
’ Are there no prisons? Said the ghost for the last time turning on him with his own words’ ‘Are there no workhouses’
Rhetorical question → highlights cruelty, especially harsh at Christmas
Particularly cruel → no compassion during time of generosity
Workhouses supported by society → blame on wider system, not just individuals
‘Own words’ → Dickens uses Scrooge’s language to expose flaws in societal attitudes
‘What then? If he be like to die, he had better do it and decreases the surplus population’
Euphemism → hides brutality of Malthusian views; masks reality of killing the poor
Semantic field of economic language → how upper class use complex terms to justify cruelty
‘Mankind was my business… The dealings of my trade were but a drop in the ocean of my business’
Marley’s lesson → crucial for Scrooge’s redemption
‘Mankind’ → inclusive term, rich should care for poor; all humanity is our ‘business’
Language inversion → redefines ‘business’ as moral/social duty, not profit
‘Ocean’ → poverty is vast; one person can’t fix it alone, but all must try
‘Another idol has displaced me.. a golden one’
‘Idol’ → false God; greed is unchristian, goes against true Christian values
Metaphor → obsession with money = worship, shows extremity of materialism
‘Displaced’ → love replaced by wealth; emotional loss
‘Belle’ → French for ‘beautiful’, symbol of lost beauty/purity in Scrooge’s life
‘Father is so much kinder than he used to be’
Criticism → unrealistic overnight redemption
Negligent father → abandonment could explain his coldness
Breaks cycle → becomes better father to Tiny Tim, symbol of hope
Father to poor → charity = care beyond family
Christmas → key turning point in youth and old age
Rhyme → 2 rhymes create rhythm, aid memory, highlight importance
“‘Spirit’, said Scrooge with an interest he had never felt before, ‘Tell me if Tiny Tim will live”
Start of redemption → moved by Tiny Tim, sees him like a son (use with other fatherhood quotes)
Sibilance → now soft/caring, contrasts earlier sinister tone
Alliteration of ‘t’ → mirrors tenderness and warmth in Scrooge’s transformation
‘This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both… but most of all, beware this boy, for written on his brow I see that written is Doom’
Not essential to plot → exists mainly as social critique
‘Ignorance’ = lack of education among poor
‘Want’ = poverty, lack of essentials
‘Beware’ → warning to society: consequences if poor stay uneducated
**‘Doom’ → foreshadows crime/unrest if problems ignored
‘and to Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, he was a second father’
**Alliteration → highlights change in Scrooge, Tim lives due to his actions
Wealthier saving poor → Scrooge becomes metaphorical father
Christian message → not just soul-saving (like Marley) but saving lives now
Selfless → reflects Dickens’ view: real Christianity = helping others in present
