historical background

Question 1

set in london…

Answer 1

a city of extreme poverty and also the hub of business wealth (demonstrates 2 extremes as shown in the allegorical novella)

Question 2

1834 poor law amendment act

Answer 2

• complaints the poor were taking too much governmental aid
• workhouses (dirty, unsanitary conditions)

Question 3

factory exploitiation

Answer 3

poor future prospects for children due to a lack of education

Question 4

deserving v. undeserving poor

Answer 4

deserving = deserve help; understood to be hardworking but handicapped and found in hardship from no fault of their own

Question 5

how historical background is incorporated into the text:

Answer 5

the cratchit’s are used to criticise victorian societal views; they are religious, loving and hard-working, unlike the representation of the poor seen

Question 6

1842 american travelogue

Answer 6

dickens condemned racism in his travelogue and in his later work ‘the pinwick papers’ compared the treatment of american slaves to that of the underclass in england

Question 7

christmas in the ve:

Answer 7

• not a bank holiday (the man who sells the turkey in the novella is working)
• christmas enthusiasm was waning; some christian leaders were associating it with pagan traditions

Question 8

only book criticisms:

Answer 8

irony = books expensive binding and glit edges rendered it unaffordable to the [poor (dickens later lowered the price)

Question 9

economist thomas malthus

Answer 9

thought pop. growth would lead to famine so viewed the deaths of the poor necessary

(dickens disagreed and instead pictures an abundance of food in the novella to convert his belief that their was more than enough, it just wasn’t shared fairly)