poverty Flashcards
‘are there no prisons?’, ‘the treadmill and the poor are in full vigour?
STAVE 1
-scrooge advocates the workhouses as a good alternative to keep the poor there
-1834 poor law
‘hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts’
STAVE 1 SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
-charitable gentlemen displaying caring characteristics Dickens wants to prevail through the bourgeoise in Victorian society, but scrooge’s response shows they’re lacking
-alliterative ‘common comforts’ highlights basic needs that are in short supply, reflecting the dire situation
-repetition ‘thousands’ adds a sense of despair, emphasising that the majority of society are suffering and don’t have basic needs to provide for their family-reflects that in the 1940s, 75% of families lived hand to mouth
-scrooge’s response causes reader to dislike him, as they feel sympathy for the poor, scrooge almost makes it seem as if being poor is a crime
-attitude reflects wealthy members of Victorian society, Dickens knew that their attitudes had to change for something to actually be done in society
‘its not my business’
STAVE 1
reflect the bourgeoise’s attitude to the poor
contrast ‘mankind is my business’
believes paying his taxes is more than enough
‘i can’t afford to make idle people merry’
STAVE 1
-upper class saw the poor as ‘idle’, displays ignorance
-didn’t see as when GofYTC took Scrooge to a part of town ‘he had never penetrated before’
-working in workhouses, 1834 Poor Law, Dickens can empathise as he was sent there as a child
‘mankind was my business’
STAVE 1
‘if they would rather die, then they had better do it, decrease the surplus population’
STAVE 1
-referring to working class using pronoun ‘they’ highlights the divide between those with and without money in Victorian society
-modal verb ‘would’ indicates sense that the poor have no future due to their living conditions, and in Scrooge’s mind they’d be better off dead
-plosives to create a harsh tone
-adjective ‘surplus’ means that Scrooge believes there are too many people who are poor, connotations of pests that are a nuisance and difficult to get rid of
-believes poor aren’t worthy to live, shows how little he cares for the poor and that they are an unnecessary inconvenience: inhumane language
-abhorrent attitude towards the poor
-MALTHUSIUM PRINCIPLE
‘i wear the chains i forged in life’
STAVE 1
-marley’s ignorance and actions towards the poor have left him with this as a consequence
-concrete noun, ‘chain’ provides connotations of being imprisoned and having no means of escape, demonstrating that marley has no way of being released from these consequences
-ALTERNATIVELY, Dickens could be referencing that the poor are chained to workhouses, as they have no means of escaping from their social class, cyclical structure of the working class
-dickens is saying that no matter your social class, you will always be ‘chained’ whether in life or afterlife, unless society changes
-determiner ‘the’ highlights these particular chains are significant to Marley and are subject to his personal actions, implying that each individuals actions are important
-stating that it only takes one person to change, the rest may follow
-links to the Christian belief that marley is stuck in purgatory forever, due to his past actions
‘but she had a large heart’
STAVE 2
little fan
‘he has the power to render us happy or unhappy; to make our service light or burdensome’
STAVE 2
fezziwig is scrooges foil: represents social responsible boss that scrooge should strive to be
‘i should like to have given him something’
STAVE 2
‘yellow, meagre…wolfish’
‘they are man’s…this boy is ignorance. this girl is want’
STAVE 3
-ignorance and want are literal manifestations of the disease of poverty, personifications of poverty
-‘yellow, meagre…wolfish’ -body shutting down, 1 in 5 children died before age of 5 in mid 1850s, can’t even survive on internal far
-metaphor of wolfish shows the children are wolves trying to survive yet the bourgeoisie keep stealing food
-use of children as a powerful rhetoric shows that everyone is affected, all feel the need to turn to misanthropy as it is the only way to survive in the environment, guilt trip as the upper classes have more sympathy for children as they suffered the most which is the ubiquitous motif of the zeitgeist
-ignorance and want demonstrate traits of the bourgeoisie as they are ignorant to the true horrors of society
-bourgeoise constantly want more and more, some of them like Scrooge are so greedy yet don’t use their money which is pointless
-Dickens uses the ignorance of the upper classes to criticise the 1834 Poor Law
-put there if poor and unemployed in exchange for food and shelter, dehumanising and exploitive conditions, many died there
‘his wealth is of no use to him’
STAVE 3
‘carrying their dinners to the bakers’ shops’
STAVE 3
-baker only one that has an oven
-supporting the poor by letting them use him
-socialism
-ALTERNATIVELY capitalism as he is making money from other people’s misfortunes
-showing that socialists have a capitalist side-just like Fezziwig
‘they were not well dressed’
STAVE 3
‘i am going to raise you salary’
STAVE 5
