social injustice / poverty Flashcards
what is dickens intention?
he wanted wealthy victorians to stop being like scrooge and convert their misanthropic ways into philanthropy as he believed being a good and benevolent christian, like fred, was the right way to live. he wants people to be aware of the fact that we are all responsible for eachother in society as we are all ultimately members of one body.
what characters link to social injustice / poverty
- scrooge
- bob cratchit
‘what reason do you have to be merry? you’re poor enough’
- here scrooge is recognising that poverty causes misery but he chooses to ignore it and continue to act oblivious as he doesn’t feel responsible for the ‘poor’ and ‘destitute’ and he believes they are just ‘idle’ which only further entrenches the class divide, making social injustice worse.
- ‘poor enough’ scrooge believes how fred doesn’t have the right to celebrate christmas as he isn’t rich enough - highlighting scrooge is only focused on wealth
‘are there no prisons? are there no workhouses?’
his Malthusian views, paired with his use of rhetorical question, highlights the sheer ignorance of the upper class towards poverty. scrooge is unable to see the poor with any humanity and instead just thinks they’re just mere contributions towards the ‘surplus population’
- scrooge believes the poor are criminals- highlighting scrooges stereotypical views of the poor
- ‘workhouses’ conditions were left purposefully harsh- highlighting scrooges lack of empathy
‘still very foggy and extremely cold’
- ‘fog’ can represent the institutionalised oppression. dickens used the fog to demonstrate how social injustice has completely overtaken london.
- fog could also symbolise how the upper class are completely blinded and fail to realise how much the poor are really suffering.
‘tell me tiny tim will live’
the verb ‘cried’ showcases scrooges catharsis as he is completely overcome with guilt due to his blatant disregard and ignorance of the impoverished.
‘the boy is ignorance. the girl is want’
- they’re allegorical characters used to highlight the unjustified abuse on innocent children.
- ‘boy’ is representing the upper class and the ‘girl’ represents the working class highlighting that if there’s no ignorance there is no want. the poor are only struggling because of the ignorant and callous attitudes of the rich- demonstrating how the poor are reliant on the rich and essentially their lives are in the hands of the rich
- dickens purposefully uses children to get his message across as he is picking the most innocent beings in society which pulls on the chords of scrooges heart, evoking sympathy from him which will encourage him to change, but most importantly, us as reader .
they are ‘yellow’ ‘scowling’ ‘wolfish’
- adjective yellow could imply that the children are malnourished and physically sick because of the neglection of society and the obliviousness of individuals to social injustice.
- animalistic imagery highlights how poverty dehumanises individuals, stripping them of their humanity and reducing them to less than an animalistic state of being
‘he had better do it and decrease the surplus population’
- referencing thomas malthus
- scrooge is treating the poor as desensitised creatures that he has no responsibility for
- ‘surplus’ allows us to infer how he believes the poor are not needed and they’re better off dead as they are extras in society but its ironic because scrooge leads a lonely and solitary life and doesn’t contribute towards society which actually makes him ‘surplus’ and not the poor.
‘it’s quite convenient sir’
‘clerk’
- short dialogue in stave 1 represent how the working class were silenced and oppressed by the upper class
- ‘clerk’ lack of name highlights how the poor were stripped from their individual identities and were only acknowledged for their job titles- making them only money makers for the rich. the upper class don’t see them as individual humans
‘i’ll give you mr scrooge the founder of the feast’
‘founder’ connotes creator suggesting how bob sees scrooge in a god like way as he believes scrooge is the creator of bob’s ability to have what he sees as luxuries (which are really just basic human necessities). highlights how the poor are blindly grateful to the same individuals who exploit them.
‘my little, little child’
‘little’ connotes fragility and innocence, reinforcing that innocent and fragile children are frequently victims to the cycle of poverty. without social change the unjust issues of poverty will continue
shows the consequences of the wealthy victorian’s ignorance
