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    A Christmas Carol Context

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    Ikraa Hanif
    Charles Dickens wrote 'A Christmas Carol' in 1843 to highlight the vast differences between the rich and poor in Victorian London and encourage people to reconsider how they treated the less fortunate. The story uses Gothic techniques like ghosts and the supernatural combined with Victorian themes of sins cursing families to tell the story of Ebenezer Scrooge and his transformation after being visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future.

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    A Christmas Carol Context

    Uploaded by

    Ikraa Hanif
    222 views17 pages
    Charles Dickens wrote 'A Christmas Carol' in 1843 to highlight the vast differences between the rich and poor in Victorian London and encourage people to reconsider how they treated the less fortunate. The story uses Gothic techniques like ghosts and the supernatural combined with Victorian themes of sins cursing families to tell the story of Ebenezer Scrooge and his transformation after being visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future.

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    Looking at context of charles Dickens time

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    Charles Dickens wrote 'A Christmas Carol' in 1843 to highlight the vast differences between the rich and poor in Victorian London and encourage people to reconsider how they treated the less fortunate. The story uses Gothic techniques like ghosts and the supernatural combined with Victorian themes of sins cursing families to tell the story of Ebenezer Scrooge and his transformation after being visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    222 views17 pages

    A Christmas Carol Context

    Uploaded by

    Ikraa Hanif
    Charles Dickens wrote 'A Christmas Carol' in 1843 to highlight the vast differences between the rich and poor in Victorian London and encourage people to reconsider how they treated the less fortunate. The story uses Gothic techniques like ghosts and the supernatural combined with Victorian themes of sins cursing families to tell the story of Ebenezer Scrooge and his transformation after being visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    of 17

    ‘A Christmas Carol’

    Charles Dickens

    Background Context
    Reason….
    • In your essay you have to talk about either the
    setting of, or the characters in, the book.
    • You will need to understand what life in
    London and England was like at the time
    Charles Dickens wrote the book.
    • You will also need to know about how well the
    book uses techniques from Gothic writing.
    Charles Dickens
    • Born in 1812.
    • His father was
    imprisoned for debt.
    • Dickens was very
    passionate about the
    poor.
    • He was a lower middle
    class boy, he worked in
    a factory when his
    family needed extra
    money.
    Life in Victorian England
    • At this time the gap between poor and rich
    was much, much bigger than it is today.
    • The contrast between those who were rich
    and poor was shocking.
    • Those who were poor lived in squalor,
    deprivation, dirt and misery.
    • They barely had enough money or food to
    survive.
    • Child mortality was very high.
    • There was no healthcare. If you got ill, and could
    not work, your whole family was at risk of death.
    • The workhouse was the only option for many
    families, where at least they would be fed and
    housed.
    • However, at the workhouse, families were split
    up, and often conditions were no better.
    • Those who were rich lived in the exact
    opposite way.
    • They had enormous houses, luxury clothes
    and servants.
    • The rich people in Victorian England (most of
    them, anyway) took little interest in helping
    the poor.
    • They felt that poverty was their fault, or a
    punishment, or something that could be
    avoided.
    Workhouses
    • Workhouses were the only places where people who
    were too poor to survive could get help.
    • Conditions in the Workhouse were made deliberately
    harsh in order to discourage people from having to go
    there.
    To summarise…
    • Dickens felt very strongly about the gap
    between rich and poor.
    • He wrote ‘A Christmas Carol’ to try and
    highlight the difference, and make people
    think differently about their actions.
    • Why do you think he chose to set his book at
    Christmas time? What does Christmas mean
    in our society?
    Gothic Techniques
    • Gothic fiction combines features of horror and
    romance.
    • The key features are:
    1. Extreme emotion
    2. Fear
    3. Awe and fear of religion and/or the
    supernatural
    4. Very strong atmosphere
    General features to look for…
    • Mystery, the supernatural, ghosts, haunted
    houses, castles, darkness, death, madness,
    secrets.

    General characters to look for…


    • Tyrants, villains, maniacs, heroes, persecuted
    women, magicians, demons, angels, ghosts.
    Victorian Gothic
    • Before Victorian times the setting for Gothic
    novels was generally a castle, or somewhere
    in the countryside that was dark, creepy and
    lonely.
    • In the Victorian times it became popular to
    place Gothic novels in an urban setting,
    particularly in London.
    One of the most common themes…
    • ….and one to bear in
    mind when reading
    ‘A Christmas Carol’, is
    the idea of sins
    having the power to
    curse and affect you
    or your family in the
    future.
    How Charles Dickens did this…
    • Mainly by comparing and contrasting the big
    difference between rich and poor.
    • He showed wealthy society as being pleasant,
    ordered and extravagant.
    • He contrasted this by presenting poor society
    as disordered, barbaric and unhappy.
    Now let’s start reading…!

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