A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

A Christmas carol was written in 1843, by Charles Dickens, who was

born in 1812 at Portsea, in Hampshire.

A Christmas Carol as a great success. In its text, were many social

issues that concerned Dickens. He wanted to highlight the plight of

bad working conditions, child labour and the poor education system, at

the time of writing. Dickens knew that the poor could be helped by the

rich upper class.

Dickens drew Scrooge as a stereotypical figure as he compared him to

the rich men, who miserly gave nothing to the poor. Scrooge had a mean

look, a grey-haired, cold look. He was a "tight-fisted hand at the

grindstone", "a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching,

covetous old sinner!" he gave nothing to anybody. He had lots of

money, but was never generous with it.

The way he treated the poor represented the way that the Victorian

upper class treated the needy; he had no time to help others. Dickens

wanted to change what Scrooge represented.

Stave One begins with the emphasis that Marley - Scrooges old business

partner -, was dead. "Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail".

Marley was much like Scrooge. They were both tight-fisted, mean and

cold. Scrooge was his only friend, "his sole executor of the will",

his "Sole administrator", "his sole assign, his sole friend and his

sole mourner".

Scrooge was as "solitary as an Oyster", "the cold within his features,

nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait

(walk), made his eyes red, his thin lips blue and spoke out shrewdly

in his grating voice. A frost rhyme was on his head, and on his

eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low temperature,

always about with him". This is the main description of Scrooge in the

book. His appearance makes him seem unsympathetic.

Marley was exactly the same as Scrooge. He had been the closest living

person to Scrooge on earth. It was difficult to tell them apart, "no