Conditions of the Poor in the 19th Century Portrayed in A Christmas Carol

In A Christmas carol, how does Dickens make the reader aware of the

conditions of the poor in the 19th century? In what ways does he make

his message palatable?

The story of ‘A Christmas Carol’ is set in Charles Dickens home town

of London. In the Victorian period Londoners were split in two

categories, the rich and poor and the streets were filled with

diseases and many poor children died at young ages. There were many

big families who had small but affordable meals throughout the year,

but for one day in the year they attempted to earn as much money as

they could so families could have a special meal. This day was

Christmas and in my essay I am going to be describing how Dickens get

across the Christmas spirit people have.

Dickens knew London well and he saw all the poverty on the streets and

the diseases. Dickens cared immensely about poor peoples welfare and

started writing his books to help people understand the hard lives

poor people had to live, to earn enough money and make enough food for

their families to survive. He hoped that someone would listen to what

he had seen and change London to make the poor and rich an equal

community.

Many businessmen in Dickens lifetime were making their money from the

Royal Exchange. Like them Scrooge was a very wealthy businessman who

is selfish and only cares for himself. Scrooge rarely spoke to people

as he kept himself to himself and didn’t like expressing his feelings

to other people. He showed his attitude to people when he said, ‘every

idiot who goes about with “Merry Christmas” on his lips, should be

boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through

his heart. He should.’ Businessmen were supported by their clerks who

worked ver...

... middle of paper ...

...et across is how Scrooge

changed from a mean, greedy old man who only thought about himself and

through 3 spirits, the past, the present and the future he changes to

a kind, generous man who has started to live a better life to be a

happier person and begins to enjoy life for what it is.

In conclusion, although Dickens has shown the reader many examples of

conditions for the poor, he never shows any graphic pictures of their

disgusting living conditions. The whole book has been written as a

moral story. He shows us that money can’t buy you happiness and you

can still be poor and enjoy life and special celebrations. He sets

the book at the time of the year when many young children were

catching terrible diseases which were life threatening and ended up

with a lot of deaths occurring and so the book is made more enjoyable

by writing it as a ghost story.