Dickens' Message in A Christmas Carol

Dickens' Message in A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol is a compelling tale of greed, love and charity. It

is the story of an old man called Ebenezer Scrooge who hates

Christmas. Throughout the tale, four ghosts visit Scrooge and try to

change his opinion. Dickens was sending a message to his readers that

Christmas is the time of year where everybody should rejoice and be

happy. Dickens was obviously trying to make a statement that we should

all enjoy life as we have only one chance to.

During Victorian times, London became a centre for poverty, crime and

pollution. Dickens was outraged at the conditions in which working

classes lived in and wanted to draw the upper-classes attention to

their plight. This is the reason that Dickens wrote novels with a

social conscience to raise public awareness of the situation.

In 'A Christmas Carol', Charles Dickens portrays Scrooge as a very

unpleasant and miserly man. He describes him as 'a tight fisted hand

at the grindstone'. This paints a picture of a stingy old man,

obsessed with money and work. Dickens wanted the reader to see just

how awful Scrooge is at the start. Scrooge is said to be 'squeezing,

wrenching, grasping, scraping, covetous old sinner'. This is evidence

that harsh words suggest violent actions. Scrooge would squeeze,

wrench, grasp and scrape money from you. He is also covetous which

means that he is jealous of what other people have and wants more than

he can have. Dickens says he is a sinner so he hints that he is evil!

Part of Dickens' basic message at the beginning of the story, is that

you shouldn't behave selfishly like Scrooge. The way Scrooge acts

gives a lot ...

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...omething you never

thought you could be!

I think "A Christmas Carol" has been so successful due to the fact

that it appeals to those who are able to communicate with our

innerselves. It is such a classic story, and is remembered today as

the "one and only" Christmas story. It appeals to the socially

conscious of us, and it makes us actually stop and think about the

world today. I believe it will still be relevant another hundred years

from today as their will always be the problem of social divisions as

it is in human nature to demonstrate our faults. We are not perfect

and so will show when we don't particular like something. I think it

is so powerful because Dickens was not writing just for the audience

of his era but was writing for everybody in any time. Maybe he knew it

would still have such relevance today?