Context

• Dickens' Intent

  • Dickens believed that there shouldn't be so much social disparity and wanted to challenge societal indifference to poverty.
  • The novella focuses on the problems faced by the poor and their behaviour and attitudes in contrast to the rich.
  • Dickens is very critical of those who he believes exploits the poor from their own gain.
• Thomas Malthus

  • An economist that argued that population growth would always outpace food supply resulting in unavoidable and catastrophic poverty and starvation.
  • Malthus supported the Poor Laws and the workhouses, arguing that any man unable to support himself had no right to live, much less participate in the development of society.
  • ''decrease the surplus population'' - Dickens consciously mirrored the Malthusian theory in Scrooge's character
• Poor Law Amendment Act

  • The PLAA was passed by Parliament in 1834.
  • It was designed to reduce the cost of looking after the poor as it stopped money going to the poor except in exceptional cases. If people wanted help, they had to go into a workhouse to get it.
• What was the view of poor people?

  • They were believed to be lazy & immoral, & that helping them would only encourage their malingering.
  • If the poor were to be helped, it should be under conditions so awful so that it would discourage people from seeking help.
• Ragged Schools


  • Dickens' dwelt on the terrible sights he had seen among the juvenile population in London's jails - he stressed the desperate need for educating the poor as he believed it would eradicate poverty.