A Christmas Carol

• Summary


  Quick summary of the events in the novella, stave by stave, with questions to test understanding
• Themes


  • Poverty and Social Injustice
  • Christmas Spirit
  • Family
  • Transformation and Redemption
• Themes: Poverty and Social Injustice


  Context, key quotes, mini exams, exam question, sample answer
• Themes: Christmas Spirit


  Context, key quotes, mini exams, exam question, sample answer
• Themes: Family


  Context, key quotes, mini exams, exam question, sample answer
• Themes: Transformation and Redemption


  Context, key quotes, mini exams, exam question, sample answer
• Useful Terms


  • Terms highlighted in the guide that are explained in more detail
• Bob Cratchit


  Scrooge's clerk, a kind and gentle man who is devoted to his large family and especially his son Tiny Tim. He is loyal to Scrooge and dedicated to his job, despite being overworked and underpaid.
• Bob Cratchit


  • Hardworking
  • Grateful
  • Cheerful
• Scrooge


  • Miserly
  • Bitter
  • Repentant
• The Ghost of Christmas Past


  • Enigmatic
  • Androgynous
  • Angelic
• Tiny Tim


  Bob's youngest child, disabled and walks on crutches but is full of happiness and optimism. Scrooge becomes determined to change his ways after seeing the vision of Tiny Tim's death and realising that he could have prevented it by treating Bob more fairly.
• The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come


  • Ominous
  • Foreboding
  • Frightening
• Fred


  • Scrooge's cheerful nephew. He offers to have Scrooge round for Christmas dinner every year, an offer which Scrooge always refuses. At the end, Scrooge finally spends Christmas Day with Fred and his family.
• The Ghost of Christmas Present


  • Joyful
  • Welcoming
  • Honest
• Belle


  The woman Scrooge loved as a young man. They were engaged but Belle ended the engagement when she realised Scrooge cared more about his wealth than about her. She went on to find love and happiness with another man.
• Mr Fezziwig


  • Fatherly
  • Generous
  • Jolly
• There was a common belief among wealthier people in Victorian times that poverty was simply a result of laziness. The Poor Law of 1834 removed any government support for people who struggled for money.
• Dickens had a lot of first-hand experience of the suffering of the poor. His own father was put in a debtors' prison when Charles was 12 and he was taken out of school and made to work, which gave him a strong sense of injustice.
• Scrooge


  Refers to establishments that help the poor when he refuses to donate money to the charity collector
• Malthusianism


  Idea that poverty is caused by an excess of people and the only way to reduce poverty is to reduce the size of the population
• Dickens strongly opposed Malthusianism
• Dickens had a lot of first-hand experience of the suffering of the poor
• Dickens realised that poverty was usually the result of bad luck or unfortunate circumstances rather than laziness
• Dickens' books are full of social commentary on the gap between rich and poor
• Dickens went to visit many places where poor people lived and worked and wrote about the things he witnessed, and his descriptions were often shocking to the upper classes who were ignorant of how much the poor really suffered
• By describing the poor as 'idle', Scrooge shows his belief that poverty is caused by laziness
• Dickens uses Scrooge to represent the callous attitude of many rich people towards the fate of the poor in Victorian England
• Tiny Tim represents the innocent and blameless poor who suffered through no fault of their own
• Dickens shows the reader that the lives of many poor people are reliant on the generosity and compassion of the rest of society
• Marley's chains are a metaphor for his heartless treatment of the poor
• Dickens presents selfishness and greed as grave sins
• The Ghost of Christmas Present shows Scrooge Ignorance and Want to emphasise that poverty is a cycle - poor children grow up to be desperate adults if they are given no opportunities
• Dickens makes it clear that prisons and workhouses don't give the poor any chance to escape poverty - only education can do that
• Those living in poverty, creating sympathy for their situation
• When Scrooge begs to know if Tiny Tim will live


  The Ghost again echoes Scrooge's own words about "reducing the surplus population" back to him
• When faced with Tiny Tim's humanity


  Scrooge realises the callousness and inhumanity of his own Malthusian beliefs
• Dickens shows that all wealthy people in society who ignore the plight of the poor are just as callous and inhumane as Scrooge
• Dickens' message is clear: only through shared social responsibility for poverty and through compassion towards the poor can social inequality be reduced
• This is a really strong response