CONTEXT

• social comments

  • social injustice
  • redemption
  • moral res
  • christmas
  • regret
  • family
  • poverty
  • inequality
  • greed vs generosity
  • threat of time
  • isolation
  • gratitude
  • repentence
• Dickens experienced both a rich and poor childhood
• dickens criticises his contemporary society and calls for a social change
• author: CHARLES DICKENS
• VICTORIAN ERA

  • harsh place for the poorest in society
  • highly critical for the greed and selfish attitudes of victorian society
• the text is didactic as he uses it to teach victorians about the true value of christmas
• dickens uses his childhood and children as a powerful motif to emphasise his ideas
• POOR LAW

  • looking after the poor was becoming expensive
  • cost of the poor was paid by middle and upper classes
  • poor were ‘lazy’ and ‘avoiding work‘
  • poor were housed in workhouses (prisons)
  • dickens condemned the poor law as they were punishing people who were poor through no fault of their own
• MALTHUSIAN IDEOLOGY

  • thought that working class people reproduced too quickly
  • population should be controlled by letting the poor die
  • charity should be avoided