christmas carol

• Counting house


  A place where financial books are kept for business
• Ebenezer Scrooge is a greedy, grouchy old man working in his freezing cold counting house on Christmas Eve
• Scrooge's clerk Bob Cratchit shivers next to a pitifully small fire, hoping to soon be let off work to celebrate the holiday
• Scrooge's nephew drops by to wish him Merry Christmas and invite him to Christmas dinner, which Scrooge rejects with a "Bah humbug"
• Scrooge expresses his venomous dislike of the holidays
• Miser


  Someone who hoards money and spends as little as possible
• Scrooge says it would be better for the poor and homeless to die and reduce the excess population rather than be helped by charity
• Scrooge has a vision of his former business partner Jacob Marley, who had died many years ago, in the door knocker
• Marley's ghost appears as a specter bound by heavy chains, explaining that his fate is to wander the earth as punishment for his greed and selfishness in life
• Marley warns Scrooge that he is headed for the same terrible fate unless he changes his ways
• Marley informs Scrooge that three spirits will visit him over the next three nights
• Ghost of Christmas Past

  The first spirit that visits Scrooge
• Journey through Scrooge's past with the Ghost of Christmas Past

  1. Visit important moments of his life

  2. See himself as an apprentice working for his former boss Fezziwig

  3. Witness the loss of his fiancee due to his obsession with money-making
• Revisiting the painful moment with his fiancee triggers Scrooge and he refuses to see any more
• Ghost of Christmas Present

  The second spirit that visits Scrooge
• The Ghost of Christmas Present is a large, jolly spirit surrounded by Christmas food and decorations
• The Ghost of Christmas Present takes Scrooge to see the present Christmas Day unfolding, including the humble abode of the Cratchits
• The Ghost of Christmas Present reveals two starving children beneath his coat named Ignorance and Want, telling Scrooge they are a product of man's greed
• Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come


  The third and final spirit that visits Scrooge
• Victorian Christmas

  • Celebrations in Britain date back to the 1840s when Prince Albert married Queen Victoria
  • Decorated Christmas tree brought to Britain from Germany by Albert in 1841
  • Christmas card dates back to 1843
  • Serving turkey as main Christmas meal comes from the Victorians
  • Victorians enjoyed singing carols
• Dickens enjoyed spending Christmas with his family
• Journey through the future with the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come

  1. See a group of businessmen discussing a colleague who has recently died

  2. See workers rummaging through the stolen belongings of the unnamed deceased man

  3. See the Cratchit family without Tiny Tim, who has passed away from illness

  4. See Scrooge's own gravestone in a graveyard
• Dickens believed Christmas should be a time of peace and goodwill to everyone no matter their social status


  Christmas spirit is still spread by many today
• Scrooge realizes he was the horrid man who had died alone and unloved
• Some people adopt a more 'bah humbug' approach to Christmas festivities
• Poverty in Victorian Britain

  • Cramped living conditions due to overpopulation from Industrial Revolution
  • Crime was rife
  • Disease was widespread due to unsanitary living conditions
  • Sewers struggled to cope with increased demand
  • People worked long hours in factories rather than as farmers
• Terrified, Scrooge begs the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come to give him a second chance to live as a better man and change his ways
• Exploitation of workers

  Rich businessmen and factory owners expected workers to work extremely long hours for very little pay
• Scrooge suddenly finds himself safe in bed as if he had awoken from a dream
• Dickens experienced poverty when his family went into debt
• Elated to discover he has received a second chance at life, Scrooge immediately begins to make Christmas plans
• Scrooge is a representative of hard-hearted businessmen


  Contrasted with the poor but hard-working Cratchit family
• Scrooge sends a prize goose to the Cratchit's house, donates an enormous sum to charity workers, and shocks everyone at his nephew's house with his Christmas spirit and good cheer
• New Poor Law (1834)


  • Required anyone without a job to enter a workhouse to receive financial assistance
  • Workhouses were deliberately very difficult places to discourage people from wanting to go there
• Scrooge gives Bob Cratchit a raise and promises to care for Tiny Tim like a second father, ensuring Tiny Tim does not die
• Scrooge is known from that day forward as a kind, generous man who keeps Christmas in his heart all year round
• Dickens was against the New Poor Law
• The men collecting money at the start of A Christmas Carol


  Say many thousands are in want of common necessities
• Dickens presents education as a way out of poverty through his use of the two children 'Ignorance' and 'Want'