Themes

• FAMILY


  FAMILY
• Why is it an important theme?

  - Family is presented as embodying warmth, joy, strength and affection

  - The theme shows us that povery is not a barrier to happiness

  - Queen Victoria and Prince Albert had 9 children together, and their family was a model. Ideas about family were changing in the victorian era so readers would have been more receptive to his messages

  - Dickens himself had been neglected as a child, so these feelings may have influenced his book
• Where is the theme shown in the play?

  - Scrooge's rejection of family in the beginning

  - The Cratchit's christmas

  - Scrooge's eventual change
• What did Dickens want us to learn about this theme?

  - Closely ties with Dicken's greater agenda to popularise an emotional element to Christmas

  - Highlights the positive effects family can have while also explaining the negative consequences of it's absence

  - Wants to show us that family can bring a level of happiness that no money can buy

  - Having a close family enables people to persevere in spite of immense adversity
• Beginning


  Beginning
• "Cold, bleak, biting weather"

  "Had so heated himself.....He was all in a glow"


  - Weather is used by Dickens as a motif

  - The cold weather parallels the frigidity of his isolated situation, he has no one

  - Dickens highlights the need for such warmth and connection

  
  

  - The physical warmth of Fred symbolises the emotional, figurative warmth he carries with him

  - Dickens uses the contrast of their emotions and attitudes to christmas to show how family influences people

  - Fred's unwavering persistence to try reconnect with scrooge highlights the power of family
• "A poor excuse for picking a man's pocket every 25th of December!"


  - For Scrooge, Christmas, a family celebration, is only seen in financial terms

  - Dickens uses this to highlight the dangers of absence of family

  - Beginning of Dicken's attempt to emotionalise Christmas
• Middle


  Middle
• "Father is so much kinder than he used to be, that home's like heaven!"


  - We see that Scrooge's father was likely a typical upper class Victorian father; distant and strict

  - Powerful similie highlights the great power family can have
• "Mournful shaking of his head"

  - He feels great sorrow at her death

  - Her absence obviously had a profound effect on his character, as he begins to feel "Uneasy"

  - This is the beginning of the remarkable change of his character, considering his behaviour in the opening stave

  - Due to the emotions of remembering his family, Scrooge begins to reconsider his behaviour in the opening stave; Dickens wants the victorian upper classes to do the same about their feelings on the poor
• "They were not a handsome family......but they were happy, grateful, pleased with one another"

  - There is nothing high mark of the family, Dickens wants to show that family trumps poverty

  - Pedalling his main message, Dickens uses this family warmth to create sympathy for the poor to upper class Victorian readers

  - Perhaps due to his own neglect, Dickens can be seen criticising the idea of the father being a cold, strict figure. Bob is warm and kind to his children and they are happy
• End


  End
• "naked" and "cold"


  - Scrooge is looking at his body

  - Dickens shows what death without family looks like; a cold, dim and unknown death mourned by no one
• "Wonderful part, wonderful games, wonderful unanimity"

  - Repetition of the adjective causes a sense of happiness in the reader

  - Used by Dickens to show all the pisitives family life can bring

  - Even though Scrooge has been a miser for a while, he slots into family life perfectly; it is natural

  - Tries to emotionalise christmas time
• "To tiny Tim, who did NOT die, he was a second father"


  - In ascending to a father-like status, Scrooge's redemption is complete

  - The emotion caused by family throughout the novella is a catalyst for his change

  - Dickens shows that the loving and caring essence of family is so vital it prevent's Tiny Tim from dying

  - Family is a sheild used by all to persever in spite of hard times and problems
• REDEMPTION


  REDEMPTION
• Why is it an important theme?

  - Dickens creates and builds tension throughout the novella as the reader anticipates whether he will change or not

  - Extension of his wider social commentary; Scrooge wants upper class victorians to change their attitudes to the poor

  - By constructing such a theatrical redemption, he inspires the upper class

  - Redemption is linked with religion, as humanity's redemption was achieved through Christ's resurrection
• Where is it shown?

  - Scrooge beginning as a miserable miser

  - Him seeing the error of his ways

  - Scrooge transforming and redeeming himself
• What did Dickens want us to learn about this theme?

  - Dickens argues that even the very worst people in society can change

  - Pushes his social commentary through the theme
• Beginning


  Beginning
• "Oh! But he was a tight fisted hand at the grindstone Scrooge! A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner"


  - "Oh!" Shows how even the narrator is overwhelmed by how unpleasant he is

  - All the adjectives are linked semantically showing how tightly he held onto material objects

  - He represents the opposite of generosity in every way

  - The negative verbs are all guttural and harsh and lack liberty; just like Scrooge

  - He is the caricature of greed itself

  - It is conspicous there are seven verbs in the list, this could symbolise the seven deadly sins, and to shopw that Scrooge is in desperate need for redemption or he will be condemned

  - Dickens shocks readers out of their inertia; it isnt enough to just read passively, but it's important to change
• Middle


  Middle
• "Tell me if Tiny Tim will live"


  - Scrooge sees the "excess population" and begins to realise his wrongdoing

  - Dickens pushes his agenda
• (The Spirit) "Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?"


  - Begun to change as he is ashamed of his words

  - This could make the readers regret their stubborn veiws too

  - Dickens' argues against Thomas Malthus's beliefs that Scrooge has; Dicken's belives that there is plenty food to go around and there would be no starvation if the rich were more generous

  - Now that Scrooge has learnt of his mistakes he can be more magnanimous (generous and forgiving)
• End


  End
• "I am as light as a feather, I'm as happy as an angel"

  "Im quite a baby"

  - Scrooge has completely changed his outlook and behaviour

  - The cliches and series of similes show how light hearted he is

  - There is a real contrast between the heavy laden vocabulary of the first stave and the simplistic choices here

  - This contrast frees the reader and could be a linguistic transformation as the novella progresses

  - Anaphora "I am" shows deep excitement and pleasure

  - "Light" contrasts with "heavy coil" on Marley, showing how he has redeemed himself and avoided Marley's fate

  - "baby" could represent his rebirth, but also Christ, a baby who came to save the world the same way Scrooge can too

  - However, the ghosts in the novella are pagan, perhaps saying kindness is a human need
• SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY


  SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
• Why is it an important theme?

  - Dickens wanted the elite Victorian class to take responsibility for the poor

  - He belived the selfishness of the rich caused poverty, not overpopulation like Thomas Malthus said

  - Scrooge's transformation makes the rich rethink their attitudes
• Where is it shown?

  - Scrooge refusing to give money to the poor

  - The characters of Ignorance and Want

  - Thieves dividing up Scrooge's belongings

  - The most prominent way Dickens presents the theme is through his characters; they allow the readers to become more receptive of Dickens message, provoking internal change
• What did Dickens want us to learn about this theme?

  - Social responsibility can prevent the suffering the poor face every day

  - Accepting it leads to a better life for all

  - He wanted to provoke internal change
• Beginning


  Beginning
• "Think of the people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys"

  - Fred represents the christmas spirit as he criticises his uncle's views

  - Here, Fred can be seen as a caring individual, as he focuses on people as similar

  - The idea that we are all "fellow passengers" serves to emphasise the idea of the transience of life; Dickens shows we are all going to die soon so we are more similar than different

  - The noun "creatures" is used by Dickens to attack the dehumanisation of the poor; it is one of the main causes of lack of social responsibility

  - Dickens may also be wanting to remind the upper classes of their Christian faith (as most people still were); in the end, they will be judged by their deeds on earth
• "If they would rather die, they better do it, and decrease the surplus population"


  - Scrooge is referencing Malthusian theory, the idea that people are poor because of overpopulation, and that poverty is simply natural

  - By aligning this theory with such a cold and harsh character as Scrooge, Dickens aims to change people who believe in these ideas minds

  - Use of collective noun "they" shows Scrooge is severing off any connection he has with the poor, he views them as less than himself

  - The verb "would" is chilling; in reality, some people did live such depraved lives that they would rather die, and Dickens saw this for himself when he worked as a child
• Middle


  Middle
• "If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, none other of my race ......will find him here"


  - Scrooge asks the Ghost of Christmas Present if Tiny Tim will live

  - Dickens shows the consequences of ignorance

  - However, he also presents the readers with a chance for change

  - He writes "unaltered" showing that it will take actions to change the future, but it can be changed

  - Dickens wants to show his upper class readers that their situation is not irredeemable; like Scrooge, they can begin to recognise their wrong doings and help the poor
• "Had pinched and twisted them, and pulled them into shreds"


  - These are the children of man, "ignorance" and "want"; Dickens uses children to try and provoke a strong response as people are naturally more protective of them

  - The harsh description "pinched", "twisted" and "pulled" is designed to shock the reader

  - Dickens wants to show that although people like Scrooge can redeem themselves, social responsibility must undo decades worth of industrialisation and classism

  - He wants to make the reader feel guilt, like Scrooge, so they are more likely to change

  - Dickens appeals directly to the upper classes; those with resources must help the poor who languish in want and ignorance, otherwise society will be destroyed by them

  - Dickens himself would have felt strongly about this, as he worked in a factory aged 12; he would have seen people like this
• End


  End
• No fog, no mist; clear, bright, jovial, stirring

  - Positive pathetic fallacy

  - In the beginning, the weather was negative as it was used by Dickens to reflect the attitudes and situations of the residents of london

  - By directly contrasting the weather from beginning to end, Dickens is enlightening the reader at what a possible future could be if the upper classes took responsibility for the poor, rather than trying to distance themselves away from them
• "to Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, was a second father"


  - Dickens presents the impact that social responsibility can have in a hyperbolic (exaggerated) fashion

  - He shows his readers that if the poor are taken care of properly, death can easily be avoided

  - Dickens also shows that social responsibility can have a positive emotional impact on the upper classes too; Scrooge gets to be a second father, unlike his old and lonely self, giving him a sense of accomplishment
• CHRISTMAS SPIRIT


  CHRISTMAS SPIRIT