A Christmas Carol

• Context points


  • Dickens' own father went to a debtors' prison when Dickens was 12, so he wrote about child poverty from personal experience
  • The 1834 New Poor Law punished the poor for their poverty
  • Dickens was critical of Thomas Malthus' theory that overpopulation was a cause of poverty
  • Dickens was critical of the social divide created by the Industrial Revolution
• Themes


  • Christmas
  • Redemption
  • Charity
  • Social injustice
  • Family
• Scrooge quote: "Bah! Humbug!"


  Scrooge disdains Christmas
• Scrooge quote: "Are there no prisons? And the Union workhouses?"


  Scrooge is harsh and uncharitable towards the poor
• Scrooge quote: "I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future."


  Scrooge has transformed and changed his ways
• Bob Cratchit quote: "The clerk's fire was so very much smaller"

  Symbolises how the poor were mistreated by their employers
• Bob Cratchit quote: "a small pudding for a large family"


  Oxymoron showing how Scrooge's miserly behaviour impacted the Cratchit family
• Ghost of Christmas Past quote: "like a child, and yet an old man"


  Simile showing the ghost symbolises Scrooge's past innocence and current bitterness
• Ghost of Christmas Present quote: "ignorance is bliss"


  Representing how poverty robs children of their innocence and education
• Ghost of Christmas Present presents the two children to Scrooge

  The children symbolize the impact of poverty on young children
• Ignorance


  Represents children who never go and get an education, remain ignorant, can't get jobs, and tend to turn to crime
• Want

  Lack of basic necessities like clothing, housing, etc.
• The girl symbolizes children who lack the bare minimum necessities
• Ghost of Christmas Future

  The most sinister ghost
• The ghost's black garment

  Foreshadows Scrooge's eventual death
• The ghost's unyielding, pointing finger


  Illustrates that Scrooge's fate is set, he will become like Jacob Marley
• The ghost's kind hand trembling

  Illustrates that the ghost believes Scrooge can be redeemed and forgives him, giving him another chance