Ghost Of An Idea

‘I have endeavoured in this ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it.’

In my coursework I am going to analyse what Charles Dickens’ ‘Ghost of an Idea’ is and how the idea is portrayed at the beginning of Stave 1. Charles Dickens wanted to change people’s lives and their opinions about the horrors of the poor and the middle-class all because of how he was treated as a child. The cold-hearted capitalism which ruled the society at that time was businesses owned by private people and all they care about was money and how they could make it. They didn’t care about other people’s welfare the working classes were livening in small houses in cramped streets and not a lot of food as they cannot afford it. I think that Charles Dickens was trying to imply to the readers that rich people will find true joy and love through sharing with the poor however he influences the way people thought about Christmas. Charles Dickens separated his books into staves in the first stave Scrooge was visited by the ‘ghost of Marley’, the second stave he is visited by the ‘ghost of Christmas past’, the third stave he was visited by the ghost of the Christmas present, the fourth stave the ‘ghost of Christmas Yet to Come’ and the fifth stave is the ending. The structure of the novella determined by what is in the story in this case in stave 2, 3 and 4 were Scrooge is visited by the three ghosts. However the first stave Marley’s ghost introduces what Scrooge was like as a person to begin with and his feelings. Stave 5 show us how Scrooge has changed since stave 1.

The story i...

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...asked to contribute to charities for the poor and destitute, he replies: "Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?" when he talks most of his sentences are short and sometimes only words I think he does this to create a sense of balance because he uses a lot simple sentences but he then ends them with complex sentences this is the hard and emotional language of a business man.

Charles Dickens uses the ‘Ghost of an Idea’ to portray the beginning of stave 1 as he uses cold-hearted capitalism, pathetic fallacy. He is trying to put his point across by using the ghost of an idea, he wants to change people’s lives he does this in a meaningful way. When Charles Dickens written this novella and got it published, the readers got the moral and listened that is all he wanted to do he did this by showing society at that time what it was like and how they were treated.