Dickens' Aims in A Christmas Carol

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Dickens' Aims in A Christmas Carol

In 'A Christmas Carol', Dickens is trying to get across to the rich

people of society the difference between their lives and those of the

poor. He does this by using Scrooge, who personifies the rich people.

It is set at Christmas time in early Victorian times, a time of giving

and compassion. This signifies that the rich should give to the poor,

especially at a festive time like Christmas. Dickens saw the cold,

ugly conditions that the poor were living in and thought that he had

to do something about it, so he wrote 'A Christmas Carol'. He sees the

rich people as those with the power to change the poor people's lives.

It is the rich who need to be educated about the power they have to

change things for the benefit of the poor. The poor also need to be

educated so that they can earn money for themselves.

The tool that Dickens uses is Scrooge, he is a caricature of the

problems and he portrays what the rich people were like. The rich

people were the equivalent to Scrooge. He uses Scrooge to show the

wilful ignorance of the rich. Although Scrooge can afford to support

the poor, he only does this through paying his taxes which go towards

the workhouses and treadmill. Scrooge is a miser; he does not want to

give anything away. When Scrooge's clerk asks for Christmas day off

work:

'It's not convenient' Said Scrooge, 'and it's not fair. If I was to

stop half-a-crown for it, you'd think yourself ill used, I'll be

bound?'

Scrooge is very selfish here. He can easily afford to not have his

clerk in for the most festive time of giving in the year but Scrooge

wants to ignore the time of year and ca...

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...ckens achieved his aims as part of a social

change. This was not because of 'A Christmas Carol' but it helped

people realise.

Dickens describes Scrooge with miserable adjectives at the start of

the book:

'A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old

sinner!'

At the end of the book when Scrooge has undergone his change Dickens

uses delightful adjectives:

'Golden sunlight: Heavenly sky; sweet fresh air; merry bells. Oh,

glorious. Glorious!'

The rich people themselves could experience this change too if they

are willing to help the poor. When Scrooge visits his ex-fiancée, she

is married to someone else and they are quite poor. The room is small

but full of comfort, warmth and love. If Scrooge had not been so

obsessed with making money all of the time, that could have been him.

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