A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

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A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens A Christmas carol was written in 1843, by Charles Dickens, who was born in 1812 at Portsea, in Hampshire. A Christmas Carol as a great success. In its text, were many social issues that concerned Dickens. He wanted to highlight the plight of bad working conditions, child labour and the poor education system, at the time of writing. Dickens knew that the poor could be helped by the rich upper class. Dickens drew Scrooge as a stereotypical figure as he compared him to the rich men, who miserly gave nothing to the poor. Scrooge had a mean look, a grey-haired, cold look. He was a "tight-fisted hand at the grindstone", "a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner!" he gave nothing to anybody. He had lots of money, but was never generous with it. The way he treated the poor represented the way that the Victorian upper class treated the needy; he had no time to help others. Dickens wanted to change what Scrooge represented. Stave One begins with the emphasis that Marley - Scrooges old business partner -, was dead. "Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail". Marley was much like Scrooge. They were both tight-fisted, mean and cold. Scrooge was his only friend, "his sole executor of the will", his "Sole administrator", "his sole assign, his sole friend and his sole mourner". Scrooge was as "solitary as an Oyster", "the cold within his features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait (walk), made his eyes red, his thin lips blue and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A frost rhyme was on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low temperature, always about with him". This is the main description of Scrooge in the book. His appearance makes him seem unsympathetic. Marley was exactly the same as Scrooge. He had been the closest living person to Scrooge on earth. It was difficult to tell them apart, "no

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