‘A Christmas Carol’

Charles Dickens

Background Context
 Reason….
• In your essay you have to talk about either the
setting of, or the characters in, the book.
• You will need to understand what life in
London and England was like at the time
Charles Dickens wrote the book.
• You will also need to know about how well the
book uses techniques from Gothic writing.
 Charles Dickens
• Born in 1812.
• His father was
imprisoned for debt.
• Dickens was very
passionate about the
poor.
• He was a lower middle
class boy, he worked in
a factory when his
family needed extra
money.
 Life in Victorian England
• At this time the gap between poor and rich
was much, much bigger than it is today.
• The contrast between those who were rich
and poor was shocking.
• Those who were poor lived in squalor,
deprivation, dirt and misery.
• They barely had enough money or food to
survive.
• Child mortality was very high.
• There was no healthcare. If you got ill, and could
not work, your whole family was at risk of death.
• The workhouse was the only option for many
families, where at least they would be fed and
housed.
• However, at the workhouse, families were split
up, and often conditions were no better.
• Those who were rich lived in the exact
opposite way.
• They had enormous houses, luxury clothes
and servants.
• The rich people in Victorian England (most of
them, anyway) took little interest in helping
the poor.
• They felt that poverty was their fault, or a
punishment, or something that could be
avoided.
 Workhouses
• Workhouses were the only places where people who
were too poor to survive could get help.
• Conditions in the Workhouse were made deliberately
harsh in order to discourage people from having to go
there.
 To summarise…
• Dickens felt very strongly about the gap
between rich and poor.
• He wrote ‘A Christmas Carol’ to try and
highlight the difference, and make people
think differently about their actions.
• Why do you think he chose to set his book at
Christmas time? What does Christmas mean
in our society?
 Gothic Techniques
• Gothic fiction combines features of horror and
romance.
• The key features are:
1. Extreme emotion
2. Fear
3. Awe and fear of religion and/or the
supernatural
4. Very strong atmosphere
 General features to look for…
• Mystery, the supernatural, ghosts, haunted
houses, castles, darkness, death, madness,
secrets.

General characters to look for…

• Tyrants, villains, maniacs, heroes, persecuted
women, magicians, demons, angels, ghosts.
 Victorian Gothic
• Before Victorian times the setting for Gothic
novels was generally a castle, or somewhere
in the countryside that was dark, creepy and
lonely.
• In the Victorian times it became popular to
place Gothic novels in an urban setting,
particularly in London.
One of the most common themes…
• ….and one to bear in
mind when reading
‘A Christmas Carol’, is
the idea of sins
having the power to
curse and affect you
or your family in the
future.
 How Charles Dickens did this…
• Mainly by comparing and contrasting the big
difference between rich and poor.
• He showed wealthy society as being pleasant,
ordered and extravagant.
• He contrasted this by presenting poor society
as disordered, barbaric and unhappy.
Now let’s start reading…!