A Christmas Carol
By: Charles Dickens
Ideas to Understand
Workhouses
Poor Laws
The Treadmill
Poor Laws & The Treadmill
The Poor Laws: The purpose was to reform the poverty system. The reform
was based on principles which asserted that the population increased faster
than resources if not controlled, minimum wage is needed to sustain life of
the worker, and people tend to do what is pleasant so they will claim relief
rather than working.
The Treadmill: kind of like today's stair master Prisoners climbed steps along a
rotating cylinder designed to keep them mindlessly occupied and wear them out
physically. Outlawed in 1898.
Workhouses
http://charlesdickenspage.com/glossary.h
tml
workhouses - also known
as the union, poorhouse, or
simply "the house." Publicly
supported institutions to
which the sick, destitute,
aged, and otherwise
impoverished went for food
and shelter. After the New
Poor Law was passed in
1834 the workhouse became
little more than a prison for
the poor. Civil liberties were
denied, families were
separated, and human
dignity was destroyed. The
meager diet instituted in the
workhouse prompted
Dickens to quip that the poor
were offered the choice of
"being starved by a gradual
process in the house, or by a
quick one out of it."
Who is Charles Dickens?
English novelist, generally considered the
greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens's
works are characterized by attacks on social
evils, injustice, and hypocrisy. He had also
experienced in his youth oppression, when he
was forced to end school in early teens and work
in a factory. Dickens's good, bad, and comic
characters, such as the cruel miser Scrooge, the
aspiring novelist David Copperfield, or the
trusting and innocent Mr. Pickwick, have
fascinated generations of readers.
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/dickens.htm
The_City_of_London_in_the_1820s.asf
The Setting of A Christmas Carol:
Victorian England 1843
What is Victorian
England Like?
• www.logicmgmt.com/1876/intro.htm
• www.charlesdickenspage.com
• http://www.logicmgmt.com/1876/xmas/xmasintro.htm
Holiday Fare in
Victorian England
•
Turkey Time - Turkeys had been brought to Britain
from America hundreds of years before Victorian
times. When Victoria first came to the throne however,
both chicken and turkey were too expensive for most
people to enjoy. In northern England roast beef was the
traditional fayre for Christmas dinner while in London
and the south, goose was favourite. Many poor people
made do with rabbit. On the other hand, the Christmas
Day menu for Queen Victoria and family in 1840
included both beef and of course a royal roast swan or
two. By the end of the century most people feasted on
turkey for their Christmas dinner. The great journey to
London started for the turkey sometime in October.
Feet clad in fashionable but hardwearing leather the
unsuspecting birds would have set out on the 80-mile
hike from the Norfolk farms. Arriving obviously a little
tired and on the scrawny side they must have thought
London hospitality unbeatable as they feasted and
fattened on the last few weeks before Christmas!
•
The Tree - Queen Victoria's
German husband Prince Albert
helped to make the Christmas
tree as popular in Britain as they
where in his native Germany,
when he brought one to Windsor
Castle in the 1840's ( Christmas
Carol written in 1843)
Preface
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.
Their faithful Friend and Servant, C.D.
December, 1843.
Stave 1: Marley’s
Ghost
Questions to Consider:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
What does Dickens emphasize at the beginning and why?
Dickens describes Scrooge. What is Scrooge like?
Reflect on Scrooge’s counting house. Would you want to work there?
What day is it when the story begins?
Who is Scrooge’s first visitor and is he welcomed?
We are introduced to one theme---What is it?
Fred and Scrooge have different perspectives on Christmas, what are they?
What does Fred request? What is Scrooge’s response?
Who are the next visitors and why are they there?
How many years has Marley been deceased? Is the number significant?
What does Cratchit request? Is it generously granted?
Describe the atmosphere as Scrooge walks home?
There is something strange about the knocker. What is it?
What happens on the tiles of the fireplace?
What visits Scrooge next. The message is important. Can you describe it in
detail? Also, what does this visitor look like?
The Counting House
• What was it like inside Scrooge’s counting
house?
Atmosphere of Scrooge’s Walk Home
The Door Knocker
• What is strange about it?
• What questions does
Scrooge have for the
spirit?
• What does Scrooge
think has caused him to
see this apparition?
• What are the things
attached to the ghost?
• What do these things
represent?
Marley’s Ghost
Review of Stave 1
• Who is Scrooge? What does he do for a
living? What is Scrooge’s attitude toward
Christmas?
• Who is Bob Cratchit?
• What is Scrooge’s nephew like? What is his
attitude toward Christmas?
• Who are the portly gentleman? What do they
want?
STAVE 2: The Ghost of Christmas
Past
Stave 2: Characters and Order of Events
• Ghost of Christmas Past appears ,he represents Scrooge’s past.
Scrooge must learn lessons from his past both positive and
negative to move forward and become a better person.
• Scrooge as a child at boarding school. We meet Scrooge’s
sister, Fan, and find out she brought Scrooge home. Their
father was not a very kind person, but his father is so much
kinder now and will allow Scrooge to come home. Fan died a
woman and had one child---Scrooge’s nephew, Fred.
• Place where Scrooge was apprenticed- Fezziwig’s- We find
out Scrooge had a cheerful and kind-hearted boss. Fezziwig
had the ability to make work pleasant by the kind words and
kind looks he gave to his workers. He had a big Christmas
party for all of his workers.
Fezziwig’s Ball
Stave 2 -Continued
• After Fezziwig’s, we meet Belle, the girl Scrooge was
engaged to marry. She broke off the engagement
with him because she started to believe money
became more important to Scrooge than her. She
saw the roots of avarice and greed start to grow
from Scrooge’s being and consume him. Belle says
that Scrooge would not choose her if they just met
because she is dowerless, and since money is so
important to him, he wouldn’t choose a girl without
money.
• We then see that Belle married someone else and
had children with him.
Stave 2 continued
• Scrooge revisits his past and regrets the way he treated the
caroler, his clerk, and Belle.
• Scrooge sees how he has missed opportunities to have a
relationship with his nephew, the son of his sister, who was
so kind to him when they were children.
• One of Scrooge’s greatest regrets seems to be that he did not
marry Belle and have children with her. “And when he
thought that such another creature, quite as graceful and full
of promise, might have called him father, and been a springtime in the haggard winter of his life, his sight grew very dim
indeed.” (p.40)
Stave 2: Young Scrooge with Belle
Stave 2: Questions for Thought
• The Ghost of Christmas Past- What does it
look like? What does it represent?
• What does the Ghost of Christmas Past show
Scrooge? How does Scrooge feel about
traveling back into his past?
• Can you summarize the importance of each
past memory? What was Scrooge to learn
from each past experience?
Stave 3: Ghost of Christmas
Present
Stave 3: Overview of Events
•
•
•
•
•
Scrooge meets the Ghost of Christmas Present, the embodiment of
generosity
They travel through the streets, the Ghost of Christmas Present sprinkles
from his torch a blessing on people, especially poor people because they
need it most
They go to the Cratchit family’s household and see how they celebrate the
holiday- Despite being poor, the Cratchits are grateful for what they have,
each one participates in cooking dinner, they enjoy each other’s time and
company. They were poor, but happy and grateful for Christmas time
and for all they have to celebrate. We also find out that Tiny Tim is sick.
After the Cratchit household, we go to Fred’s house (Scrooge’s nephew)
and we watch Fred and his company play games. In one of the games,
they make fun of Scrooge. At the end, Fred earnestly toasts his Uncle
Scrooge’s health, even though Scrooge never visits Fred or wishes him
Merry Christmas.
At the end of the Stave, two children are underneath the Spirit’s robe—
Ignorance and Want
Stave 3: Ignorance and Want Explanation
Ignorance means you don’t want to know, you don’t care to know. For
Scrooge and Dickens’ society, people were ignorant to the needs of the
poor. More importantly, people of Dickens’ society thought the poor
were of inferior moral character, filthy, thieves and treated them like
second class citizens. Ignorance breeds Want, which is excessive
greediness. Dickens’ was warning society that if people were ignorant
and let excessive greed rule their lives it would bring about destruction.
Stave 4: The Ghost of Christmas
Yet to Come
Stave 4: Important Events and
Concepts
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come shows Scrooge the potential future
We see the business men discuss a man’s death and no one seems to care
The business men will only go to the funeral if a lunch is provided
After the conversations of the business men, the Spirit takes Scrooge to the
beetling shop
In the beetling shop, the undertaker, the charwoman, and the laundress
sell belongings they have stolen from a dead man’s house
Scrooge is disturbed to see how they have plundered the dead man’s
house . They were able to do this because there is no one there to care for
the dead body. The man died alone with no one to take care of his body
or house.
Scrooge is appalled by the scene and wants to see emotion connected to
the man’s death. Scrooge hopes he sees someone who is sad and
distraught about the man’s death
•
•
•
•
•
•
The next scene features Caroline and her husband—they are relieved and
happy the man has died because they owed him money. Caroline and her
husband were fearful that the man would not relent and give them more
time to pay back their debt. Hearing that the man has died makes them
feel relieved.
Scrooge is upset and wants to see tenderness connected to a death.
The Spirit shows Scrooge the Cratchit household which is somber. We
find out Tiny Tim has died, and everyone in the family is grieving over the
loss of the little child who had such a good heart.
Scrooge is upset that Tiny Tim has died
The Spirit takes Scrooge through the courtyard to a graveyard that is
unkept and overgrown with weeds. The Spirit points to a grave and on
the tomb is written Ebenezer Scrooge.
Scrooge realizes that he is the dead man that no one cares for and he
vows to keep the Christmas Spirit all year round. He says that he wants to
change his life, so that his future will change
Stave 5: The End of It
• Scrooge promises to keep Christmas and honor it all
year long! He will honor the lessons he has learned
from the spirits.
• Scrooge demonstrates he has changed by donating to
charity, becoming a second father to Tiny Tim, and
sending a turkey to the Cratchit family. What does
each kind act demonstrate about how Scrooge has
changed?