the supernatural

Introduction

• Dickens uses the supernatural as powerful moral force that exposes human failings and promotes social change

• 1843- growing industrialisation, poverty, class divisions- Dickens uses ghosts symbolic agents challenge attitudes towards wealth, responsibility and compassion

• Ghosts serve distinct purpose in confronting Scrooge with consequence of actions

• Dickens explores themes of memory, morality and redemption, urging contemporary readers to reflect on treatment of poor and true meaning of Christmas

P1

Through Marley’s ghost, Dickens uses the supernatural to deliver a moral warning about the eternal consequences of greed and neglect. Marley is used as a catalyst for Scrooges change and he outlines the structure of the novella.

• ‘I wear the chains i forged in life, i made it link by link, yard by yard’

• ‘No rest no peace incessant torture of remorse’

• ‘Mankind was my business’

P2

Through revealing Scrooges troubled childhood, the ghost of Christmas past allows the reader to sympathise with Scrooge and recognise how his past shaped his character. It also forces him to reflect on the errors of his ways, pushing him towards eventual redemption

• ‘Golden idol has replaced you’ ‘could have called him father’ ‘leave me take me back’

• ‘No space of regret can make amends for ones life of opportunity missed’

• ‘Happy in the life you ave chosen’ ‘solitary child neglected by his friends’

P3

Dickens utilises the ghost of Christmas yet to come as a personification of death to exemplify the idea of accountability and the consequences of actions. Highlights the dark consequences of Scrooges actions and his fate is he doesn’t repent.

• ‘Deep black garment’

• ‘Scatter gloom’ ‘pointed onward with its hand’

• ‘Read upon the neglected grave’ ‘are these shadows of the things that will be, or are they shadows of things that might be?’