A Christmas Carol Context

Poor Law

  • Introduced in 1834

  • Stated that in order to earn money or support, the poor had to work in the workhouses

Workhouses

  • Difficult + crowded for inmates

  • Many lived in slums where disease quickly spread and children had no education

  • Harsh and unforgiving prisons

  • Working age was 5

  • in 1833 'The factory Act on Child Labour' was put into effect which meant that children had to be at least 9 years old to work.

Malthusian Theory

  • Thomas Malthus was an economist who believed that poverty was a natural product of population growth

  • Because population was growing, there would obviously be a lack of food and necessities

Dickens’ childhood

  • Born into middle class family

  • Father sent to debtor’s prison as a result of financial troubles

  • Father, John Dickens was a clerk like Bob Cratchit

  • Cratchit house based on Dicken’s childhood home: 16 Bayham Street, Camden, London

    • Camden is now in the top 25 richest boroughs in the UK but in 1700s and early 1800s was full of poverty

  • 12 years old, Dickens sent to Warren’s Blacking Factory to live and work by himself for 3 years (Till father got enough money) and experienced poverty first hand

Christmas for Dickens

  • Daughter Mary Dickens wrote how Christmas with father was full of merriment, dancing and full of guests

Ragged schools

  • Schools set up to provide basic education

  • Dickens believe education was the way to combat poverty

  • Elementary Education Act of 1880 required all children to attend school until the age of at least 10 years old. →Children viewed as an economic liability as they could not go to work.

Victorian Christmas

  • Gained popularity, especially through the royal family

  • Prince Albert helped start tradition of decorating Christmas trees

  • Christmas cards also became a tradition

Why Dickens wrote the novella

  • Dickens wrote the novella whilst on tour of Italy in 1843, an extremely religious place

  • Inspired after reading 1843 parliamentary report on Britain’s child labourers and seeing families starving on streets in Manchester when visiting his sister - he was 2 perfectly stricken down by it”

  • ACC originally thought to be pamphlet titled “An appeal to the people, on behalf of the poor man’s child” but fictional novella thought too be more impactful

  • Dickens wanted a ‘sledgehammer’ blow + created ACC to have “twenty times the force” of a government pamphlet

Christianity in Victorian society

  • Values of love, compassion, generosity , family

  • Holy Trinity reflected in the Three Spirits

  • Sabbatarianism was rest day where people did not work

  • Dickens disagreed with blue laws which prohibited leisure on Sundays so stopped poor earning

Dante’s ‘The Divine Comedy’ links

  • Dickens was a fan of Dante

  • Divine Comedy and ACC may share similarities

  • Dante starts his text ‘ Inferno in the Dark Forest’ with the description “savage , rough and stern in the very thoughts renews fear” which has a similar atmosphere to ACC

  • Divine comedy talks about a religious journey - Hell→Purgatory→Heaven - Stages are similar to ACC

Etymology of names

Ebeneezer Scrooge

  • ‘Ebeneezer’ derives from Hebrew and has links to the word ‘stone’

  • ‘Scrooge’ links to the 16th century word ‘scruze’ which means to squeeze

Jacob Marley

  • ‘Jacob’ is a biblical name- in the Bible , Jacob was a shrewd businessman who became exceedingly prosperous

  • A ‘Jacobus’ was also a golden coin minted in the 1600s

  • ‘Marl’ is an archaic(no longer used). 11th century word meaning ‘soil’

Bob Cratchit

  • ‘bob’ was Victorian slang for a shilling

  • ‘Cratchit’ suggests the scratching of the clerks pen

  • ‘croquet’(French) means feeble person

Tiny Tim

  • Timothy is the English form of the Old Greek name Timotheus, which means honoured by God

  • Tim could be short for ‘timid’

Gothic, supernatural influences and tropes

  • Traditional to read ghost stories

  • Gloomy atmosphere

Victorian Life

  • Tuberculosis and rickets was prevalent - 50 % of population contracted TB and 1% died from it each year

  • Poor particularly affected by smoggy streets and poor diet

  • sewage ran through the streets

  • meat was a luxury

  • clothes often repaired + dark colours used to hide dirt

  • card games very popular

  • tennis ,fishing, cricket played by the rich

  • Poor- rat catchers, street sweepers, factories

    • Long hours, had to share a public bathroom

Structure

  • Novella - short novel

  • Staves instead of chapters

    • Staves are staffs often used on pilgrimage - pilgrimages are a journey

  • Follows Hero’s journey - concludes with atonement

The novella

Contradictions

The book included hand painted colourful illustrations which made it expensive to publish - Dickens wanted a book that could reach the poorest yet it cost an enormous amount

Illustrator

John Leach - A distinguished and very famous artis and very close friend of Dickens

Profit

Dickens did not profit much from the novella due to high production costs and many pirated versions which dickens failed to stop

Scrooge

Believed to be based on John Elwes-

  • Born in 1714

  • Inherited a fortune whilst young

  • Went to Westminster school

  • Member of Parliament for Berkshire

  • Lived very frugally

  • Bad clothes, rotting mansion,ate rotting food

Locations

Royal exchange (change) was the official centre of commerce in the city of London

    Current exchange opened in the 1840s so would have been very new

Leadenhall market - near Scrooge’s house and work, best place to buy a turkey