Charles Dickens

• Born in 1812

• His father was sent to a debtors prison

• Dickens gave up his education and worked in a factory

• His father inherits some money and sends Dickens to private school for 2 years

• Works as an office boy at a solicitor’s farm

• Dies of a stroke in 1870

Industrial Revolution

• From 1780, factory owners in Britain began to use coal fired steam engines for machines

• Most people went from working in farming to working in manufacturing

• This caused poverty as people had to become a part of big corporations - who didn’t treat them fairly - to make money

• Many cities had bad living conditions

• Things were made worse due to the pollution of the factories

Thomas Malthus - surplus population theory

• Made in 1798

• Argues that poverty is inevitable as population will overtake essential supplies in terms of quantity

• He said that people should stop having lots of children to prevent this

• People like Malthus thought that helping the poor made poverty worse because it encouraged laziness and kept ‘idle people’ alive

Dickens’ Response:

• Dickens disagreed

• He thought that there was enough resources for everyone as long as the rich was generous and shared what they had

1834 New Poor Law

• Law introduced to reduced the financial help available to the poor

• Ruled that all unemployed people should enter a workhouse to receive food and shelter

• Many people lived in fear of workhouses as families were split up and people were treated harshly

• Conditions in workhouses were deliberately unpleasant to discourage laziness in society

Education

• Dickens believed that education could be the solution to poverty as it would help people gain self respect and improve life

• He supported projects to help educate the poor e.g: ragged schools etc.

• Ignorance is used in the play to show that society is doomed due to the lack of education

Other Key Facts

• Victorians were very religious (Christian)

• Victorians loved ghost stories and perhaps the theme of the supernatural is used in ACC to draw the audience in, therefore Dickens can teach more people about society’s problems

• Christmas was not celebrated until the end of the 1800s - in which it became the most important celebration