How effectively has Charles Dickens Essay

This piece of course work is going to focus on Charles Dickens and one of his most famous works, the novel ‘A Christmas Carol. ‘ Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth in the year 1812, his family was very poor; infact so poor that when Charles was merely 12 his father was imprisoned for debt. This caused Charles a lot of shame, embarrassment and humiliation which was made even worse, when, due to his family’s lack of money he was forced to work in a blacking factory, in pretty poor conditions for an even poorer pay. Infact this probably influenced his attitude to child labour in later life and inspired him to write ‘A Christmas Carol’. As Charles grew older he went on to work as an office boy and then finally he became a reporter of debates in the House of Commons for the Morning Chronicle, he also began to write sketches for a variety of journals. Dickens then went on to write a number of a famous novels: Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby and The Old Curiosity Shop were all completed, but it was in the year 1843 that Charles Dickens began to write one of his most famous novels ‘A Christmas Carol’. Dickens wrote ‘A Christmas Carol’ when London’s poor were living at their worst. Poverty, filth and disease wrecked the livelihoods of the poor living in London and there was very little that could be done about it. Many children died very young and shocking statistics show that in 1839 almost half of the funerals in London were for children under the age of ten. Families were big, the parents hoping that the more children there were the more money the family could earn but this often wasn’t the case as the cost of bringing up children was quite expensive. Parents gained money from working around the clock for six days a week this meant a lot more than 12 hour working days for the poor and often mistreat from their employers, but it gained a little money and kept the families alive. However the amount of time spent at work would obviously take a toll and family life would deteriorate so Sundays were kept very special as a time to chill once a week and just to spend time with family and friends. This was a day of freedom until the law made going to church compulsory every Sunday ‘ Sabbatarianism’. This really affected the lives of the poor as they could not spend quality time with their families and had no freedom. This was something Dickens really empathised with and he really understood the poors’ views and wanted to do all he could to change it. Most children grew up facing a life following in their parent’s footsteps which meant a life of no education or money. The only option left was to be part of the ‘ Ragged Schools’, schools run through a charity which gave children a basic education and some religious lessons. Dickens himself was very interested in this charity although he did not agree with the compulsory religious education. The lives of the poor were indeed very terrible and Dickens was determined to do something about it, he realised that people would take much more notice of the horrific living conditions for the poor if he wrote about them in a story. So through his characters in Christmas Carol he really reflected the truth about life for the poor, how even when their lives were the most terrible you could imagine, they spread love to others around them and they stuck together through the worst. How they weren’t lazy just not well enough paid. This really changed many of the rich peoples( or Scrooges) ideas about the poor and ended up changing many of the lives of the people living in London. Dickens then went on to write a number of books that are still just as famous and widely read today. He was still writing in 1870 when he died suddenly leaving his final novel ‘The Mystery of Edwin Drood’ incomplete. Dickens tells the story ‘A Christmas Carol’ almost like a song; each chapter is called a stave which means a verse. There are five staves; each one represents a different thing that happens to the main character Scrooge. The first stave starts off with the Scrooge before the visits from the four ghosts; ‘He was a tight fisted hand at the grind stone, Scrooge! A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner’. It is then a little later on in the first stave that the first ghost is introduced, Scrooge is visited by his long dead best friend the ghost of Jacob Marley. Marley tells Scrooge the coming plot of the story how he will be introduced to 3 different ghosts all with the same message ‘Change your ways’. The second stave is the visit of the first spirit, the ‘Ghost of Christmas Past’. Then the third and forth staves are separated into the visits of the second and third spirits, the ‘Ghost of Christmas Present’ and the ‘Ghost of Christmas Future’. They tell of Scrooges life and how if he doesn’t change he will come to a very bitter end. The fifth and final stave is how Scrooge has reformed his character he is a completely different person and he helps to change the lives of everyone who knows him. Dickens uses many skills and techniques to portray contrasting views on Christmas through his characters. This way he managed to open the eyes of so many people living in London, he convinced them that the poor were not lazy but good, hardworking, honest people who deserved a lot more than they got. In his novel he displayed two main, contrasting views on Christmas. One came from Scrooge, the typical rich man who did not see any reason to be jolly at Christmas as it was a time when you paid bills but had no money. ‘ What’s Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money, a time for finding yourself a year older, and not an hour richer. ‘ The other contrasting view comes from the poorer people, whom Dickens always displays in a good light. There are two main characters in the novel that come from poorer backgrounds, one is Scrooges clerk, the hardworking, honest Bob Cratchitt, the other is Scrooges very own nephew. He is very set against Scrooges point of view on Christmas. ‘A good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time†¦ ‘ This is a very effective and clever technique that Dickens has used because he is emphasizing the fact that Scrooge is the miserly old man that doesn’t really care about anyone but himself and making money; this puts the poor in the good light, they are displayed as warm, kind hearted loving people who care and look out for each other. This is exactly what Dickens has intended to do; it has instantly made the reader aware that the poor people are the good. Another example of a contrasting view on Christmas is also in the conversation that Scrooge has with his nephew. It once again emphasises on the fact that Scrooge only cares about money; Scrooge says ‘ Merry Christmas! What right have you to be merry? What reason have you to be merry? You’re poor enough. ‘ The nephew then replies: ‘Come then†¦ What right have you to be dismal? What reason have you to be morose? You’re rich enough. ‘ Scrooge is saying here that his nephew has no reason to be merry at Christmas time as he is too poor; with which the nephew retaliates that in that case Scrooge has no right to be unhappy at Christmas time as he is very rich.