A Christmas Carol - themes

the christmas spirit

the idea that christmas brings out the best in people - "open their shut-up hearts freely" christmas wasn't a highly celebrated festival 

generosity the portly gentlemen: "want is keenly felt, and abundance rejoices", providing "christian cheer" fezziwig: has the power to render his apprentices as "happy or unhappy"-throws a party for everyone

scrooge has no christian spirit, only sees the monetary aspects "bah humbug!" "what reason have you to be merry" you're poor enough."  “If I could work my will, every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!" "keep christmas n your own way, and  let me keep it in mine" "a poor excuse for picking a man's pocket every twenty-fifth of december" however, after the visit from the ghost of christmas present, scrooge adopts a christian spirit "merry christmas to everybody!" 'golden sun; heavenly sky' "his own heart laughed"

fred fully embraces the christmas spirit  "kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time" "think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave" "come! dine with us tomorrow" i'll keep my christmas humour to the last" "i mean to give him the same chance, every year, whether he likes it or not"  

the cratchits christmas is important because it's a time for the whole family to get together "what has ever got your precious father then?" "here's martha mother! hurrah!" "kissing her a dozen times" "not coming!" said bob, with a sudden declension in his high spirits. 'bob had hugged his daughter to his heart's content'

secular // religious christmas is a "good time", even "apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin" emphasises childish behaviour - fred's house and fezziwig's party

redemption

context dickens stressed that society had to reform the way the poor were treated and the attitudes that victorians adopted had adopted must be dropped.

scrooge the text focuses on the redemption of scrooge from the misanthropic misery character he was in stave 1. dickens creates scrooge as a caricature in order to emphasise a greater reformation as well as arguing that even the worst of people can change. the idea of free will is also highlighted - that it's all a choice. the spirits don't tell him to change, they just show him visions scrooge wants to change because of what he's seen "the time before him was his own, to make amends in"

empathy at the beginning, scrooge is used to "warning all human sympathy to keep its distance" after he: pities his younger self and regrets how he treated the carol boy remembers the fun he had at fezz's party and empathises bob he's  disgusted by how people treated him in death he feels love towards the cratchits, fred and tiny tim

poverty // social responsibility

context dickens wanted to make people aware of the terrible situation the children of the poor were in. visited a school in 1843 and was appalled by what he saw there. was also poor as a child  father sent to debtor's prison and forced to work in a factory 1834 the Poor Law Amendment Act: reduce the cost of looking after the poor as it stopped money going to poor people except in exceptional circumstances DIDACTIC MESSAGE

characters Scrooge uses economic language to refer to the poor. This shows the negative attitude of the middle classes towards the poor. “Decrease the surplus population” “His wealth is of no use to him. He don’t do any good with it” Fred is the opposite of Scrooge: he is charitable. He is Dicken’s version of the ideal middle-class man (like Fezziwig). Fred believes that the middle class should support the poor, working class. “To any kindly given. To a poor one most” the ghost of christmas present says it's most important to look after those who are less well-off than yourself " Mrs Cratchit made the gravy (ready beforehand in a little saucepan) hissing hot; Master Peter mashed the potatoes with incredible vigour; Miss Belinda sweetened up the apple-sauce; Martha dusted the hot plates; Bob took Tiny Tim beside him in a tiny corner at the table; the two young Cratchits set chairs for everybody, not forgetting themselves, and mounting guard upon their posts, crammed spoons into their mouths, lest they should shriek for goose before their turn came to be helped." "At last the dinner was all done, the cloth was cleared, the hearth swept, and the fire made up. The compound in the jug being tasted, and considered perfect, apples and oranges were put upon the table, and a shovel-full of chestnuts on the fire." the cratchits are used to how to the victorian readers that the poor aren't as lazy as they thought they were "if man you be in heart, not adamant, forbear that wicked cant until you have discovered What the surplus is, and Where it is. Will you decide what men shall live, what men shall die? It may be, that in the sight of Heaven, you are more worthless and less fit to live than millions like this poor man's child." it is not the job of man to decide whether someone is more important than the other, presenting the idea that the upper class aren't superior to the poor.

family

context dickens stressed that family is key to happiness queen victoria had many children christianity also promoted having children within a marriage

fred even though scrooge denies it, every year fred means "to give him the same chance every year, whether he likes it or not, for I pity him."

belle's family

the cratchits

others