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A Christmas Carol -
Themes - FAMILY
- Dickens designed the novel for holiday readers - to
spread good cheer and festivity.
- For Victorians, Christmas was a time of national unity and common
humanity; the Cratchit family are a good example of this - spending
time together - metaphor for whole nation being together at
Christmas.
- The best employers in the novel, for example, Mr. Fezziwig, treated their
employees like an extended family- with respect and care.
- Christmas was about bringing people together - sense of collective
unity, shared happiness. Contrast - Scrooge - alone - "as solitary as an
oyster".
- Cratchit family - example of deserving poor - grateful for the little they have - Victorian Idea.
- Ebeneezer Scrooge, Mrs. Dilber - undeserving poor.
- Ebeneezer Scrooge, Mrs. Dilber - undeserving poor.
- FAMILY PEOPLE - good, kind, caring,
philanthropists.
- LONERS - selfish because they don't have anyone to look out for.
- LONERS - selfish because they don't have anyone to look out for.
- The importance of family plays a big part in
Scrooge's transformation - rebuilds
relationship with Fred.
- Scrooge is cured as a character by the end of the novel - becomes family orientated again.
- Novel celebrates family rituals at Christmas - key scene:
eating dinner together (Cratchits). Contrast with cheer.
- Christmas dinner is celebrated because it was
the only time of year the poor could look
forward to.
- Christmas dinner is celebrated because it was
the only time of year the poor could look
forward to.
- Dickens offers hint that if Scrooge's family had been more unified - perhaps he may have turned
out a better man. Ghost of Christmas Present shows Scrooge as being a solitary child.
- Ghost of Christmas Past reminds
Scrooge that Fred is his last link to his
childhood - a time when love was
present.
- Dickens suggests that having a family can provide a sense of comfort in the face of death.
Scrooge's alteration was partly due to the sight of his own unmourned corpse - "with not
a man, a women or a child, to say that he was kind to me in this or that.
- Festivities and Christmas rituals are represented as invaluable - to keep families together,
e.g. helping the Cratchits cope with their troubles.
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