theme_of_the_past-a_christmas_carol.docx |
theme_of_poverty_2_acc.doc |
theme_of_money_and_wealth_ina_christmas_carol.docx |
theme_of_family_2_acc.doc |
theme_of_compassion__2_acc.doc |
theme_of_change_2.doc |
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Small book...big themes!
This story deals with some pretty big topics, things that were particularly of interest to Dickens. He explores some hardhitting themes that tend to focus on morality and what it means to be a good person.
Dickens wanted to write a story to show people the error of their ways, and to encourage people of all backgrounds to be more understanding of others. Click the link or the button below to listen to a podcast about the themes of the story. Listen here! Because the novel is set during Christmas, the reader expects certain themes, ideas and connotations: generosity, love, happiness and forgiveness. However, Dickens contrasts these positive emotions with greed, poverty, sickness and sadness. What a clever man! Examples of Christmas Spirit:
Scrooge's effect on Christmas Spirit:
Scrooge's revelation
Scrooge's heartlessness is representative of Dickens' view of Victorian society. He believed that the middle and upper classes ignored, exploited and criticised the nations poorest people. Many people in the Victorian era believed that the poor should take care of themselves, and felt that charity wasn't helping as it didn't allow/encourage people to take care of themselves. Scrooge mistreats the poor:
Scrooge fears poverty
Ignorance and Want
The issue of charity was an important concern to Charles Dickens. It was his belief that charity was linked closely to religion and Jesus Christ. Dickens was a Unitarian Christian, which meant he was more interested in morality and ethics. Dickens believed that Jesus was the perfect example of a good, honest and giving character. This message is the driving force behind A Christmas Carol and is shown in the transformation of Scrooge, who becomes kind, charitably, honest and giving. Lack of charity and compassion: Scrooge:
Mrs Dilber (Stave Four)
Collecting for Charity
Kindness to strangers/ compassion
These two themes represent the consequences of living a life of ignorance and material obsession. In Stave One, the ghost of Jacob Marley offers Scrooge a very vivid image of the fate of those who succumb to greed. Scrooge and Greed
Sickness and Tiny Tim
This theme is one of the driving forces of the novel, and Dickens shows how all men are capable of change. Dickens imagines the most miserable and hard-hearted man he can, and shows how he can be reformed if he sees his responsibilities. Marley visits to warn Scrooge that he must change his ways, and he does this with the unknowing help of all of the other characters. At the start of the novel, Scrooge seems to resist change
Changing Scrooge Stave Two
Stave Three
Stave Four
Stave Five
Families were very important in Victorian times, and tended to be quite large. Dickens had a large family and was one of eight children. Despite being relatively well-off, Dickens saw himself as a “very small and not-over-particularly-taken-care-of boy", and at the age of 12 his father was sent to a debtors prison and Dickens had to work to help support his family. Because of this, Dickens felt that he could empathise with all families, and sought to highlight the plight of struggling families in much of his writing. Scrooge's attitude to family
The Cratchit family
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