Hello all,
Here is my work for "A Christmas Carol", and please be harsh, I really want to improve. Thank you very much indeed!
Topic: Although Dickens' story is entertaining, even enthralling, it is mainly intended to deliver a moral lesson. Discuss.
Charles Dickens’s novella “A Christmas Carol” is a feel-good narrative which has become the archetypal Christmas tale. In his masterpiece, Dickens’ imagination fires up a dramatic storyline by which the audience is entertained by the mysterious otherworldliness of Scrooge’s encounter and enthralled from beginning to end by the Gothic elements. However, despite their effects, these features act as an essential backdrop against which the moral lessons can be played out. Throughout “A Christmas Carol”, Charles Dickens collates a critical response in regard to the chasm that divides the worlds of the rich and the poor during Victorian era while delivering a message of the true meaning of caring, giving and receiving of the Christmas season.
“A Christmas Carol” is divided into staves rather than chapters to reflect its musical qualities. In fact, its structure, main events, and the Gothic elements play the key role in entertaining and enthralling the readers. In each stave, by following Scrooge’s journey, we experience many different things. For instance, in stave one, we are horrified by the appearance of Jacob Marley, but at the same time, we are also curious as we know that Scrooge is going to be visited by three spirits. At this stage, we wonder what they are, and we wonder how they are going to transform Scrooge – a mean-spirited, penny-pinching person. Then, in stave two, after being frightened by the Ghost of Christmas Past, we follow him into the past too see a very different Scrooge. We are surprised to learn about his lonely childhood and the fact that he knows what love is by the fact that he has a fiancée. Next, in stave three, we are guided by the Ghost of Christmas Present on a journey where we see many people celebrating Christmas in their own way, regardless of the financial situation. We see Fred’s Christmas party, and the Cratchits’, and the miners of an isolated community. Therefore, we, as readers, also feel the festivities of Christmas as we turn every single page. Lastly, we are taken to the scariest journey into the future. We are afraid for Scrooge as we guess that the dead person is him and feel bitter about how people react to his death. Finally, we are happy to his transformation, we are happy to see how he treats people, and how happy people are when they are treated the way they expect. Thus, by constructing a plot with dramatic events and employing Gothic elements, Dickens is able to attract the readers, and at the same time, entertain and enthral them, with his Christmas tale.
However, as the intricacies of the plot unfold, it is evident that Dickens employed the novella to comment on the vices plaguing Victorian Britain and rally the public into action. As the Industrial Revolution widened the chasm between the rich and the poor, Dickens’ opinion was that those with riches and influence had a duty to take care of those who were less fortunate than themselves, particularly since their wealth was often founded on the labours of a poorly paid workforce. Scrooge is the obvious symbol of the greedy Victorian rich, while the Cratchits represent the working poor. Dickens uses the relationship between the miser and his clerk to draw attention to the enormous gap between the living conditions of masters and their workers. Also through the Cratchits, “A Christmas Carol” exemplifies Dickens's vigorous opposition to those Victorian social reformers and businessmen who believed, like Scrooge, that charity encouraged idleness and that the poor should be left to die and "decrease the surplus population". This Victorian Malthusianism was often accompanied by an individualism that classified all misfortunes as personal failings rather than public problems. However, as we see, all the family members of the Cratchits have jobs, they struggle to make ends meet, and Tiny Tim is a lovely child who does not have a control over the way he was born. Therefore, they do not deserve the ignorance of the rich. Moreover, Dickens uses Ignorance and Want to attack the Utilitarian philosophy of Jeremy Bentham, most notably his belief in the “greatest happiness of the greatest number”, a position that was used to justify the centralization of Poor Relief in workhouses. The wild, monstrous appearance of the two emaciated figures suggests dangerous scenario which emerges from people’s “want” of food and shelter. Consequently, the comfortable, complacent reader is terrified into taking action to relieve the plight of the poor. Hence, by employing symbolism, Dickens is able to convey deep messages about social reality.
In essence, while it is evident that Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” is an entertaining and enthralling novella, it would be remiss to neglect his core intentions. Through his careful selection of linguistic features and narrative voice, all strongly linked to the setting of the novel, the author condemns both industrialisation and utilitarianism. Moreover, by making the distinction between the rich and the poor apparent, Dickens extols the virtue of society changing its dismissive and repressive attitudes towards the poor, ultimately enlisting the audience’s sympathies for them.