How does Dickens convey the importance of Christmas? (30 + 4 SPAG)
P1: “i can’t afford to make idle people merry”, “covetous old sinner”
P2: “organ of benevolence” “my lads .. my boys”
P3: “a custard cup without a handle”, “good as gold”
P5: “i shall endeavour to assist your struggling family” “second father” “prized turkey” “it’s your
uncle scrooge can you let me in”
In the novella ‘A Christmas Carol’, Dickens explores the importance of Christmas
through the constructs of Scrooge and his foil characters Fred and Fezziwig as well as the
Cratchitts. By using his characters, he emphasises the importance of being charitable and
benevolent at Christmas, a time which historically celebrated Christian values and ideals
– Dickens purposefully chooses this time to perhaps resonate with the Victorian reader,
who was likely to be Christian and wealthy, to use their wealth for good and “assist” the
poor.
In Stave One, Scrooge is presented as a “covetous old sinner” who proclaims that he
“cannot afford to make idle people merry”. Dickens uses religious imagery of a “sinner”
to directly allude to Christianity – by doing so, he immediately aligns Scrooge with
immorality and wrongdoing, conveying to the reader that Scrooge is ultimately
abandoning his Christian values in pursuit of wealth, showing that his initial rejection of
Christmas is a form of, perhaps, heresy. This would be particularly shocking to Victorian
society as Christianity was a fundamental part of England at the time. Moreover, there is
irony created as Scrooge mentions that he “cannot afford” to make the poor “merry” at
Christmas time – he is a wealthy businessman, who is asked by the portly gentlemen to
donate because they know of his immense wealth. He simply refuses to do so because his
rejection of Christmas and charity is so prominent that he cannot fathom helping those
less fortunate than him. Furthermore, the use of monetary lexicon reinforces this idea that
he is so consumed by making money that this rhetoric seeps into his daily life, and thinks
of Christmas purely in economic terms, creating a sharp contrast between the rest of the
characters and Scrooge. This makes it necessary for his didactic journey throughout the
rest of the novella, as Dickens almost constructs Scrooge as a caricature of capitalism in
need of change.
P1: “i can’t afford to make idle people merry”, “covetous old sinner”
P2: “organ of benevolence” “my lads .. my boys”
P3: “a custard cup without a handle”, “good as gold”
P5: “i shall endeavour to assist your struggling family” “second father” “prized turkey” “it’s your
uncle scrooge can you let me in”
In the novella ‘A Christmas Carol’, Dickens explores the importance of Christmas
through the constructs of Scrooge and his foil characters Fred and Fezziwig as well as the
Cratchitts. By using his characters, he emphasises the importance of being charitable and
benevolent at Christmas, a time which historically celebrated Christian values and ideals
– Dickens purposefully chooses this time to perhaps resonate with the Victorian reader,
who was likely to be Christian and wealthy, to use their wealth for good and “assist” the
poor.
In Stave One, Scrooge is presented as a “covetous old sinner” who proclaims that he
“cannot afford to make idle people merry”. Dickens uses religious imagery of a “sinner”
to directly allude to Christianity – by doing so, he immediately aligns Scrooge with
immorality and wrongdoing, conveying to the reader that Scrooge is ultimately
abandoning his Christian values in pursuit of wealth, showing that his initial rejection of
Christmas is a form of, perhaps, heresy. This would be particularly shocking to Victorian
society as Christianity was a fundamental part of England at the time. Moreover, there is
irony created as Scrooge mentions that he “cannot afford” to make the poor “merry” at
Christmas time – he is a wealthy businessman, who is asked by the portly gentlemen to
donate because they know of his immense wealth. He simply refuses to do so because his
rejection of Christmas and charity is so prominent that he cannot fathom helping those
less fortunate than him. Furthermore, the use of monetary lexicon reinforces this idea that
he is so consumed by making money that this rhetoric seeps into his daily life, and thinks
of Christmas purely in economic terms, creating a sharp contrast between the rest of the
characters and Scrooge. This makes it necessary for his didactic journey throughout the
rest of the novella, as Dickens almost constructs Scrooge as a caricature of capitalism in
need of change.
