How does Dickens present ideas about the treatment and
conditions of the poor in this extract?
Dickens presents ideas about the treatment of the poor buy showing how the
neglect of the poor affects the children. The neglect of the people in poverty has
led to suffering, this is represented by the boy and girl that “clung upon the
outside of its garment”, Ignorance and Want. The capital letters personify the
characteristics, giving them a monster like representation. By personifying the
traits, Dickens suggests that the wealthy population have chased after the
“monsters” to the point that they neglected the poverty. The spirit said “but
most of all beware this boy”. – Ignorance. It suggests that ignorance is the main
problem that leaves the poor society abandoned. As the ghost of Christmas
present showed Scrooge, “they are man’s”: society has created these children.
Dickens creates sympathy for the children by contrasting and juxtaposing their
appearance: the children are described to have the “freshest tints” but also “a
stale and shrivelled hand”. “Where graceful youth should have filled their
features out (…) age, had pinched, and twisted them” makes Scrooge feel
sympathetic towards them because he was also neglected as a child. The
adjective,” graceful” exaggerates their innocence. This further highlights the fact
that the people in poverty did not bring their situation onto them, but the
dominating feelings of the rich has caused the huge wealth gap. Dickens uses
this in rebuttal to Thomas Malthus’ theory. Furthermore, it allows the readers –
who were rich enough to have an education and money to buy the book - to build
sympathy for the children and therefore want to help the poverty situation.
Dickens also uses this extract to share his ideas about the social injustice and
poverty. He blames society for the suffering of the poor. This is shown to draw
attention to the neglect of the poverty and furthermore making the readers feel
guilty that they have created these “monsters”. Dickens shows that the wealthy
are responsible for this by the spirit “stretching its hand out to the city”. This
implies that there is not one singular person responsible for this, but the whole
city is accountable for the drastic wealth gap. He is also subtly suggesting that
one person can’t fix this, but if everyone in the city decided to help, the
population in extreme poverty will decrease..
conditions of the poor in this extract?
Dickens presents ideas about the treatment of the poor buy showing how the
neglect of the poor affects the children. The neglect of the people in poverty has
led to suffering, this is represented by the boy and girl that “clung upon the
outside of its garment”, Ignorance and Want. The capital letters personify the
characteristics, giving them a monster like representation. By personifying the
traits, Dickens suggests that the wealthy population have chased after the
“monsters” to the point that they neglected the poverty. The spirit said “but
most of all beware this boy”. – Ignorance. It suggests that ignorance is the main
problem that leaves the poor society abandoned. As the ghost of Christmas
present showed Scrooge, “they are man’s”: society has created these children.
Dickens creates sympathy for the children by contrasting and juxtaposing their
appearance: the children are described to have the “freshest tints” but also “a
stale and shrivelled hand”. “Where graceful youth should have filled their
features out (…) age, had pinched, and twisted them” makes Scrooge feel
sympathetic towards them because he was also neglected as a child. The
adjective,” graceful” exaggerates their innocence. This further highlights the fact
that the people in poverty did not bring their situation onto them, but the
dominating feelings of the rich has caused the huge wealth gap. Dickens uses
this in rebuttal to Thomas Malthus’ theory. Furthermore, it allows the readers –
who were rich enough to have an education and money to buy the book - to build
sympathy for the children and therefore want to help the poverty situation.
Dickens also uses this extract to share his ideas about the social injustice and
poverty. He blames society for the suffering of the poor. This is shown to draw
attention to the neglect of the poverty and furthermore making the readers feel
guilty that they have created these “monsters”. Dickens shows that the wealthy
are responsible for this by the spirit “stretching its hand out to the city”. This
implies that there is not one singular person responsible for this, but the whole
city is accountable for the drastic wealth gap. He is also subtly suggesting that
one person can’t fix this, but if everyone in the city decided to help, the
population in extreme poverty will decrease..
