Charles Dickens presents a warning to society through his novella ‘A Christmas Carol’. Discuss. Fictional stories, although based upon make-believe tales, can often expose the truth behind an author’s personal views and ideals, as well as act as powerful tools to present social messages and warnings to readers across many generations. ‘A Christmas Carol’, written by Charles Dickens, is a novella in which social inequality is highlighted through the journey of a notorious miser during the Victorian era in Britain.
Throughout this morality tale, Dickens presents a warning to society through his ‘social commentary’ which centres on how society has become too self-absorbed and greedy in their ways. Dickens warns his readers that money and materialistic possessions should not take precedence over empathy and compassion towards others. This is portrayed through the journey and transformation of the novella’s protagonist, Ebenezer Scrooge.
Ebenezer Scrooge is a misanthropic moneylender who is introduced as an extremely self-absorbed man with a callous attitude towards poverty. Relatively well-off, Scrooge demonstrates his refusal to assist those nine need and his egotistical personality seems to be the focal point throughout the first stave. This is portrayed through Scrooge’s reaction towards the ‘portly gentlemen’ asking for a donation to fund the poor. “It’s not my business…It’s enough for a man to understand his own business and not to interfere with other people’s.
The Term Paper on The Effect of Social Media on Society
Introduction to social media Social media refers to the means of interactions among people in which they create, share, exchange and comment contents among themselves in virtual communities and networks. Social media or “social networking” has almost become part of our daily lives and being tossed around over the past few years. It is like any other media such as newspaper, radio and ...
Mine occupies me constantly. ” This is an example of how Dickens emphasizes Scrooges lack of empathy towards others in an effort to warn readers of how not to live and focus oneself on personal gain. On a broader symbolic scale, Scrooge represents the many wealthy businessmen of industrial Britain who have cut themselves off from humanity to become fixated with personal gain and wealth. By doing this, Dickens is focusing in on the many wealthy businessmen of his time and warning them to change their greedy and self-absorbed ways.
In an effort to present a warning to his audience, Charles Dickens creates his characters to represent different themes throughout the book. A great example of this are the characters of Want and Ignorance, who as their names suggest, represent the want of personal gain and wealth and the ignorance of the rich towards the poor. Want and Ignorance, two emaciated children of man, are presented to Scrooge through the ghost of Christmas Present. These two terrifying figures epresent humanity’s fate if people fail to respond to the plight of the poor. Almost wild in demeanour, the children have been neglected to the point they have become feral. “No change, no degradation, no perversion of humanity, in any grade, through all the mysteries of wonderful creation, has monsters half so horrible and dread. ” The children have been reduced to the status of monsters and following so rapidly from the jovial scenes of celebration, they shock the reader and terrify Scrooge.
The children are in direct contrast to Tiny Tim and the other Cratchits; where they are joyful and thankful for what little they have, the characters of Want and Ignorance are feral and represent the good of the rich and misfortune of the poor. Dickens utilises these two characters to shock and warn the readers of humanity’s fate if society’s social division and stark inequality was to continue. Although Dickens sets out to warn his readers on what personal characteristics not to possess, he also makes an effort to educate his readers on how to be model citizens.
The Essay on How Does Dickens Ensure His Readers To Continue To Read The Novel?
n this essay, I will be analysing what kind of techniques such as: characterisation, setting, atmosphere, themes and effective language Dickens uses to ensure his readers to gain an interest in the novel and continue to read on in Chapter 1 of ‘Great Expectations’. Charles John Huffam Dickens was born on 7th February 1812 in Portsmouth, England and died on 9th June 1870 in Kent, England. Dickens ...
This is demonstrated through the transformation of Scrooge’s character from the beginning to the end of the novella. Throughout the last stave, Scrooge is portrayed as a ‘changed man’, shown through his many acts of kindness and love as well as his changed attitude towards poverty and prosperity. “He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town or borough, in the good old world. ” This statement encapsulates the stark contrast between Scrooge’s character in the first stave when compared to the last.
It can even be said that the last stave is written in a symmetrical manner to that of the first. This is made obvious through the stark opposites that can be seen in Scrooge’s personality in the first stave when compared to the last; where he used to be greedy and self-absorbed, he became selfless and compassionate. Dickens uses this example of symmetry to make Scrooge’s transformation even more discernible to readers as to allow them to note just how a model citizen should act towards others.
Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’ presents a warning to society through the representation of characters and the journey and transformation of the notorious miser, Ebenezer Scrooge. Dickens warns society of the grim future that awaits humanity if people fail to respond to the plight of the poor. Finally, if Dickens intentions weren’t made clear enough through these examples, his preface says it all. “I have endeavoured in this ghostly little book, to raise the ghost of an idea…May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it. ”
