Dickens and a Christmas Carol Essay

Here Scrooge is taken by a spirit to see himself, as a child, in his school. It is Christmas time and Scrooge was left in school instead of being with his family and friends, this shows spiritual poverty, whereby Scrooge is deprived of his family at Christmastime and therefore deprived of their love and kindness. Another example of spiritual poverty can be found on page 69. The spirit shows a vision of a Christmas yet to come, in which Scrooge has died. Nobody cared for Scrooge, because he was so cruel himself, and so members of his staff are selling his clothes. This is spiritual poverty because it demonstrates a total lack of respect for the dead in preference of financial gain. On pages 48-49, there is an example of material poverty. The Cratchits are having their Christmas dinner. It is a small, simple meal consisting of a goose, instead of a turkey, which is normally eaten by the rich, and also a small pudding. Despite this, the family were still happy and content. This is material poverty because it shows that poor people, who have no luxuries, are still able to make the most of what they do have, and be thankful. There is a further example of material poverty on page 61, where Scrooge is again taken by a spirit to visit a part of the city which he had never been to before. It describes in vivid detail the poverty and deprivation in this area. The stench in the quarter was awful, the area was filthy dirty and reeked of crime and misery. Material poverty is evident here because there is obviously no money in this area for people to forge better lives for themselves, or to enhance or repair the environment in which they live. We can tell that this story is located in a particular time in history by a number of reasons. The story is published in 1843, as stated on the cover. The book is largely centred around the concept of poverty which was widely in evidence during this era. At about this time, a writer called Thomas Malthus wrote an essay entitled, â€Å"Essay on Population†. This argued that the population was too big and that there were too many people being born. This point is emphasised when Scrooge is talking to the charitable gentleman about making a donation for the poor and Scrooge’s reply is to let the people die in the workhouse to reduce the surplus population. At this time, the Poor Law amended the Act of 1834 which abolished outdoor relief and established workhouses for the poor, which resembled prisons. Conditions were extremely poor. The work was tedious and the food was insufficient. Men, women and children were divided and the system was feared by them all. Dickens also thought that this system was inhumane. He attacked this system in â€Å"Oliver Twist† and highlighted the attitudes which had created it in â€Å"A Christmas Carol†. This shows that the book was written at this time in history because it coincided with the Poor Law amendments which features in â€Å"A Christmas Carol†. The attitude of Charles Dickens to the poverty he describes is one of disgust and sympathy. This is partly because he has himself experienced poverty and understands the impact that it can have on oneself. He seeks reform and in his books he has tried to highlight the issues of poverty and to point out why change was essential. This is why Dickens uses a Christmas theme in his book, hopefully to bring out the better qualities of people. Christmas being a period normally associated with kindness and goodwill to all men, he obviously hoped and believed that this would make people aware of the plight of the poor and hopefully change the attitudes of many who despised the poor and were not interested in their well-being. Many people actually profited from the exploitation of the poorer classes, particularly in the workhouses. Dickens wanted to ensure that this type of exploitation became impossible in the future, which was largely the reason why he highlighted these issues. An example of this is on page 56-57 where the spirit turns Scrooge’s own words against him saying, â€Å"Are there no prisons or workhouses? † This is in reference to the Want and Ignorance children, that the spirit is showing Scrooge. The children are ragged and dirty and Scrooge is shocked to the core by their appearance and realises what he has done by ignoring the needs of the poor. Although Dickens did not really succeed in changing the lives of the poor at this time, his efforts did help to bring about improved conditions and reform from the 1870’s onwards.