Dickens and a Christmas Carol Essay

Here tyke is interpreted by a sprightliness to see himself, as a child, in his school. It is Christmas eon and Scrooge was left in school so wholenessr of being with his family and friends, this shows spiritual poorness, whereby Scrooge is divest of his family at Christmastime and therefore deprived of their love and kindness. Another specimen of spiritual poverty ignore 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 ferocious 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 fiscal 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 in like manner a small pudding. Despite this, the family were still happy and content. This is material poverty because it shows that poor spate, who have no luxuries, are still able to crystalise 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 metropolis which he had never been to before. It describes in vivid detail the poverty and privation in this area. The stench in the quarter was awful, the area was filthy grubby and reeked of crime and misery. Material poverty is evident here because there is apparently no money in this area for people to forge collapse lives for themselves, or to enhance or repair the environment in which they live. We base tell that this story is located in a particular time in history by a number of reasons.The story is make in 1843, as stated on the cover. The book is largely centred roughly the concept of poverty which was widely in evidence during this era. At around this time, a wr iter called Thomas Malthus wrote an essay entitled, Essay on cosmos. 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 human race ab step up making a donation for the poor and Scrooges reply is to let the people die in the workhouse to reduce the unornamented population.At this time, the Poor Law amended the Act of 1834 which abolished outdoor residual 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 corpse was feared by them all. heller also thought that this agreement was inhumane. He attacked this system in Oliver Twist and highlighted the attitudes which had created it in A Christmas Carol.This shows that the book was pen at this time in history because it coincided with the Poor Law amendments which features in A Christ mas 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 well-tried to highlight the issues of poverty and to point out wherefore 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 gracility to all men, he obviously hoped and believed that this would make people aware of the engagement 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, curiously in the workhouses. Dickens wanted to ensure that this type of exploitation became inconceivable in the future, which was largely the reason why he highli ghted these issues.An example of this is on page 56-57 where the spirit turns Scrooges own words against him saying, argon 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 upshot 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 1870s onwards.