Charles Dickens: A Christmas Carol and Hard Times, Dispense di Inglese

Scarica Charles Dickens: A Christmas Carol and Hard Times e più Dispense in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! CHARLES DICKENS A Christmas Carol → published in 1843 ✔inspired= he was struck by the terrible revelations published in an 1843 child labor report. ✔A Christmas Carol is an allegory about a penny-pinching misanthrope, Ebenezer Scrooge, who on Christmas Eve receives an unexpected visit from the spectre of his long-dead business partner. ✔ Jacob Marley warns Scrooge that three further spirits will haunt him. The Ghost of Christmas Past, The Ghost of Christmas Present, and The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come=force him to confront the consequences of his actions. ✔Scrooge is upset by the living conditions of his employee and family, Bob Cratcht. ✔CHARACTERS: ● Scrooge= owner of a London counting-house.The 3 spirits visit him in hopes of reversing his approach to life ● Bob Cratchit= Scrooge's clerk (poor +large family). Treated harshly BUT he remains humble and dedicated. ● Tiny Tim= Bob's young son, crippled from birth. He’s a highly sentimentalised character who Dickens uses to highlight the tribulations of England's poor and to elicit sympathy from his middle and upper class readership. ● Jacob Marley= In the living world, Scrooge's equally greedy partner. He died 7years before and appears to S. as a ghost condemned to wander the world bound in heavy chains. M. hopes to save his old partner. ● Christmas Past The 1st spirit to visit Scrooge, a curiously childlike apparition with a glowing head. He takes Scrooge on a tour of Christmases in his past. The spirit uses a cap to dampen the light emanating from his head. ● Christmas Present= The 2 spirits to visit Scrooge, amajestic giant clad in a green robe. His lifespan is restricted to Christmas Day. He escorts Scrooge on a tour of his contemporaries' Holiday celebrations. ● Christmas Yet to Come= The 3 and final spirit to visit S, a silent phantom clad in a hooded black robe. He presents Scrooge with an ominous view of his lonely death. ● Fred= S’s nephew, a genial man who loves Christmas + invites S. to his party every year, only to be refused Belle= beautiful woman who Scrooge loved deeply when he was a young man. Belle broke off their engagement after Scrooge became consumed with greed and the lust for wealth. She married another man. ✔INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: Dickens wrote 'A Christmas Carol' at the end of the Industrial Revolution. The mechanisation of industry meant less demand for workers as machines were able to do their jobs. While this meant that Britain was going through an economic boom, it had a detrimental impact on the working class as it meant that they were no longer needed. In some ways, unlike the start of the industrial revolution, the end of the revolution exacerbated (meaning exaggerated) the inequalities within society. This is because it became increasingly difficult for the working class to earn enough to support themselves and their families •The Industrial Revolution had many impacts on Victorian society such as: 1) Overpopulation - In order for people to find work they had tomove away from the countryside and into the cities as this is where the industry and jobs were concentrated. This caused the formation of "slums' or cramped housing in order to accommodate the large influx of people. Within the novella, Scrooge dismisses the working class as simply the "surplus population" (reference to the economist Thomas Malthus) The cramped housing that the industrial revolution brought about is exemplified by the Cratchit household: Dickens writes that Bob Cratchit and his wife with their 6 children live in a "four-roomed house" in a distinctly matter-of-fact tone, perhaps illustrate how this is a simple reality. Additionally, the close quarters increased the spread of disease 2) Childhood - The Industrial Revolution also meant that many workers were needed to run the factories and the cheapest way to do so was through child labour. The working age of a child started at only 5years old.Families needed their children to work so they could afford the cramped living conditions Within the novel Dickens is highly critical of the darker consequences of the industrial revolution. He presents these attitudes in Scrooge through the way that he treats his worker Fred before his redemption, highlighting that they are unfavourable characteristics which do not benefit society. !!!= Although poverty was rife in the city, many of the rich were willingly ignorant to the struggles of the working class. Many people believed the ideas of Thomas Malthus, an economist who believed that poverty was a natural product of population growth and there was nothing we could do to help the situation. The novella tries to show the reader that society needed to collectively try to tackle the issue of poverty before it spiraled out of control. Some of the most prominent responses to poverty at the time included: ● 1834= 'The New Poor Law' was introduced which stated that for the poor to receive money or support they must go to the workhouses which were essentially harsh and unforgiving prisons. The rich believed this was a viable option, as represented through Scrooge's happiness to hear that the “prisons" and "union workhouses* were in "full vigor". Scrooge's tone here is cruel, and Dickens uses him as a voice to reflect the apathetic beliefs of the rich and how truly problematic they are, challenging the law and reader's own views on the workhouses ● Charity - The Victorian era produced one of the most intense times of philanthropy and charity, reflected in the novella by the 2 "Portly gentlemen" who ask S. for a donation in the opening stave. ● Ignorance - A common attitude among the rich was that the lower-class deserved to live in poverty because they were lazy. This is highlighted by Scrooge's assertion that he cannot afford to make "idle people merry" ● Education: Some people, like Dickens, believe that the only way to eradicate poverty was through education. Due to this, ragged schools were set up to provide basic education; this was done through social policies Hard Times -1854 ✔The story, set in the city of Coketown, is a strong criticism of the industrial society of the time. The characters of this novel fully embody different, mostly negative, aspects of that mindset. It has been said that Coketown has the characteristics of real factory towns like Manchester. 1)Thomas Gradgrind is strictly functional; the arts and literature are totally excluded because they have no use, and students must learn nothing but facts, to the detriment of their imaginations. He has imposed this learning method on his own five children, and they are all like each other. Mr Gradgrind’s closest friend is Josiah Bounderby, a self-made banker and the chief villain of the novel. The two of them decide that Sissy Jupe (one of the students) must be expelled from the school because, being an emotional and imaginative child, she has a bad influence on the other students. But when they learn that Sissy’s father seems to have abandoned his daughter, Gradgrind takes pity on her and, against Bounderby’s judgement, decides to let her live in his home. 2) She becomes like a sister to Gradgrind’s daughter Louisa, an unhappy teenager whose imagination and emotion cannot find expression. As Louisa grows older, she agrees to marry