A Christmas Carol: Context (AQA GCSE English Literature)

Context should inform, but should never dominate, your reading of the text. Any comments on contextual factors must always be linked to the ideas in the text. When exploring the context in which A Christmas Carol was written, you should consider: 

• The contexts in which the text is set
• The contexts in which the text is received
• Its literary context (genre)

Each of the below topics links directly to Dickens’s ideas in A Christmas Carol:

• Poverty
• Relationships and Family
• Transformation and Redemption
• Death and Loss

• The Industrial Revolution ushered in huge economic and social changes and had a detrimental impact on many people’s lives:
  • For many, it was increasingly difficult to live and work during this period as it involved the conversion from traditional, manual labour to machine-driven intensive labour which was often highly dangerous
  • The increase in the production of factories (with a lower cost for manufacturers) expanded the gap between the upper and lower classes
  • Industrialisation also meant that child labour became commonplace in factories:
    • This is evident through Bob’s children who are expected to work to bring in an additional income
• The Poor Law Amendment Act was passed by Parliament in 1834 which largely prevented money from going directly to the poor:
  • It established the workhouses system which rather than being a refuge for the poor, sick or elderly, was more similar to a prison system
• Workhouses were harsh institutions: families were separated, belongings were sold and hard labour was enforced:
  • • They were deliberately designed to be cruel so that only the most desperate would enter 
    • prevailing Victorian attitudes towards the poor meant they viewed their predicament as entirely of their own making:
      • Scrooge demonstrates his support for the workhouse system when he refuses to give a charitable donation towards the poor instead declaring: “Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?”
      • Scrooge reveals his ignorance of the poor when he refers to workhouses and prisons and while workhouses were similar to prisons, the inhabitants were generally there through no fault of their own
      • Dickens depicts the cycle of poverty which meant the poor could not easily escape it
• Scrooge is symbolic of the Capitalist system which Dickens believed denied others access to wealth and opportunity:
  • He represents the self-centred businessman, unconcerned about the conditions in which their employees were forced to work:
    • Bob is made to endure difficult work conditions, though they are less harsh than what many others would have endured, especially those who would have been less skilled than him
    • Dickens contrasts Scrooge’s conduct with that of Mr Fezziwig, and he illustrates the difference between a benevolent and kind employer can have
    • In Stave I, Bob is too fearful to ask Scrooge for more coal to replenish his fire and instead tries “to warm himself at the candle”, which highlights the dreadful conditions that employers could make employees accept

• The family was an important aspect of Victorian England:
  • Family life, as epitomised by Queen Victoria and her nine children, would have been idealised 
• Victorians generally had large families (with an average of five or six children) and they were organised along patriarchal lines:
  • This is evident through the character of Bob who is the head of the Cratchit family
• The family provided a retreat from the stress and turmoil of the industrial world and it was idealised as an element of stability:
  • The household would have been viewed as completely separate from the world of work:
    • Dickens conveys the importance of family and its centrality to people’s lives through the Cratchit family and Fred’s family
• By the 19th Century, the concept of marriage had changed and matches could be made for personal fulfilment as much as for status and power
• Companionate marriage  had become common and many people were able to exercise free choice based on mutual love, subject only to parental approval:
  • When Scrooge queries Fred as to why he got married, he declares it was because he fell in love to which Scrooge responds: “Because you fell in love!” … as if that were the only one thing in the world more ridiculous than a merry Christmas”:
    • Scrooge’s attitude towards marrying for love links to his former engagement to Belle
• By the end of the novella , Scrooge does eventually reconnect with family through Fred and establishes a ‘new’ family through the Cratchits

• The Victorians are associated with how many people celebrate Christmas in modern times:
  • The general population only began to celebrate the Christian belief in the birth of Jesus in the 19th century
  • Dickens uses this newly found celebration as a major element of his novella and consequently, A Christmas Carol helped to popularise the traditions associated with Christmas
• While some may view A Christmas Carol as a secular  text, the influence of Christianity in 19th-century England can be seen to be interwoven throughout the novella:
  • • Ideas relating to redemption and salvation are concepts relating to the narrative purpose of Marley’s ghost and the three Spirits
    • Dickens clearly presents Scrooge’s transformation from avarice to benevolence
    • Marley could be seen as symbolic of Christian beliefs in Heaven, Hell and repentance, as he is presented in a purgatory state  and is forced to remain there until he has repented for his deeds

• Death and loss are recurring themes within A Christmas Carol
• Victorian England experienced high rates of child mortality, especially in cities
  • Malnourishment, disease and poverty were significant issues which contributed to the high death rate among children
  • Dickens depicts the devastating consequences of a system in which Tiny Tim could potentially die:
    • Bob’s insufficient wages mean that he cannot provide adequate care for his son
• Dickens considered capitalism as destructive and harmful to humanity 
• Dickens presents images of death to signify the consequences of the unfair capitalist system in which the characters exist:
• Dickens juxtaposes two contrasting images of death, Scrooge’s death and Tiny Tim’s death:
  • For example, the green of Tiny Tim’s burial ground is contrasted with the darkness of Scrooge’s grave
• Tiny Tim’s death highlights the poor living conditions and malnourishment experienced by many poor children:
• • Dickens uses Tiny Tim to highlight the high levels of child mortality in Victorian England, especially for those who were poor