A Christmas Carol Themes

Service Description

Charles Dickens is a very famous Victorian writer. This course covers major themes within his short (yes, short!) festive novella A Christmas Carol. Each session will help students carefully consider some lesser-known moments and reflect upon importance of context, Dickens’ intentions and Victorian reader responses. Stave 1 Change and Social Responsibility Jacob Marley never changed in his lifetime. Best known for his ‘Mankind was my business!’ exclamation, people frequently neglect this well-meaning ghost’s impassioned discussion with Scrooge. This hour covers a unique moment in Stave 1 looking at the themes of change, responsibility and even family. Stave 2 – Family and Change Scrooge starts to realise in Stave 2 that family is very important. Other than his fond memories of his sister Fanny, of his paternally responsible boss Fezziwig, and his torturous memory of his long-lost fiancée Belle, Scrooge is also forced to witness Belle’s happy family by the Ghost of the Past. Stave 3 – Wealth and Forgiveness Fred is often celebrated as the generous, forgiving, Christian exemplar. He is a charitable family man who kindly welcomes his uncle into his Christmas party in Stave 5. Here, though, Fred and his dinner guests discuss Scrooge’s obsession with wealth, his pitiful misanthropy and deep selfishness. Stave 4 – Poverty and Christianity The theme of poverty is strongly (and very predictably) linked to the Cratchit family – especially Tiny Tim, the poster-child for Victorian hardship and needless child mortality. Yet the unnamed couple in Stave 4 also perfectly capture another disturbing example of Victorian poverty in the novella. Stave 5 – Christmas Spirit & Social Responsibility Readers often disregard the young carol singer who ‘fled in terror’ from Scrooge’s counting-house in Stave 1. But by Stave 5, the spirit of Christmas does ‘strive within’ Scrooge, who gleefully revels in buying a prize Christmas turkey for the Cratchits, and even enjoys paying a young boy to do it!

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