charity Flashcards
(9 cards)
overview
Dickens uses the novella, “A Christmas Carol”, as a vehicle to promote acts of goodwill and charity, particularly from those of a higher social class, highlighting that everyone has the capacity to be generous regardless of their social status. Dickens had first-hand experience of poverty in the Victorian era, and could therefore relate to the struggles of those in poverty and understand the importance of charity in one’s life.
quote 1
“And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket,”
– Fred sees Christmas as a time to be kind and generous, and as an opportunity for charity and goodwill, not for accumulating and hoarding wealth, reflecting the Christian values associated with the occasion.
quote 2
“Are there no prisons? … if they would rather die,” said Scrooge, “they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.’
- He doesn’t show any sympathy in his response - also he thinks that poor people don’t deserve money or food and should be in prison. Links to context; Malthusian energy as the population increases, it will kill the food supply. Showing a lack of goodwill as at the giving time of christmas he shows a complete lack of empathy.
quote 3
“There was a boy singing a Christmas carol at my door last night. I should like to have given him something: that’s all”- this shows how Scrooge is showing glimpses of becoming more charitable, demonstrating how acting with gestures of kindness and goodwill is a choice that every individual has the capacity to make, and can be made with the right guidance.
quote 4
“I am sorry for him; I couldn’t be angry with him if I tried” Fred promotes good nature, as easy as it is to be angry at Scrooge, he instead takes the warmer, more understanding approach.
quote 5
“if he finds me going there in good temper, year after year, and saying, ‘Uncle Scrooge, how are you?’ If it only puts him in the vein to leave his poor clerk fifty pounds, that’s something;” He sees his actions as an opportunity to enact positive change for others. He doesn’t seek advantage for himself but instead for Bob Cratchit, Scrooge’s clerk.
quote 6
“For the sake of anything he might be able to do for us, so much as for his kind way” – This reinforces the fact that offering a word and some comfort can be just as effective, if not more so, as giving monetary support, showing that gestures of charity and goodwill are not always transactional.
quote 7
Make up the fires and buy another coal-scuttle before you dot another i, Bob Cratchit!’
This tells us that Scrooge is becoming a warmer, more sensitive and kind individual as opposed to stave 1. Here we see him prioritising warmth over profits which was unheard of for Scrooge in stave 1. We see a stark contrast to Scrooge in stave 1 as ‘he carried his low temperature about with him.’ Where as, now we see Scrooge generating warmth.
quote 8
‘And to Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, he was a second father.’ (p.116)
· Tiny Tim is emblematic of the most vulnerable members of Victorian society. The fact he lives provides a sense of optimism by the close of the novella as Dickens suggests that society can improve if only we recognise the importance of supporting one another.
· Reference to a ‘second father’ – indicative of a supplementary paternal figure and may suggest that the poor are in more need of help than other members of society.
