Christmas Carol Essay Plans

Question 1

Poverty and social injustice definitions

Answer 1

• state where individuals lack financial means of survival
• disparity between those of different societal statuses

Question 2

Poverty and social injustice thesis

Answer 2

• creates idea of social responsibility through Scrooge’s redemption
• uses allegories to show effects, shows solutions
• reader can relate or be warned - invoke change (more receptive message)

Question 3

Poverty and social injustice paragraphs

Answer 3

• Cratchit family
• Ignorance and Want
• Scrooge takes on socially responsible role

Question 4

Poverty and social injustice - Cratchit family

Answer 4

• positive representation of those struggling
• ‘got over the wall of the back-yard and stolen in’ (christmas dinner)
• maybe criticism of poor (crime)
• more likely shows realities of poverty - lengths people forced to go to survive, poverty breeds crime
• ‘wall’ metaphorical for lack of opportunity + living difficulties

Question 5

Poverty and social injustice - Ignorance and Want

Answer 5

• shows Scrooge (upper class) need to take responsibility for poor
• ‘they are man’s
• possesive - abandonment, need to take responsibility for problems created by greed of man
• ‘ignorance’
• maybe ignorance upper class have for poor
• could refer to lack of education as cause of poverty - should educate poor
• ‘want’ - selfish uncharitable attitudes
• sympathy emphasised by being children - ‘graceful youth should have filled their features out’
• contrasting semantic field - ‘shrivelled’ ‘pinched’ ‘twisted’
• not essensial; reinforces allegorical novella

Question 6

Poverty and social injustice - Scrooge taking responsibility

Answer 6

• Tiny Tim allegory for suffering poor
• Scrooge becomes ‘second father’
• literally - treating people better (redemption)
• deeper - richer should take responsibility for poor
• better man in general - follows ‘total abstinence principle’ (narrative tone change) and becomes as ‘good a man as the good old city knew’

Question 7

Redemption definition

Answer 7

Act of being saved from sin through undergoing immense internal changes

Question 8

Redemption thesis

Answer 8

• used to symbolise the change with society must undergo help the poor
• suggesting greed of the rich is sinful + unchristian
• shown by the transformation Scrooge - allegory for transformation

Question 9

Redemption paragraphs

Answer 9

• initially cold-hearted
• realises wrongdoings
• fully tranformed

Question 10

Redemption - initially cold-hearted

Answer 10

• ‘oh’ - narrator overwhelmed
• ‘squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching’
• asyndentic
• semantic links of adjectives - holds onto things tightly
• negative verbs - onomatopoeic feeling of lacking liberty
• exclamation marks amplify disgust
• harsh sounds

Question 11

Redemption - realises wrongdoings

Answer 11

• Ignorance and Want - ‘have they no refuge or resource’ - realises problem in society
• ‘are there no prisons? are there no workhouses’ - realises his contributions to problems
• Malthusian views –> now magnanimous

Question 12

Redemption - transformed

Answer 12

• misanthropic –> philanthropic + altruistic
• ‘I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I’m quite a baby’
• similes + cliches
• simpler linguistic choices to rest of text - liberty
• ‘light’ freedom, ALT: subtly refers to enlightenment
• ‘baby’ innocence/purity ALT: connotes Jesus Christ who helped and redeemed the world

Question 13

Isolation definition

Answer 13

Being excluded from personal relationships or society

Question 14

Isolation thesis

Answer 14

• self-inflicted force upon Scrooge, ostracised himself - detached from society due to obsessions with money/greed
• warn against greed by showing consequences, promotes redemption by showing later happiness - promotes Dickens’ socialist ideology (include everyone)
• allegory for effects of greed - immediately presents as isolated and contrastingly happy as result of redemption of generosity

Question 15

Isolation paragraphs

Answer 15

• initially isolated + greedy
• reminded of better past
• redemption leads to hapiness

Question 16

Isolation - initial isolation + greed

Answer 16

• WHY HE IS ISOLATED
• ‘tight-fisted’ - focusing on money instead of personal relationships
• SHOWING HIS ISOLATION
• ‘solitary as an oyster’ simile, bottom of sea as they protect valuable pearls, ALT: beauty within, foreshadowing redemption
• isolates from family - ‘Come! dine with us to-morrow’, ‘Good afternoon!’

Question 17

Isolation - reminded of better past

Answer 17

• Dick Wilkins - symbolic of Scrooge’s better past
• ‘Bless me, yes. There he is. He was very much attached to me, was Dick. Poor Dick! Dear, dear!’
• short sentences + exclamation marks - overflow of emotion, contrasts to previously seen incapacity, humanises him, one of first time we see him redeemed

Question 18

Isolation - redemption leads to hapiness

Answer 18

• goes to Freds, ‘Will you let me in’ - deeper meaning: wants to be let into Fred’s life despite past cruelty due + isolation from family
• ‘Wonderful, games, wonderful unanimity, won-der-ful happiness!’ - repetition for emphasis

Question 19

Christmas spirit definition

Answer 19

Positive attitude felt around the time of the christian festival which can result in generous actions

Question 20

Christmas spirit thesis

Answer 20

• used to promote generosity (characteristic of christmas)
• invoke more social responsibility, oppose unchristian behaviour of those who ‘claim to know religion’
• Scrooge allegory for unchristian behaviour (greed), becomes lover of christmas so better person

Question 21

Christmas spirit paragraphs

Answer 21

• initially hates christmas and is ungenerous
• other peoples’ generosity aids redemption
• embraces christmas spirit so is better person

Question 22

Christmas spirit - initial attitudes

Answer 22

• ‘a poor excuse for picking a man’s pocket’
• plosive ‘p’s - harsh tone, cold-heartedness
• figurative language - ironically downplays action of theft - ridiculous view to hold

Question 23

Christmas spirit - other people’s

Answer 23

• Martha Cratchit
• allegory for hardworking poor - ‘work to finish up’ (opposes view of ‘idle’)
• despite challenges, still positive due to christmas spirit - ‘didn’t like to see him disappointed’
• people at sea - ‘thick yellow mud and icy water’ juxtaposed with ‘blazing away to their dearest hearts’ content’
• overall - uses stave 3 to show how all can celebrate christmas = ‘an interest he had never felt before’ (redemption)

Question 24

Christmas spirit - embraces christmas

Answer 24

• ‘I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a schoolboy’
• similes - joy
• simplistic language - liberty through redemption by christmas spirit
• ‘merry christmas to everybody’
• crescendo of christmas spirit and redemption