The exams are coming quickly, so my comments will be brief today. Despite some hiccoughs, this is still a grade 9 essay. Steal some ideas.
In his political diatribe ‘A Christmas Carol’, Dickens initially constructs Scrooge as an archetypal villain as a microcosm of the wealthy in Victorian society. Yet, Scrooge’s transformation into a benevolent, caring, compassionate figure highlights the lesson that he wants his readers to embody - supporting those less fortunate. Dickens suggests that his readers will gain a priceless feeling of happiness and redeem their souls from damnation.
My Comment
A 3 part thesis. Golden.
From the beginning of the novella, Scrooge is presented as a parsimonious miser: “Oh! But he was tight-fisted at the grindstone!” The exclamative “Oh!” conveys how even the narrator is overwhelmed by his unpleasant nature; this is emphasised by the negative biblical imagery of the “grindstone”, depicting how Scrooge has no Christian morality. Dickens utilises the motif of Chrisitan morality throughout the novella: as he becomes more altruistic, he becomes more attuned to his Chrisitan faith. Perhaps, from the beginning of the novella, he is appealing to a Chrisitian Victorian society to illustrate how their gluttonous nature is not Chrisitan at all.
My Comment
No, the grindstone is not a biblical allusion. The expression meant working hard, like ‘hard grind’ does today. Up to the ; it is perfect.
Dickens builds upon this by asserting that Scrooge is a “squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner!” The asyndetic list builds Scrooge as the epitome of immoral traits to create a semantic field of greed. Dickens is displaying how Scrooge metaphorically “squeeze[s]” the poor by physically taking what little they have, contrastingly, “grasping” his own wealth. These pre-modifying verbs culminate in Scrooge being referred to as a “sinner”, indicating how he transgresses against Christian teaching through his immorality.
My Comment
Sinner is a direct Christian reference, so your point about his morality makes great sense. If readers don’t recognise the asyndetic list or pre-modifying verbs, it makes no difference - they don’t really add any extra marks to the answer.
Great language analysis.
This creates connotations of Scrooge going to hell, which is reinforced by the list of seven verbs. Perhaps, these could reflect the seven deadly sins to depict how Scrooge is not only going to hell, but his gluttony has created a hell on earth for the poor.
My Comment
This is the kind of rubbish that we encourage by treating everything as a symbol. The number 7 could mean all sorts of things, or nothing at all - it might simply create a fantastic musical rhythm in performance as it is read out loud. Google says this about the number 7 in addition to the 7 deadly sins:
“In the metaphysical philosophy of numerology, the number 7 signifies the Greek deity Athena and the Roman deity Minerva, both goddesses of war and the city protectress. People affiliated with the number seven are believed to be insightful, intuitive, truthful, introspective, intellectual, and wise” AND
“The number 7 is often considered lucky, and it has a definite mystique, perhaps because it is a prime number—that is, it cannot be obtained by multiplying two smaller numbers together. There are seven days of the week, named after various ancient gods and planets (Sun-day, Moon-day, Tiw’s-day, Woden’s-day, Thor’s-day, Frigg’s-day, Saturn-day). Tiw was a Norse god of war, parallel to Mars in role but to Zeus in etymology, and Frigg was the Old English version of Frea (or Freya), wife of Woden (= Odin).
Shakespeare wrote of the seven ages of man, an idea that goes back much earlier.”
and so on. You know when you are reaching, or writing rubbish. Don’t do it!
Despite presenting Scrooge as almost comical in his demeanour, he also presents him as very real and similar in his attitudes towards the poor. Dickens appeals to the wealthy in Scrooge’s nature to hope they will embody his change.
However, in stave two, Dickens utilises the Ghost of Christmas Past to take us on a journey through Scrooge’s childhood as “a solitary child, neglected by his friends.” Dickens subverts our expectations of Scrooge choosing to be alone as he is the one that has been “neglected”. Alongside this, Dickens illustrates how Scrooge has been neglected by his father when Fan comes to collect him from school suggesting “Father is so much kinder than he used to be, that home’s like heaven.” The comparative adjective “kinder” accentuates the idea that at one point he was not kind. Once again, Dickens uses the Chrisitan imagery of “heaven” but this is used ironically as we can infer Scrooge never had this reconciliation with his father: he fails to collect Scrooge from school.
My Comment
Don’t worry about the terminology. This gets the marks because it explains Dickens’ viewpoint, and links it to the language analysis.
Dickens sophisticatedly gives us an insight into Scrooge’s childhood to give a psychological reason for Scrooge becoming “as solitary as an oyster”; this links into Rousseau's blank slate theory of our childhood shaping who we become as an adult. Scrooge’s desire for control of money is a direct result of lacking any connection with his father, his sister (who we can infer passes away), and unknown mother. Consequently, Dickens is making Scrooge’s transformation more real as he transforms due to forming those relationships he never had. Therefore, Dickens is arguing that if a miser like Scrooge can change, the reader can too.
My Comment
Don’t worry about the reference to Rousseau. This gets the marks because it explains Dickens’ viewpoint, and links it to the language analysis.
At the end of stave three, Dickens presents how Scrooge is becoming aware of the hardships of the poor through Ignorance and Want. Metaphorically, Ignorance and Want are the children of humankind who represent the traits that filter through due to the negligence of the wealthy. Evidently, Scrooge is almost fearful of their appearance as “wretched, abject, frightful, hideous, miserable” children, juxtaposing the qualities of youth and innocence with animalistic, inhumane features.
My Comment
You need to introduce this paragraph after you have written about Scrooge’s concern for Tiny Tim - this is the order of cause and effect.
Yet, we see how the spirit echoes Scrooge’s own words of “Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?” This reflects Scrooge’s own words to the portly gentlemen in stave one where he denies offering charity. This could be depicting Scrooge as a supporter of the views of Thomas Malthus at the beginning of the novella: he argued that supporting the poor would lead to them having more children and thus overpopulation. This overpopulation would therefore lead to a larger demand for food and if not stopped the collapse of society itself. Malthus believed that the poor should be denied too much assistance to “decrease the surplus population”. During this moment, Dickens paints Scrooge to be ashamed of his earlier words; perhaps signifying a transformation in his selfish nature. In part, by having Scrooge reject his earlier Malthusian views, Dickens discredits the Malthusian political view that the poor should be denied assistance. Instead, he is promoting the idea that the rich should support the poor due to the large inequality of wealth rather than being forced to go to “prisons” or “workhouses”.
My Comment
Although using too many words, this is a top notch explanation of how Malthus relates to the quotes and to Dickens’ social message. Class.
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