The introduction and 3 main body paragraphs depict poverty in the Victorian era, which is reflected in a Christmas carol. Besides each paragraph, there are tips to sustain a grade 9 essay.
1. Relate the key
question word
to the novel as
a whole and to
How does Dickens present ideas about poverty? its wider
purpose
Poverty is a central theme within the novella as Dickens seeks to expose the
realities of poverty in the Victorian era and undermine commonly held
misconceptions about its causes. His ultimate aim is to address the disparity
between rich and poor by persuading the wealthy of the extent that poverty is
ravaging society and that they have a moral obligation to help the poor, rather
than seeing themselves as separate from this social issue.
2. Try to
In this extract, Dickens uses the symbolic children of Ignorance and Want, who capture
are ‘man’s’ to represent the sorry state of Victorian society. The children are the
depicted with images of utter ‘degradation’, in ‘ragged’ clothing and in a feeble essence
‘meagre’ state of health, like the many beggar children who lived on the streets of the
of Victorian London. In this way the children represent the wider problem of child extract-
poverty. The names of these children ‘Ignorance’ and ‘Want’ suggest that they the
represent the two halves of society, the wealthy who are ignorant about the range of
causes of poverty and their responsibility towards it and the poor who ‘want’ ideas it
because of the wealthy’s selfish hoarding. Dickens using these neglected presents
children as a metaphor for the state of society evokes the idea that society has and the
neglected to care for itself and has allowed itself to decline, like parents languag
neglecting their children. The tragedy of this is also evoked by the fact that e
childhood is typically associated with the quality of innocence. Dickens pointedly patterns
contrasts that ‘where angels might have sat enthroned, devils lurked’, evoking used to
through this religious contrast the idea that society has the potential to be present
3. Look at
something positive and pure but it has reached the point of being nearly totally these
a quote
forsaken because of the sins of greed and rejection of charity.
from the
extract in We see also that Dickens is keen to highlight that the problem here is not poverty
depth and itself, but the ‘Ignorance’ that causes it, as the ghost states, seemingly with
connect it Dickens’ own voice, that this is what we should ‘beware… most’ because it will
to be the ‘doom’ of society. This idea has already been exemplified by the character
another of Scrooge who has made many disparaging comments about the poor belonging
part of in ‘prisons’ and being poor because they are ‘idle’. Dickens has already used this
the stave to undermine this idea through the portrayal of the Cratchits in their
diligence, frugality and Christian humility and gratitude towards the ‘ogre’
Scrooge for the meagre meal his pay has afforded them.
Dickens further points out the irony of the stereotypes that the wealthy
perpetuated about the poor through the changing relationship between Scrooge
and the sickly child of his employee, Tiny Tim. This is shown partly through the
dialogue of the Ghost of Christmas Present who briefly departs from his jovial
demeanour to chide Scrooge saying, ‘It may be in the sight of heaven you are far
more worthless than this poor man’s child’, bringing together the ideas of virtue
and sin that Dickens has alluded to up to this point. Scrooge has been
characterised closely with sin and the violation of Christian virtues. He
contravenes the Ten Commandments by being ‘covetous’ and worshipping the
false ‘idol’ of money and rejecting charity. Dickens contrasts this directly to the
character of Tiny Tim whose humility extends to the point of him wishing that his
own disability could benefit others by bringing them closer to Jesus,
remembering that he ‘made lame beggars walk and blind men see’. In this way,
Dickens highlights the virtue of the poor. Scrooge’s ultimate decision to help
Bob’s family, ultimately averts Tiny Tim’s death, revealing that his ‘illness’ all
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