A Christmas Carol Background

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A Christmas Carol Background
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CHARLES DICKENS

• One of the greatest English writers
• Wrote to show the injustices of the world and to
  make readers, hopefully, change things

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Dickens Life

• Born in 1812
• Family was poor, so he did not get a good
  education, but he read all the time
• Father went to prison and Charles had to work in
  a factory at the age of 12
• Later had the same job that Bob Cratchit had
• Began publishing stories and became a huge
  success with publication in 1837
• Produced more popular novels
• Dickens was probably the most famous living
  writer during his time

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Dickens and Charities

• Because Charles grew up in poverty, he fought
  against many injustices
• He supported
• Schools for poor children
• Education for adult working people
• Better sanitation
• Public health in London

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Public Readings

• Read A Christmas Carol publicly, to raise money
  for a literacy institute and childrens hospital

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Readings for Money

• Began traveling and doing readings for money A
  Christmas Carol was the favorite

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Unforgettable Energy

• Always busy had 10 children, edited magazines,
  traveled frequently, produced acted in plays,
  wrote over 14 novels
• Died in 1870

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Dickens Characters

• Created memorable characters by exaggerating
  their personalities
• Dickens used four main characters that others
  before him did not
• Children
• Really, really bad villains
• A hero that survived large problems
• Women

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A Christmas Carol

• Acclaimed as a classic as soon as it was
  published
• Created an ideal Christmas scene and inspired
  people to make Christmas better for the poor

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The origins of the story

• Same storyline as an earlier work of Dickens,
  with a vision of a Christmas of a poor family

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The writing of the book

• Wrote it in six weeks
• Dickens was very emotional during the writing
  crying, then laughing, then crying, etc.
• Rushed to the shelves before Christmas, had to be
  reprinted before New Years Day

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Friendly Ghosts

• Most stories have ghosts that bring bad luck
• A Christmas Carol had ghosts that come to teach
  Scrooge about his life

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Ghost Stories

• Ghostly tales were popular at this time, but
  Dickens ghosts were not sinister like others

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The Legacy

• A Christmas Carol created a season of charity
• For the first time, an American factory owner
  decided to give his workers Christmas day off

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Stage and Screen

• Nine London theatres staged the story the year
  after it was published
• Ever since, A Christmas Carol has been a popular
  production

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Christmas Stories

• After the popularity of A Christmas Carol Dickens
  wrote a Christmas story each year (none were as
  popular as the one with Mr. Scrooge Scrooge was
  even added to the dictionary)

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Dickens London

• Though rich, Dickens understood the hardships of
  the poor and tried to explain this in his writing

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Exploding city the London streets

• London grew rapidly in the 1800s
• Rich and poor were crowded together on the streets

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Dickens City

• London was Dickens home and he wandered the
  streets his entire life, soaking in the culture

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Working Children

• Children began working as young as 5 years old
• A common job for children was crossing-sweeper
  cleaning dirt off the road as people crossed it

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The smells of the city

• London smelled of horse dung from all the
  carriages

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Working London

• Business owners could fire and hire at will
• Government did not pay the unemployed
• Scrooges of London paid their workers as little
  as possible (usually 130 per year!)
• Bob Cratchit was paid half this amount!!!
• Many workers toiled 12 hours a day, 6 days a week
• Workers were off Sundays, May Day Christmas Day
  (IF the employer allowed it) poor workers did
  not get Christmas off

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Industrial City

• London was the first industrial city of the world
• Being industrialized caused
• Diseases typhoid, cholera, scarlet fever
• Pollution air water
• Thames River polluted and smelled 200 sewers
  ran into it, but much of London used the water
  for cooking, washing and drinking

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Rich and Poor

• In London, there was an extreme contrast between
  rich and poor
• For Christmas Rich feasted poor were lucky if
  they scraped together a meal very poor saw
  Christmas as just another day

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The fortunate few

• Didnt worry about money had servants to do the
  work

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The working poor (the Cratchits)

• Sickness was a large worry in 1839 almost half
  of the funerals in London were children under the
  age of 10

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Poor children, servants, and workhouses

• Servants worked long hours, like Mrs. Cratchit
  she had to work Christmas morning
• Many children were sick and poor
• A few of the poor children had the chance to get
  an education
• The poorest went to a workhouse where they worked
  for basic shelter and food (Dickens wrote about
  these terrible conditions in Oliver Twist)

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Housing

• The poorest, including children, lived and died
  on the streets
• Poor families that had shelter could have up to 8
  people living in a single room
• Rich families lived in splendid houses with many
  servants

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Food

• Rich families had lavish meals
• The poor lived on scraps (from markets and
  restaurants) or handouts usually bread and
  potatoes