The ghost of Christmas yet to come was a quiet, scary cloaked figure and just pointed. The author gives different descriptions for the ghost to make it interesting for the reader and to show the different sides to Scrooge’s personality. Dickens wrote this book for the rich people to know that it is not good not to share with poor people. Scrooge was a selfish man; stingy, greedy and mean. Nobody likes Scrooge and poor people were scared to go near Scrooge.
Scrooge hated Christmas with all his heart “every idiot who goes about with merry Christmas… should be boiled with his own pudding…” he did not have the heart to smile, much less to donate money to charity. Scrooge was the opposite to what civilised men are. Many people disliked Scrooge because of the way he acted towards others. They described Scrooge as a “tight fisted hand at a grindstone… a sequencing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, cavernous old sinner…” Scrooge had no one to love, no one to care for him except for Jacob Marley the first ghost that visited Scrooge. Marley is the one who told him to change his ways because he did not wish on Scrooge to be like him.
We see him rejects his old friends and watch his growth through pain and mishap in to maturity. This is the basis for a story where violence and guilt mix with sharp grotesque comedy to produce a charming tale, what is ultimately a love story. One between a young boy and the girl he cannot have and another between the same young boy and the life of the upper-classes which he so desperately craves. The Novel gives a great insight into 19th century Britain. Dickens is well known for writing about social issues in the Victorian era and Great Expectations is no exception.
Priestly presents Mr Birling and the Inspector in two different lights. Mr Birling right from the very start showed no empathy towards Eva smith and doesn't start to either throughout the play. He is more interested in his knighthood and doesn't want to admit he has done wrong. “I can’t accept any responsibility. If we were all responsible for everything that happened to everybody we’d had anything to do with, it would be very awkward” this further emphasises Birlings ignorance and cowardice attitude towards responsibility within society.
Scrooge has the wrong attitude towards wealth and this made him greedy. We see that scrooge misses out on the many glorious occasions life has to offer because he is too tight fisted with his money. Scrooge gave up the chance to have loving family when he chooses money over his fiancée Belle, who turns out to have a happy family with another loving husband. Dickens also uses the character of Jacob Marley who was ‘was dead as a doornail’ and had the same attitude towards
When Lenny visits Crooks, Crooks says a few things that verify his loneliness and how much he wishes he could be accepted. ‘Books ain't no good. A guy needs somebody - to be near him. A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody.’ This quote shows how being black has affected Crooks, because he has nobody to turn to. Although this shouldn’t be the case, just by the colour of his skin Crooks is leading a miserable life.
Salinger, however, uses his character Holden to explore the materialistic, conformist society he saw developing after World War II. The first extract I chose is from Chapter 22 of ‘Catcher In The Rye’ where Phoebe accuses Holden of hating everything and everyone. Holden reveals here his fantasy of becoming the ‘catcher in the rye’ protecting children from falling into the adult world. This links with Chapter 31 of ‘The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn’ where Huck decides to write a letter to Tom Sawyer to tell Miss Watson where Jim is. He soon realises that Miss Watson would sell Jim either way.
To start with, in the story, Ebenezer Scrooge has no feelings towards his family or acquaintances and holds a strictly professional relationship with them, creating a hostile bond between them. Luckily, thanks to the appearance of three different spirits the main character has the chance to have a look over some moments of his past, present and future life. In addition, it could be said that by observing himself Scrooge regrets what he has done to his loving ones and to himself. It is in that precise moment when he becomes aware how unhappy he is by being such a lonesome, miserable and greedy person. What is more, not only does he change from his gloomy, dark appearance but he also converts into a carefree child - like person.
Written and set during the first half of the 19th century, Charles Dickens’s novella ‘A Christmas Carol’ presents not only a warning to society but presents his critique of the morality and injustice of the Victorian era. Dickens uses the development of the characters to warn against the consequences of inhumane and selfish actions in constructing his moral message. Furthermore Dickens uses the entertainment value of ‘A Christmas Carol’ to broaden the appeal of the novella to popularise his moral warning. However Dickens’s core objective was to critique the poverty, inequality, and greed of Victorian society which had undergone dramatic change through The Industrial Revolution. Dickens uses the characters of Scrooge, Marley, and Bob Cratchit to develop a moral warning against the consequences of heartless and selfish actions.
The novella ‘A Christmas Carol’ written by Charles Dickens depicts a fictitious tale, exploring the personal views and messages of the authors point. Social inequality is a major theme which Dickens clearly points out to readers across many generations. This demonstrates how societies during Victorian era in Britain became too greedy and egotistical. Readers are alerted of the variation between the rich and the poor by the transformation of the protagonist, Ebenezer Scrooge. Ebenezer Scrooge changes from a money-oriented man to a much more kind-hearted person, owing his change to guilt and compassion.