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• A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens was published in 1843.

• It is a novella and is split into five sections, called ‘staves’.

• Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol to raise awareness of some of the problems in Victorian society. He thought that many of these problems could be solved if people were kinder to each other.

Did you know?

It was a Victorian tradition to tell ghost stories around the fire at Christmas.

Dickens was particularly interested in the supernatural and included ghost stories in many of his other novels, including Bleak House and Nicholas Nickleby.

On Christmas Eve, Ebenezer Scrooge and his clerk, Bob Cratchit, are at work. Scrooge refuses an invite from his nephew, Fred, to have Christmas dinner with him. He also refuses to donate to charity. Scrooge doesn’t even want to let Bob have Christmas Day off.

That night, Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his former business partner, Jacob Marley. Marley died seven years earlier and explains that he is being punished because of how he lived his life. He warns Scrooge to change his ways to avoid the same fate and says that Scrooge will be visited by three more ghosts that night.

The Ghost of Christmas Past appears and shows Scrooge events from past Christmas Eves. These include a happy memory of when his first boss, Fezziwig, threw a big party, and a sad memory of when his fiancée, Belle, broke up with him because he had become obsessed with money. The visions make Scrooge upset and angry.

The Ghost of Christmas Present arrives. It explains that Christmas makes everyone happier and kinder. The ghost shows Scrooge the Cratchit family’s Christmas. They only have a small Christmas dinner, but they are happy to be together.

The Ghost of Christmas Present also shows Scrooge two neglected children, hidden under his robes. They are called Ignorance and Want. The ghost explains that the children belong to mankind. Scrooge is shocked by their appearance.

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come arrives and shows Scrooge visions of the future. He shows him that Bob Cratchit’s son, Tiny Tim, will die. He also shows him a gravestone with Scrooge’s name on it.

Scrooge now understands that Christmas is about family and sharing. He promises that he will live differently to avoid the future that the ghost has shown him.

Scrooge wakes up on Christmas morning and keeps his promise. He sends Christmas dinner to the Cratchits, donates a large amount of money to charity and spends the day with Fred and his family. The next day, he gives Bob Cratchit a raise in his salary and helps to look after his family, particularly Tiny Tim.

Activity

Scrooge

Ebenezer Scrooge is rich, but greedy. He is a miser. He thinks that Christmas is pointless and calls it "humbug".

The three ghosts help Scrooge to understand that family and friends are more important than money. By the end of the story, Scrooge has decided to live a better, kinder life and this makes him much happier.

Bob Cratchit

Bob Cratchit works for Scrooge as his clerk. He works hard but isn’t paid well.

Despite this, Bob is kind-hearted, happy and enjoys life. He loves his family and always tries to be optimistic.

Marley's Ghost

Jacob Marley was Scrooge’s business partner. He died on Christmas Eve seven years before the book is set. He also believed that money was the most important thing in life.

Since his death, Marley’s ghost has been forced to watch people who he could have helped in his life. He has returned, wrapped in chains, to warn Scrooge that he needs to change his ways.

The Ghost of Christmas Past

The Ghost of Christmas Past appears to be both like a child and like an old man at the same time. It has a beam of light shining from the top of its head.

The Ghost of Christmas Present

The Ghost of Christmas Present is large, jolly and ages quickly. It carries a torch and wears a green robe and a holly wreath on its head.

It hides two neglected children under its robes, called Ignorance and Want.

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is dressed all in black with a black hood covering its face. This ghost is completely silent. It communicates only by pointing its hand or by nodding its head.

Activity

Themes are the main ideas that appear repeatedly in a novel. Some of the important themes in A Christmas Carol are:

• Family
• Change
• Christmas

At the start of the book, Scrooge doesn’t value family. He refuses an invitation to spend Christmas with his nephew, who is his only living relative.

By the end of the book, Scrooge understands why family is important. He accepts Fred’s invitation to spend Christmas with him and becomes "a second father" to Tiny Tim.

Dickens uses A Christmas Carol to explore the possibility of change.

On a personal level, Scrooge changes from being mean and miserable to being generous and kind. His decision to change shows the reader that all human beings can behave in kinder ways towards each other.

Dickens wanted to show that society could change too. He thought that Victorian society ignored the needs of the poor because the rich people behaved selfishly, like Scrooge. Dickens thought that many of the problems in society could be solved if there was more support for the poor.

The Christmas scenes in A Christmas Carol don’t show people giving presents to each other. Instead, they are giving time and love which are far more important.

At the start of the story, Scrooge doesn’t give anything to other people. He also thinks that Christmas is "humbug", meaning a waste of time and money.

By the end of the story, Scrooge says he will:

honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.

This means that he will always remember the importance of giving time and love to other people.

Writers choose words and phrases carefully when they write. Readers can look closely at texts to think about how and why the writer made these choices.

Third-person narrator

Dickens uses a third-person narrator in A Christmas Carol. The narrator has a sense of humour and sometimes makes jokes and gives their own opinions.

For example, at the very start of the book, the narrator tells the reader that Marley was "as dead as a door-nail" but then continues to say "I don’t mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a door-nail".

This creates an informal feel, like the story is being told by a friendly, entertaining storyteller. Dickens went on many book tours where he would read his books aloud to an audience. This might explain the informality of the narrative voice.

Similes

Dickens uses lots of similes in A Christmas Carol to help the reader to imagine what is being described. Here are some examples:

Pathetic fallacy

Pathetic fallacy is when the weather is described with human emotions to reflect the mood of a character or create a certain feeling. Dickens does this at the start and at the end of A Christmas Carol.

Activity

Structure refers to how written text is organised – the way the story is ordered and shaped.

Staves

The chapters in A Christmas Carol are called ‘staves’ and each has its own self-contained story.

Contrasts

Scrooge does many of the same things in Stave Five as he did in Stave One, but in Stave Five he does them the right way. These contrasts show how much Scrooge has changed.

Activity

Dickens was inspired by events in his own life when he wrote A Christmas Carol.

In 1824, when Dickens was 12 years old, his father was sent to prison because he owed money and couldn’t pay it back. Dickens went to work in a factory, while his mother and younger siblings lived in prison with his father. Dickens realised how important family was and how hard life was for people with little money, like the Cratchits.

In 1834, nine years before Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol, the Poor Law Amendment Act made it much harder for people to get financial help from the government. Instead of giving poor people money, it was decided that they should go to workhouses where, in return for food and shelter, they had to work very hard, in terrible conditions. Dickens believed the workhouses were cruel and not helpful to the poor.

Like many rich Victorians, Scrooge is in favour of the workhouses. When he is asked to donate to charity in Stave One he asks whether the prisons and workhouses are still in operation. Through Scrooge’s personal journey of change, Dickens shows how wealthy Victorians could help to improve society for everyone by showing more kindness.