A Christmas Carol was written as the 19th century reached its midpoint, a time where the world had changed dramatically due to the industrial revolution. Wealthy men, the minority, had accumulated large sums of money, moved into cities and lived wonderful lives. However life was dreadful for the majority who were poor and could not afford basic necessities such as food and shelter. This inequality could have been rectified if money had been distributed in a more virtuous and an uncorrupted way. For this reason, Charles Dickens attempts to show this in the form of literature in his critically acclaimed novel A Christmas Carol.
A Christmas Carol has been constructed in a very careful and intelligent manner. Segmented using five staves, A Christmas Carol begins by portraying Ebenezer Scrooge’s heartless attitude to his fellow man. Staves two, three and four show how his attitude gradually changes. Once Scrooge is shown, by three ghosts, how he became the man he is, the ramifications of his recent actions and the final ghost shows Scrooge how the world would perceive him once he passes away if he fails to change his way of life results in him understanding why he needs to undertake drastic changes to his life. The last stave, which shares equal importance with the first stave, shows how Scrooge applies his new way of thinking to amend all the damage he has caused. More importantly, Dickens created this amazing structure as he intends the reader to alter their way of thinking. Dickens anticipated that to begin with, the reader would have some selfish ideologies whilst reading the novel. Upon completing A Christmas Carol, he/she should modify their way of life. This shows that Dickens, like many other authors interested in social re…
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… and minds. Charles Dickens implemented an incredible structure which realistically shows Scrooge’s sincere rehabilitation in stave five from stave one utilising the three middle staves as a transitional stage. Dickens’s work continues even today as A Christmas Carol has been adapted to many films. In November 2009, Jim Carrey, a very well known actor, had done the voiceover for an animated version of A Christmas Carol. Famous actors’ involvement in adaptations of A Christmas Carol shows that it is still very popular. It is due to writers such as Dickens, as well as other socialists such as J.B Priestly and H.G Wells, that inequality has eroded in the 21st century. Inequality remains in the 21st century yet it is evident that literature has reduced it and perhaps if other modern authors had the same goal in mind as Dickens, inequality could be diminished.
