A Christmas Carol - Themes - FAMILY

A Christmas Carol - Themes - FAMILY

1. Dickens designed the novel for holiday readers - to spread good cheer and festivity.

2. For Victorians, Christmas was a time of national unity and common humanity; the Cratchit family are a good example of this - spending time together - metaphor for whole nation being together at Christmas.

3. The best employers in the novel, for example, Mr. Fezziwig, treated their employees like an extended family- with respect and care.

4. Christmas was about bringing people together - sense of collective unity, shared happiness. Contrast - Scrooge - alone - "as solitary as an oyster".

5. Cratchit family - example of deserving poor - grateful for the little they have - Victorian Idea.

   • Ebeneezer Scrooge, Mrs. Dilber - undeserving poor.

6. FAMILY PEOPLE - good, kind, caring, philanthropists.

   • LONERS - selfish because they don't have anyone to look out for.

7. The importance of family plays a big part in Scrooge's transformation - rebuilds relationship with Fred.

8. Scrooge is cured as a character by the end of the novel - becomes family orientated again.

9. Novel celebrates family rituals at Christmas - key scene: eating dinner together (Cratchits). Contrast with cheer.

   • Christmas dinner is celebrated because it was the only time of year the poor could look forward to.

10. Dickens offers hint that if Scrooge's family had been more unified - perhaps he may have turned out a better man. Ghost of Christmas Present shows Scrooge as being a solitary child.

11. Ghost of Christmas Past reminds Scrooge that Fred is his last link to his childhood - a time when love was present.

12. Dickens suggests that having a family can provide a sense of comfort in the face of death. Scrooge's alteration was partly due to the sight of his own unmourned corpse - "with not a man, a women or a child, to say that he was kind to me in this or that.

13. Festivities and Christmas rituals are represented as invaluable - to keep families together, e.g. helping the Cratchits cope with their troubles.