GCSE · English Literature · AQA · Spec 8702

A Christmas Carol: poverty and social responsibility

Scrooge says the poor are not his business. By Stave III, Dickens makes him hear his own words again, aimed at a sick child and two wretched children.

Weigh it up

Can the gap between rich and poor be closed?

The claim

In A Christmas Carol, Dickens suggests that the gap between rich and poor can be overcome.

Place each piece of evidence to load the balance. Mark the strong ones — they count double.

  1. Scrooge hoards his wealth, but other wealthy characters, such as Fezziwig and the portly gentleman, use theirs to show compassion.

    Evidence 1: does it support or challenge the claim?

  2. The Grocers' shop overflows with food that sounds rich and expensive, while the miners and the lighthouse keepers celebrate with a song round a fire and a can of grog.

    Evidence 2: does it support or challenge the claim?

  3. The poorer Christmases are full of warmth, good company, music and family: things money cannot buy.

    Evidence 3: does it support or challenge the claim?

  4. Dickens depicts wealthy Victorians as materialistic and oblivious to the struggles of others.

    Evidence 4: does it support or challenge the claim?

  5. When the Ghost throws Scrooge's own words about the "surplus population" back at him, Scrooge "hung his head" and "was overcome with penitence and grief".

    Evidence 5: does it support or challenge the claim?

  6. In Stave I, Scrooge refuses to give to the poor and says those who are badly off must go to the prisons and workhouses he helps to pay for.

    Evidence 6: does it support or challenge the claim?

Two Victorian Christmases

Working-class VictoriansvsWealthy Victorians

Read across each row. The gap between the two columns is the gap Dickens puts on stage in Stave III.

Focus

Christmas

Working-class Victorians

Modest and simple: little or no time off work, cheap or homemade presents, little or no decoration.

Wealthy Victorians

Extravagant parties, feasts and gift giving, and a chance to show off money and status.

The insight

Same festival, two completely different experiences. For one family it is a pause in hard work; for another it is a display.

Christmas dinner

Working-class Victorians

A humble meal made from cheap ingredients. Goose was cheaper than turkey.

Wealthy Victorians

Lavish meals of luxurious food, such as plum pudding, served by the staff they employed.

Work

Working-class Victorians

Long hours for very little pay, often serving the wealthy as butlers, maids or cooks, or in factories and businesses the wealthy owned.

Wealthy Victorians

Comfortable conditions, professional jobs or their own businesses, or no need to work at all.

Home

Working-class Victorians

Overcrowded or unsanitary, with whole families often living in one single room.

Wealthy Victorians

Enormous houses run by domestic staff.

Health and life chances

Working-class Victorians

A high death rate, especially among women and children. In Victorian London, one in five children did not live beyond their first birthday.

Wealthy Victorians

Could afford private healthcare and private education.

What do you think?

Why were so many Victorians poor?

You have just seen the two columns: long hours for little pay on one side, enormous houses and private healthcare on the other.

Which is closest to what you think right now?
How sure are you?

English Lit · Close reading

Whose business are the poor?

In Stave I Scrooge tells the gentlemen collecting for the poor: "It's enough for a man to understand his own business, and not to interfere with other people's." That night, his dead partner answers him. Tap each highlighted phrase.

Marley's Ghost, in the chain he forged in life

Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!Marley's Ghost to Scrooge, Stave I

01Word choice
—
Not "my customers" or "my partner" but "Mankind": the whole human race.
02Technique
—
The sentence opens on its biggest word, so everyone is included before Marley says anything else.
03Effect
—
Scrooge's small circle of concern (his own business) is swapped for the largest one there is.
04Reader response
—
A wealthy reader who thinks the poor are someone else's problem is told that no one is someone else's problem.
PEEAL Straight afterwards Scrooge sees phantoms in chains outside his window. One cries because it cannot help a woman and her baby on a door-step: "The misery with them all was, clearly, that they sought to interfere, for good, in human matters, and had lost the power for ever." Scrooge refused to "interfere". Their punishment is that they now long to interfere, for good, and never can.
Exam line: Four words worth learning by heart: "Mankind was my business." They let you argue that Dickens redefines what a person's business really is.
Watch out: Easy mistake: reading this as Marley describing how he lived. He is speaking as a ghost bound in the chain he forged in life. It is the lesson he learned when it was too late to act on it.

Close reading · Stave III

Two kinds of Christmas

The Ghost of Christmas Present shows Scrooge a Christmas of plenty, then Christmases with very little. Tap each underlined phrase and compare how Dickens writes them.

The Grocers'! oh, the Grocers'! … the raisins were so plentiful and rare, the almonds so extremely white, the sticks of cinnamon so long and straight, the other spices so delicious … the customers were all so hurried and so eager in the hopeful promise of the day, that they tumbled up against each other at the door, crashing their wicker baskets wildly, and left their purchases upon the counter, and came running back to fetch them … … Mrs. Cratchit, Cratchit's wife, dressed out but poorly in a twice-turned gown, but brave in ribbons, which are cheap and make a goodly show for sixpence … … Eked out by apple-sauce and mashed potatoes, it was a sufficient dinner for the whole family … … they found a cheerful company assembled round a glowing fire … … they wished each other Merry Christmas in their can of grog …
Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol, Stave III (extracts)

Focus a highlighted phrase to read its analysis.

Reading “the raisins were so plentiful and rare, the almonds so extremely white, the sticks of cinnamon so long and straight, the other spices so delicious”

Listing and repetition ("so plentiful", "so extremely white", "so long and straight", "so delicious")

Effect

The food piles up item after item, each one given its own vivid description. The sentence itself seems to overflow.

Meaning

One reading sees this as a wealthy Christmas: the scene is all about abundance and excess, and the vivid detail implies the food is high quality, exclusive and expensive.

Focused phrase “the raisins were so plentiful and rare, the almonds so extremely white, the sticks of cinnamon so long and straight, the other spices so delicious”. technique Listing and repetition ("so plentiful", "so extremely white", "so long and straight", "so delicious"). effect: The food piles up item after item, each one given its own vivid description. The sentence itself seems to overflow.. meaning: One reading sees this as a wealthy Christmas: the scene is all about abundance and excess, and the vivid detail implies the food is high quality, exclusive and expensive.

Watch out: These are readings, not facts. Say "Dickens suggests…" or "this can be read as…", and back it with the words.

Stave I says it. Stave III says it back.

Each card pairs something from Stave I with its answer in Stave III. Learn the words; the pairing is your argument.

WHAT YOU'VE LEARNED

A quick recap of today's lesson.

Dickens puts two Christmases side by side, then makes Scrooge hear his own cruel words thrown back at him. The poor, he argues, are everyone's business.

What you need to know

  • Victorian working-class people often worked long hours for very little pay, lived in crowded conditions and had far poorer life chances than the wealthy.
  • The belief that the poor were lazy and could simply work their way out of poverty is a myth, and Dickens exposes it by contrasting the classes.
  • In Stave I Scrooge refuses to help the poor, points to the prisons and workhouses he pays for, and says it is enough for a man to understand his own business.
  • Marley's Ghost answers him: "Mankind was my business."
  • In Stave III the Spirit turns Scrooge's own words ("surplus population", "Are there no prisons?") back on him over Tiny Tim and over Ignorance and Want.
  • Whether Dickens thinks the class divide can be overcome is a matter of interpretation. Argue it with evidence.

The big picture

Dickens sets rich and poor Victorians, and their Christmases, side by side. Then he turns Scrooge's refusal to help back against him, arguing that the poor are everyone's business.

Key points

1Christmas shows the class divide sharply: extravagant parties and luxurious food for the wealthy, a humble meal and little or no time off for the poor.
2Dickens depicts wealthy Victorians as materialistic and oblivious to the struggles of others, and the poor as finding happiness in warmth, company and family.
3Scrooge's idea of "business" (his own trade only) is redefined by Marley as the common welfare: charity, mercy, forbearance and benevolence.
4Stave III answers Stave I: Scrooge hears his cruel words repeated and is "overcome with penitence and grief".
5Ignorance and Want are "Man's": responsibility for the poor belongs to everyone, and doom can still be avoided "unless the writing be erased".
6Dickens arguably contrasts the classes to urge his wealthy readers to focus less on wealth and to show compassion to those in need.

Worked example

Problem

Analyse how Dickens presents poverty through the portly gentleman's words to Scrooge in Stave I: "Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir."

⚠ Watch out

Treating Scrooge's Stave I words ("surplus population", "Are there no prisons?") as Dickens's own view. Dickens gives them to Scrooge so that Stave III can expose them. Write "Dickens presents Scrooge as…", never "Dickens thinks the poor should go to the workhouse".

🧠

Memory hook

Stave I: Scrooge says it. Stave III: the Spirit says it back. Prisons, workhouses, surplus population: every cruel word returns.

✓

Check yourself

Without looking back, give one piece of evidence that suggests Dickens thinks the gap between rich and poor could be closed, and one that suggests it could not. Which do you find stronger, and why?

Flashcards

(14)
What was Christmas like for working-class Victorians?
Modest and simple: little or no time off work, humble meals from cheap ingredients (goose was cheaper than turkey), cheap or homemade presents, little or no decoration.
What was Christmas like for wealthy Victorians?
Extravagant parties, feasts and gift giving, and a chance to show off money and status, with luxurious food such as plum pudding served by their staff.
Why is 'the poor were lazy' now known to be a myth?
Working-class people did not have the same opportunities and life chances. Many worked long hours for very little pay.
What does Scrooge say about the poor when the portly gentlemen ask him to give?
He asks "Are there no prisons?" and about the Union workhouses. He says he helps to support them and "those who are badly off must go there."
Complete Scrooge's line: "It's enough for a man to understand his own business, and …"
"… not to interfere with other people's." (Stave I)
How does Marley's Ghost answer Scrooge's idea of business?
"Mankind was my business." The common welfare, charity, mercy, forbearance and benevolence were all his business; his trade was "a drop of water".
What is the misery of the phantoms Scrooge sees from his window?
They "sought to interfere, for good, in human matters, and had lost the power for ever."
What does the Ghost of Christmas Present repeat when Scrooge asks about Tiny Tim, and how does Scrooge react?
Scrooge's own words about decreasing the "surplus population". Scrooge "hung his head" and "was overcome with penitence and grief."
Who says "Will you decide what men shall live, what men shall die?"
The Ghost of Christmas Present, rebuking Scrooge's "wicked cant" about the surplus population (Stave III).
Who are Ignorance and Want, and what does the Spirit say about them?
Two wretched children the Spirit shows Scrooge. "They are Man's", so they are everyone's responsibility. When Scrooge asks if they have no refuge, the Spirit replies with his own words: "Are there no prisons?"
How does Dickens present the Grocers' shop in Stave III?
As abundance and excess. Listing, repetition and vivid description suggest expensive food, and shoppers leave their purchases on the counter as if money barely matters.
What do the miners and the lighthouse keepers have at Christmas?
Warmth, good company, music and family: "a cheerful company assembled round a glowing fire"; "Merry Christmas in their can of grog". These are things money cannot buy.
What do Fezziwig and the portly gentleman show about wealth?
Wealthy people can use their wealth to show compassion. They do not have to behave as Scrooge does.
Can the class divide be overcome? Give the two readings.
Not easily: the Grocers' excess contrasts with the humble miners and lighthouse keepers. Or yes: through compassion and charity, because happiness comes from community, not wealth.

Tap any card to flip it, or use Study as deck to go through them one at a time. In the full lesson these run as a spaced-repetition deck — you rate each card Hard, Good or Easy and the tricky ones keep coming back until they stick.

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