How does dickens show the change in scroogei?? s character in i?? A Christmas Caroli?? , look closely at the language used and how this influences the reader In 1843 Charles dickens wrote i?? A Christmas Caroli?? partly to make people aware of the terrible conditions of the children of the poor. In 1843 he visited the field lane ragged school and was appalled by what he saw there/ ragged schools catered for the very poorest, hungry children who roamed the streets, trying to teach them the basic skills of reading and writing. He had also been shocked by a parliamentary report by the childreni?? s employment commission.

Dickens was the most popular novelist of the day and he soon realized that far more people would take notice of the terrible conditions of the poor if he wrote about them in a story. i?? A Christmas caroli?? was published on 17th December 1843 and by the 24th he had sold 6,000 copies. Dickens called it a most prodigious success. , the greatest, I think, have ever achieved. i?? A Christmas caroli?? is still widely read today and appears in many versions including illustrated re-telling of the story for young children. Hardly a Christmas goes by without a version of i?? A Christmas caroli?? appearing on TV in one form or another.

The name of the main character, scrooge, has come into general use in the English language meaning i?? a miserly or mean personi??. In i?? A Christmas caroli?? Dickens shows scrooge as an evil, nasty man by using a long list of adjectives, hei?? s described with this sentence i?? Oh! But he was a tight fisted hand at the grindstone, scrooge! A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and as solitary as an oysteri??

Another way to show this is the way he talks to people, e.g. when his nephew invites him to his Christmas party but he turns him down and calls Christmas a i?? Humbug! i?? and even worse, when 2 charity workers ask him for a donation for the poor children, he says send them to the work houses, if they would rather die they better do it, and decrease the surplus population. This shows how much of a cold hearted, covetous sinner he is. Dickens makes us feel like hei?? s an evil man, hei?? s selfish and says hei?? d rather the children die than donate his money to charity.

When the ghost of Marley visited scrooge in the night, he was shocked, he first saw Marleyi??s face as the doorknob, then he was frightened further when the ghost of Marley opened the door from the outside when it was locked from the inside and entered the room covered in chains and locks. He warned scrooge that he would be visited in the night by 3 spirits, one for Christmas past, present and future. They would show him the bad things hei?? s done, doing and will do on Christmas day. If he doesni?? t change his ways then he will suffer thesame fate that Marley did.

The ghost of Christmas past took scrooge to the place were he grew up, were his fianci??back then cancelled their engagement because he was too greedy and obsessive with his work. He sees bob cratchit as a young boy, were hei?? s sent off to work for scrooge, as his clerk. There are signs that scrooge is having a change of heart, i?? his face had not the harsh and rigid lines of later years; but it had begun to wear the signs of care and advice. i?? it also says i?? Spirit! Said scrooge, show me no more! Conduct me home, why do you delight to torture me?

When scrooge meets the ghost of Christmas present he looks like a king, he shows him when he said that awful phrase i??then let them die, and decrease the surplus populationi?? , when he realizes whats hei?? s said he has a change in heart yet again, he didni?? t know what he was saying. He soon realises thats hes greedy with his money and he should donate to the poor like he was asked and maybe increase bob cratchits wages.

At the start of stave four scrooge makes it much more dramatic by making the spirit sounds scary and evil, it says “The phantom, slowly, gravely, silently, approached. ” this gives it a frightening image which frightens scrooge when it visits him. Because the spirit dosent talk scrooge gets angry and starts to shout at it This document was downloaded from Coursework.

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