A Christmas Carol': Compare and Contrast Essay

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A Christmas Carol’: Compare and Contrast Essay

In A Christmas Carol, Dickens presents the hope of redemption in the novel as a whole through the contrast and by using Scrooge from stave 1 to stave 5. At the start of the novella, we see how Scrooge has disconnected himself from society. He doesn’t allow Bob to heat the office by burning coal, he believes Christmas is a ‘humbug’ and something which effectively steals wealth from him and he refuses to donate to the charity workers who are collecting for the poor, saying ‘if they would rather die, they better do it and decrease the surplus population’. The word ‘surplus’ tells us that he thinks that they do not have any point in living life. Scrooge doesn’t realize the problems with poverty in Victorian as he is ignorant of how they struggle to survive. He, therefore, symbolizes the selfish rich who believed that the poor were paid enough and that the workhouses were enough of a support to them if they couldn’t survive. Scrooge’s attitude is based upon Thomas Malthus, who believed poverty to be a form of population control, which Dickens found horrifying.

Whereas in stave 4 the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come warns Scrooge that unless he changes, Tiny Tim will die. Scrooge – who did not care about the poor does not want him to die showing us that maybe he is not fully cold-hearted. This is contrasted with how he was in the first stave. Tiny Tim does not die because Scrooge changes his ways and becomes a great ‘master’ to Bob Cratchit and ‘a second father’ to Tim. Dickens emphasizes the intimate relationship Scrooge has with the Cratchits and the significant role he plays in their life by referring to him as ‘father.’ Scrooge’s influence reflects broader difficulties in Victorian society, in which people with the means to help the poor were frequently overlooked. But many people like Dickens, who campaigned for the poor through organizations like the Ragged Schools, show how society still redeem itself by helping the less fortunate. Dickens uses Scrooge’s transformation, to show that even the coldest person can redeem themselves.

Dickens portrays Scrooge as ‘hard and sharp as a flint’ in stave 1. This is a simile that reflects Scrooge’s attitude. The noun ‘flint’ are colored by impurities. This solely reflects Scrooge’s antisocial and harsh nature. His attitude is one that is of the vilest individual. Flints are also associated with fire. Dickens uses the recurring motif of fire throughout the novella for many different purposes. In this instance, people stay away from fire as it is dangerous. This is just like people do not want to surround themselves around negativity. On a deeper level, this could have a link to the 7 deadly sins and hell. Hell is associated with fire. Scrooge’s greedy misanthropic attitude is under a sinful category directly giving rise to immoralities. Scrooge must change in order to avoid this punishment. The adjective ‘hard’ further emphasizes his harsh and unrelenting nature.

However, in stave 5 scrooge states I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel’. This repetitive structure of similes highlights his newfound positivity. The noun ‘angel’ creates a sense of Christian goodness and juxtaposes his miserly nature at the start making his metamorphoses even more anticipated. Furthermore, the noun ‘featherâ€ is particularly pertinent. It connotes a sense of freedom and weightlessness. Perhaps Dickens uses it to show readers how Scrooge is no longer tied down by feelings of despair and hatred. Dickens has done this to convey that there is redemption for everyone – even the vilest ones.

The links between Scrooge’s mindset and the weather demonstrate his metamorphosis. This is done by using pathetic fallacy showing us how the weather reflects scrooges personality. The weather is ‘bleak’ and ‘biting’ at first when Scrooge is miserly and alone. The word ‘biting’ symbolizes his irritable manner of speaking to people, and the alliterative ‘b’ emphasizes both words, emphasizing Scrooge’s unpleasant attitude. This contrasts clearly with his newfound joy in Stave Five, which is illustrated by the ‘clear’ and ‘bright’ weather. The word ‘clear’ means that his world perspective is no longer clouded by sadness and loneliness, while the word ‘bright’ implies that he is now hopeful for the future. Poor weather is often associated with misery, and vice versa, in literature, thus these analogies urge the reader to see Scrooge’s shift as a positive one. Dickens may be implying that people like Scrooge can influence society if they adopt a positive mindset because his transformation is shown alongside improvements in the wider environment.

The novella’s circular structure demonstrates Scrooge’s way to redemption by revisiting past experiences to demonstrate how he has transformed. In stave 5, Scrooge meets the charity collector with whom he had previously argued. Scrooge now frets about how the man will ‘look upon him’ after their initial meeting, where he merely left with an ‘improved opinion of himself.’ This indicates that he is more worried about the impact of his actions on others. Similarly, Scrooge refers to Bob Cratchit as ‘the clerk’ at first, an impersonal, business-like term that demonstrates his distance from him. Scrooge, on the other hand, refers to Bob as his ‘friend’ in the last scene. This demonstrates how Scrooge’s attitude towards Bob has altered since he is now willing to get to know him personally showing us how Scrooge has found the right way. Dickens allows the reader to compare how Scrooge has changed In a positive way by revisiting incidents from the beginning of the story. Emphasizing his redemption and demonstrating Scrooge’s integration into society to the reader.

Scrooge’s transformation is used by Dickens to show that even the most miserly of individuals can alter their ways and redeem themselves for their past actions. Through the novella’s repetitive structure and contrasting language. Dickens depicts Scrooge’s transformation from a miser to a charitable person. This deepens the idea of redemption and allows the reader to experience the transformational power of the Christmas spirit, which Dickens believed would improve the views of everyone who read the novella

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