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YEAR 10 EXTRACT BOOKLET 2020-21 Past Exam Questions: Summer 2019 Extract: The Cratchits – Stave 3 Write about some members of the Cratchit family and how they are important to the novel as a whole. Summer 2018 Extract: Scrooge and Fred – Stave 1 The characters in A Christmas Carol view Christmas in different ways. Write about some of these views and how Dickens presents them at different points in the novel. Summer 2017 Extract: Scrooge and Marley’s Ghost – Stave 1 Write about how Dickens presents the ghosts. How are they important to the novel as a whole? KEY THINGS TO REMEMBER FOR A Christmas Carol: English Literature Component 2 One hour Extract-based essay – use this as a ‘springboard’ to cover the whole novel. 40 marks (no marks for SPAG, but you must reread to check that it makes sense!) 25% of your GCSE English Lit You are marked on your knowledge of the CONTEXT (AO3) of the novel. What was life like in London 1843? Why was Dickens compelled to write this novel? What were his intentions with this story? What message did he want to portray to his Victorian audience and why? 1 MARK SCHEME 2 Context THE VICTORIAN ERA The term Victorian describes the reign of Queen Victoria (1837 - 1901). The Victorian Age saw change in nearly every area of life - from advances in medical, scientific and technological knowledge to changes in population growth and location. THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION The Victorians invented many things to improve the way we live. They also invented machines that could do the jobs of many people. This was called the Industrial Revolution. Before the Revolution, most British people worked in the countryside on farms, but lost jobs and money as machines took their places. They began to move to the towns, looking for work in the new factories there. The result of this movement was the development of horrifying slums and cramped row housing in the overcrowded cities. SOCIETY Society was split into different classes: Working class - men and women who performed physical work, paid daily or weekly wages Middle class - men who performed mental or "clean" work, paid monthly or yearly Upper class – who did not work, income came from inherited land and investments EDUCATION Education was not equal. Gentlemen would be educated at home until they were old enough to attend a public school like Eton or Harrow. After that, they would attend Oxford or Cambridge. Public school and University were where you made your friends and developed the connections that would aid you later in life. A lady's education was usually at home. There were boarding schools, but no University, and the studies were very different. Ladies learned French, drawing, dancing, music, sewing as well as embroidery, and accounts. If you were part of the working classes, you did not go to school: instead you went to work. Most children worked in the factories or mines where it was dangerous and risky, or they worked as servants for other people. There was a very high death rate for children at this time. MEN AND WOMEN Men and women were not equal. In proper middle-class and upper-class circles, women were supposed to have no sexual conduct before marriage - a hand around the waist, a small kiss was probably the accepted limit in most cases. Also, when a woman married, she had no independent legal status. She had no right to any money (earned, inherited, etc.), she could not make a will or buy property, she had no claim to her children, she had to move with her husband wherever he went. 3 Who was Charles Dickens? Charles Dickens (1812-1870) is thought to be one of the greatest English writers of the Victorian period. Dickens's books attack social problems and unfairness in society. Charles Dickens was born in Hampshire on February 7, 1812. His father was a clerk in the navy pay office. In 1814 Dickens moved to London, and then to Chatham, where he received some education. In 1824, his whole family were sent to prison for debt. He was pulled out of education and sent to work in a blacking factory, in Hungerford Market. He was only 12 and worked there for three years. He experienced terrible conditions: hunger, poverty, mistreatment. Later, from 1827 to 1828 he was a law office clerk, and then worked as a shorthand reporter at Doctor's Commons. He began writing for newspapers in 1830. Dickens's career as a writer of fiction started in 1833 when his short stories and essays appeared in periodicals (magazines of the time). His Sketches By Boz and The Pickwick Papers were published in 1836. In the same year he married the daughter of his friend George Hogarth, Catherine Hogarth. Dickens's novels first appeared in monthly instalments, including Oliver Twist (1837-39), which describes the London underworld and hard upbringing of the orphan Oliver Twist. From the 1840s Dickens spent much time travelling and campaigning against many of the social evils of his time. From this experience, Dickens was very passionate about the poor in society and never forgot his experience at the factory. In addition he gave talks and readings. In 1844-45 he lived in Italy, Switzerland and Paris. He gave lecturing tours in Britain and the United States. From 1860 Dickens lived at Gadshill Place, near Rochester, Kent. He died at Gadshill on June 9, 1870. The unfinished mystery story The Mystery Of Edwin Drood was published in 1870. Can you summarise your knowledge of Dickens into 5 key points? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Challenge: Thomas Malthus and Malthusian Theory Dickens was particularly disgusted with the writings of an economist named Thomas Robert Malthus, a wealthy man, who argued in his Essay on the Principle of Population (1798) that population growth would always outpace food supply resulting in unavoidable and catastrophic poverty and starvation. In his pamphlet "The Crisis," Malthus supported the Poor Laws and the workhouses, arguing that any man unable to sustain himself had no right to live, much less participate in the development of society. 4 Why did Dickens write A Christmas Carol? In 1843, Dickens was horrified by reading a Government report detailing the horrific conditions in which very young children were made to work underground or to work tremendously long hours in appalling conditions in factories. Dickens read this and he described himself as being “perfectly stricken down by it” and he determined that he would strike, as he said, “the heaviest blow in my power” on behalf of these victims of the Industrial Revolution. In October 1843, he gave a talk in Manchester. It was in the course of giving this talk in this large industrial city, that the idea came to him that the best thing he could do by way of calling public attention to the horror of this parliamentary report, would be by writing a story, rather than an article - “Something that would strike the heaviest blow in my power”, as he said, “something that would come down with sledgehammer force” - and this was the conception of A Christmas Carol. Moral Message The characters in this story convey the moral message of the novella, particularly Scrooge, the Cratchits and the Ghost. They are allegories. An allegory is a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one. The Ghost of Christmas Present – that is, present day 1843 – cares for two hideous creatures created by mankind: Ignorance (of the wealthy upper classes) and Want (of the poor). This is allegorical for life during the Victorian era. The vivid descriptions of these children highlight everything Dickens believed was wrong with his society. Their message is powerful and underpins the whole reason for his writing. The Preface Dickens wrote a PREFACE to A Christmas Carol. A preface is an introduction to a book, typically stating its subject or aims. In his preface, Dickens uses metaphors to do with ghosts – A Christmas Carol is a ghost story after all – to explain his reason for writing the novella and his intentions. Look closely at the metaphors. Can you explain what he means by them? What is the GHOST OF AN IDEA with which Dickens wishes to haunt us? Use the information on pages 3-6 to answer this question: Why did Dickens write A Christmas Carol? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ 5 The Poor Law and Malthusian Theory The Poor Law Identify 4 reasons why the new In 1834 a new Poor Law was introduced. Some people welcomed it because they Poor Law of 1834 was introduced: believed it would: 1. reduce the cost of looking after the poor take beggars off the streets 2. encourage poor people to work hard to support themselves The new Poor Law ensured that the poor were housed in workhouses, clothed and fed. Children who entered the workhouse would receive some schooling. In 3. return for this care, all workhouse paupers would have to work for several hours each day. However, not all Victorians shared this point of view. Some people, such as 4. Richard Oastler, spoke out against the new Poor Law, calling the workhouses ‘Prisons for the Poor’. The poor themselves hated and feared the threat of the workhouse so much that there were riots in northern towns. Before 1834, the cost of looking after the poor was growing more expensive every year. This cost was paid for by the middle and upper classes in each town through their local taxes.

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