Charles Dickens and His a Christmas Carol: the Society of Sentiment and Christmas

Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Viktória Ľuptáková Charles Dickens and his A Christmas Carol: the society of sentiment and Christmas Bachelor’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: Stephen Paul Hardy, Ph.D. 2017 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Author’s signature Acknowledgments: I would especially like to thank my supervisor, Stephen Paul Hardy, Ph.D., for helping me with this thesis and giving me valuable advice. I appreciate everything you have done to help me. Furthermore, I would like to thank the entire staff of our department for giving me much more than knowledge. Table of Contents 1 Introduction ................................................................. 1 2 Chapter One: Charles Dickens ..................................... 5 3 Chapter Two: The development of Christmas in Victorian England ........................................................... 15 4 Chapter Three: Analysis of A Christmas Carol ......... 24 5 Chapter Four: Christmas Books ................................. 43 6 Conclusion ................................................................. 52 7 Works Cited ............................................................... 55 8 Resumé (English) ....................................................... 62 9 Resumé (Czech) ......................................................... 63 1 Introduction This bachelor thesis deals with the story A Christmas Carol written by an English writer and social critic of Victorian era, Charles Dickens. A Christmas Carol is a well- known story about a cold-hearted miser, Scrooge, who is visited by spirits which want to show him the true importance of one´s life and the meaning of Christmas. The aim of this thesis is to show that A Christmas Carol can be considered a story that depicts the defects of humanity and emphasizes the importance of charity. This thesis also presents the other four books with a Christmas theme that have been written by Dickens. All of them are referred to under one common name – Christmas Books. Last, but not least, the thesis provides the reader with an introduction to the development of Christmas in Victorian England and examines if, and to what extent, Dickens and his A Christmas Carol contributed to the expanding popularity of the holiday. The beginning of this thesis focuses on the life of Charles Dickens himself. It provides insight into his life from earliest childhood up until the time he became a popular novelist. Dickens´s life was not easy and his childhood memories, especially those that he gained during working at the blacking factory, had a great impact on his future life and career. His experiences helped him understand the social situation of his country and as an adult, he spent a lot of his energy trying to point out important social issues. He decided to become a writer in order to make people listen to (or read in this case) what he had to say. In his stories, Dickens often included personal experience. In his career as a novelist, he was primary interested in working-class and lower-middle-class, who, in his opinion, underwent the greatest injustices. Many of his works are packed with social criticism. However, this criticism is often hidden, which means that he does not point out issues directly but instead uses various ways to make his readers aware of his opinions. This thesis shows that A Christmas Carol is an example of such a piece of work. A story that 1 may resemble a fairy tale Christmas book, is actually a story full of criticism directed especially towards upper social classes. The second chapter of the thesis concentrates on the development of Christmas in Victorian England. Even though Christmas as such was already celebrated in England before Dickens had written A Christmas Carol, there are many people who claim that this book, with its idea of charity, hope and possibility for a better future, had a great influence on the way people treat Christmas today. However, it is not only Dickens who should be given the credit for the expansion of the Christmas spirit. It was Queen Victoria, and particularly her husband Prince Albert, who brought the concept of the decoration of evergreens for Christmas and sending Christmas cards to family and friends to people in England. During this time, there were also other innovations concerning Christmas such as Christmas crackers, roast turkey and the act of giving gifts to each other. Although neither the royal family nor Dickens invented Christmas in England, their influence on making the holiday popular among the widespread public is evident. Moving on to the third and most crucial chapter, the thesis draws the reader´s attention to A Christmas Carol itself. The thesis provides citations from various part of the book supplemented by judgements of different writers to support the idea that A Christmas Carol is more than just a fairy tale about Christmas. It shows to what extent Dickens with his two main characters – Scrooge and Tiny Tim – criticises the upper social classes. Additionally, this chapter shows how Dickens uses the condition of Tiny Tim to appeal to the need for charity and humanity among all social classes. His concept of time travelling should make people reconsider the way of life they live and perhaps even make them feel the need of becoming better persons. The thesis portrays how Dickens incorporates his own past through Scrooge´s memories while travelling with the Ghost of 2 Christmas Past. Moreover, the usage of ghosts makes the story somehow frightening but fascinating, which may also be a reason why the book gained so such success. In the fourth chapter, the thesis summarises the rest of the Christmas Books. It presents the general description of each of the story, illuminating the issues Dickens wanted to point out with these stories. Even though their popularity did not match that of A Christmas Carol, they still share the “Carol philosophy” and no matter how critical they might have been, their main idea is still the celebration of family, friends, charity and goodness of people, which are all strengthened during the period of the special time of year – Christmas. The thesis uses printed books and online sources (pdf files, websites) by various authors from different time periods to cover all of the above mentioned topics and to provide objective judgments supporting the thesis´ arguments. One of the most significant is Dickens (2002) by Peter Ackroyd. In this biographical book about Dickens, Ackroyd in detail depicts Dickens´s life from his early childhood, through working in a blacking factory and his later success as a writer till his death. The book is essential for the first chapter of the thesis which concentrates on Charles Dickens himself. Moreover, it contains a few pages about A Christmas Carol and Christmas Books. The next important secondary source is A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Books edited with an Introduction and Notes by Robert Douglas-Fairhurst (2011). The book provides a profound analysis of Dickens´s Christmas Books, particularly A Christmas Carol. It contains many valuable and relevant ideas about the story, which makes the book meaningful for the third chapter of the thesis – “Analysis of A Christmas Carol”. Many ideas of Douglas-Fairhurst are supported by Michel Faber in his article “Spectral pleasure,” published on The Guardian website (2005). Furthermore, Faber comments on various symbols used in A Christmas Carol. One more crucial work is an article by 3 Christine Lalumia titled “Scrooge And Albert: Christmas in the 1840s,” published online on the History Today website (2001). Lalumia here presents a development of Christmas in England and suggests to what extent Dickens and the royal family influenced what today´s Christmas looks like. Many arguments in the third chapter are drawn from this work to provide a thorough description of Christmas. All secondary sources used in this thesis are listed in “Works Cited”. 4 2 Chapter One: Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (February 7, 1812 - June 9, 1870) was an English writer, social critic and by the end of 1870, as Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch in his book Charles Dickens & other Victorians (1910) claims, “a great National Institution” (4). Dickens was and still is a very popular author. F.E. Baily in his Six Great Victorian Novelists (1947) even suggests that Dickens could be considered “a great enigma among novelists” (47). In the second part of From Dickens to Hardy (1982), R. C. Churchill supports these arguments when he states that Dickens´s books have great power and permanent interest and he is one of the English “classics” whose work is probably most acceptable to a wide range of readers who differ in age, social status or mental capacity. Moreover, his books are not only read, but very often re-read and enjoyed by hundreds of people (117). Peter Ackroyd in his biography Dickens (2002) points out that Dickens in his writings “opened up the world for those who were already living in it” (144). Dickens himself (as can be seen later in this chapter) had an advantage that he experienced both poverty and wealth, so he could empathise with a wide range of social classes. This fact could be the reason why he was adept at attracting various types of readers; he was very well aware of the feeling of being poor but he also understood the opposite. Notwithstanding, the power of his books also is that they are often read by children who, when grown up, come back to them and can see them from different a perspective. What once seemed to be a fairy-tale story is later considered a story with a deeper meaning. A Christmas Carol is a very good example, as the reader can see in the fifth chapter of this thesis which deals with the book itself. Nevertheless, as Ackroyd observes, Dickens was a novelist of his age and in his works we can see the “character of 19th century life” (xii) since he was trying to make as realistic an image of the era as he possible could.

Load more