A Christmas Carol · GCSE English Literature

Plot

Stave 1: Ebenezer Scrooge, a cold, mean moneylender, refuses to celebrate Christmas, turns away men collecting for the poor, and grudgingly gives his clerk, Bob Cratchit, Christmas Day off. The ghost of his dead partner, Jacob Marley, wrapped in chains, warns him to change and says three spirits will visit.
Stave 2: the Ghost of Christmas Past shows Scrooge his lonely childhood, his sister Fan, the joyful party of his old employer Fezziwig, and Belle, who left him because he loved money more.
Stave 3: the Ghost of Christmas Present shows the poor but loving Cratchit family and the sick Tiny Tim, his nephew Fred's party, and two starving children, Ignorance and Want.
Stave 4: the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come shows people mocking a dead man whose belongings are stolen, the Cratchits mourning Tiny Tim, and Scrooge's own neglected grave.
Stave 5: Scrooge wakes on Christmas morning transformed. He sends a turkey to the Cratchits, joins Fred's party, raises Bob's salary, and becomes 'a second father' to Tiny Tim, who does not die.

Redemption and transformation, social responsibility, poverty and wealth, family, and the spirit of Christmas.

Published in 1843, when many Victorians lived in terrible poverty. The Poor Law Amendment Act (1834) forced people needing help into harsh workhouses. Thomas Malthus argued that population growth would outstrip food supplies, an idea some used to justify ignoring the poor.
As a boy, Dickens worked in a blacking factory while his father was in a debtors' prison. He wanted to change his readers' attitudes to the poor.

'Bah! Humbug!' and 'Are there no prisons?' (Scrooge). 'Solitary as an oyster' (the narrator about Scrooge).
'A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner!' (the narrator). 'Decrease the surplus population' (Scrooge).
'I wear the chain I forged in life' (Marley). 'This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want.' (the Ghost of Christmas Present).
'God bless Us, Every One!' (Tiny Tim). 'I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year' (Scrooge).

Stave: One of the five sections of the novella, named like the verses of a carol.
Novella: A short novel.
Redemption: Being saved from sin or wrongdoing.
Miser: A person who hoards money and spends as little as possible.
Workhouse: A harsh institution where the poor lived and worked in return for food and shelter.
Philanthropy: Helping others, especially by giving money to good causes.
Allegory: A story in which characters or events represent bigger ideas.