A
Christmas Carol is a fairly straightforward allegory built on an episodic
narrative structure in which each of the main passages has a fixed, obvious
symbolic meaning. The book is
divided into five sections (Dickens labels them Staves in reference to the musical notation staff--a Christmas
carol, after all, is a song), with each of the middle three Staves revolving
around a visitation by one of the three famous spirits. The three
spirit-guides, along with each of their tales, carry out a thematic function--the
Ghost of Christmas Past, with his glowing head, represents memory; the Ghost of Christmas Present represents charity, empathy, and the Christmas spirit; and
the reaper-like Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come represents the fear of death. Scrooge, with his Bah!
Humbug! attitude, embodies all that dampens Christmas spirit--greed,
selfishness, indifference, and a lack of consideration for one's fellow man.
from Victorian Age
http://www.guidanceassociates.com/victorianage.html
The
Victorian Age is a very elastic term used to denote an extremely dynamic
period. Although the Victorian Age roughly spans most of the 19th century (from
1832 to 1900), it is not totally confined within these dates. The rumblings of
change to come were felt for some time before 1832, and changes did not stop
occurring as soon as Queen Victoria
died in 1901. However, lifestyles did change more dramatically during this
period than ever before in English history. England was suddenly pulled
together by the railways, the penny post, and the rest of the newly constructed
apparatus of fast, cheap communication. The country became unified in a way
never before possible.
Prior to
the middle of the 19th century, education had been reserved for the nobility
and those who could afford to send their children to exclusive private schools.
Even if the poor had been able to enter their children in these schools, they
would not have done so. A child of six was expected to start bringing home
money to help support his entire family; he would be put to work as soon as
possible. In those days work meant twelve to sixteen hours a day of grueling,
hard labor in conditions that would today be considered totally unacceptable.
There was no time spare for education. However, with the appearance of the
modern public school system it became fashionable and necessary for the
children of the lower classes to at least learn the rudiments of the 3 R’s.
With these assets, they could go on to vocational apprenticeships in one of the
trades.
Great
nationalistic spirit developed during the Victorian Age, and England
struggled to place herself at the top of the international scene. At the time
of the Great Exhibition of 1851, England was influential in many
countries. By the end of the Victorian Age, the British
Empire had reached the high
point of its development.
During this
period the extreme poverty of the lower working classes was pointed up by the
increasingly congested living conditions of city life. While the nobility still
hung onto its money and its social barriers, and an individual’s birthright
tended to be the deciding factor of his future, the rapidly expanding middle
classes made steady inroads. The middle-class novelist, Charles Dickens, did
more than any writer before or since to expose the sufferings of the working
class. His books found their way into the drawing rooms of the titled and
wealthy, and social consciousness began to rise. Emancipation of women and the
rights of children became popular cases for the previously sheltered nobility.
They brought their money and influence to bear in demanding better working
conditions and broader education for the working class. A kind of feverish
sentimentality of guilt gripped everyone. The debt owed to Charles Dickens for the many reforms
of the Victorian Age is certainly not a small one.
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