Victorian London in Dickens' Short Story

Through these few words and phrases, I can picture the poor in pain and suffering as the needle like cold prods and prick them like voodoo dolls. This helps bring about the effectiveness of the poor situations the poor are in. Dickens describes Scrooge as having no sympathy for a poor boy "stopped down at Scrooge's keyhole to regale him with a Christmas carol: but at the first sound of "god bless you, merry gentleman! May nothing you dismay! " Scrooge seized the ruler with such energy of action that the singer fled in terror, leaving the keyhole to the fog and even more congenial frost.

In my opinion it seems like dickens was trying to describe the boy as asking for help (money) so he wouldn't have to return to the cold and frost, but Scrooge rejected him and violently made the boy return to the dark dull weather of Victorian London. Again we are forced to self reflect on our selves and think are we like Scrooge and have I ever treated some one like this.

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Dickens uses the type of buildings placed around Victorian London to compare the rich and poor. First Dickens describes Scrooge's counting house and the room in which his Clerk worked in.

Bob Crachit worked in a "dismal little cell beyond, a sort of tank... Scrooge had a small fire, but the clerk's fire was so much smaller that it looked like one coal. " "Wherefore the clerk put on his white comforter, and tried to warm himself at the candle; in which he effort, not being a of a strong imagination, he failed.

" I believe that this image of Bob Crachit in his dismal little cell symbolises Scrooge's lack of compassion for the charitable time of year and other peoples feeling in physical and a metal state, its as if Scrooge chooses to prove his unawareness of emotional intelligence.

Scrooge treats Bob like an animal not as human. This is just one of many situations in which Scrooge has proved his cruel ways. Dickens describes Scrooges house as a big, old, lonely house, with only himself living there. " He lived in chambers which only had once belonged to his deceased partner. They were a gloomy suite of rooms... " I believe that Scrooge's living conditions emphasises his loneliness and symbolises Scrooge's repayment for the way he mistreats the poor. Dickens mentions that the house had once belong to his deceased partner, who was Marley.

This helps the appearance of Marley ghost seem more realistic. The image of his dark and dismal house also helps to contribute to the understanding of Scrooge's unhappiness. Dickens use of job descriptions of the poor helps contribute to his comparison between the rich and the poor. Dickens writes about how the poor who" ... ran about with flaring links, proffering their services to go before horses in carriages and conduct them on their way. " Dickens describes the poor forced to earn money by doing poor jobs for the rich.

And the poor are doing this to make the rich peoples lives easier. This makes the rich look self-centred, and is just another way of making the rich look worst than they actually are. The jobs that he describes help to contribute to the atrocious atmospheric nature that the poor are described in. Bob Crachit jobs is a good example of Dickens making the jobs the poor have seem worst then they actually are. Bob Crachit works inside an office unlike some poor people who have to bear with the cold outside.

Even though Bob is inside Dickens still describes him in poor conditions, such as only possessing "one coal" by just describing the elements of the cold affecting Bob, makes his job seem a lot worse than it actually is. In conclusion I believe one of Dickens mane objectives of this story was the make the rich self reflect and self recognise their actions in society to day. I think Dickens was successful in doing this because he is constantly forcing the reader towards formulating a moral judgement by projecting a lonely mean image of Scrooge and therefore awakening a social conscience.

The reader knows Scrooge is unhappy because of the way Dickens describes the way Scrooge treats people. His use of language, many adjective words, and the situations in which he situates the poor in using jobs, buildings, weather and the time of year helps force the reader towards formulating a moral judgement. I enjoyed reading the book very much because of his descriptive language, which helps your mind to think of detailed images that Dickens is trying to describe. I think Dickens was very successful in changing rich peoples views for the better, even though his story is fiction, many facts.