Many social issue are in Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol, with the vast majority of them having to do with scrooge. Scrooge begins the story with no Christmas spirit whatsoever, but he changes into a warmhearted teddybear at the end. A Christmas Carol shows that kindness is the way to go rather than being mean and greedy. A social issue that is touched on in this novel is the lack of sympathy that people have towards each other. Scrooge is mean to his family and friends and keeps strictly business relationships with them. The good life to Scrooge is just taking it day by day and doing things the right way. He feels like it is his responsibility to hire people, make money and to basically take care of himself. Another
social issue is the priority of family over money and other things. Scrooge gives up a chance at having a loving family when he chooses money over his girlfriend Belle, who turns out to have a happy family with another loving husband. A Christmas carol shows that a family can be happy without money. Bob Cratchit's family is an example of this. Although they were in poverty, the love and happiness they shared as a family got them threw the hard times.
Another social issue that is touched on is that people don’t know the true meaning of Christmas. Scrooge is presented with many chances to do kind acts in the story but Scrooge treats every day the same, not being overwhelmed by generosity for a brief period in December, then letting the poor be forgotten the rest of the year. It took the ghost to get Scrooge to realize how good life was and that there was more to life than he had going on. Religion didn’t really influence his decision’s because he felt that he was doing his part. He felt that he was paying enough in taxes not do donate even though he had the money and had already picked money over family. At the end of the story Scrooge however realizes his lack of compassion and makes everything right. Many social issues were present during the Victorian period. These issues are brought to light in Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol. With the help of three spirits taking Scrooge to his past and present it shows that one can change if they see that they are truly in the wrong. It shows that there is more to life than meets the eye.