Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is a classic Christmas story which contains stern moral lessons, written in 1843. These lessons are designed to make the readers of that time, the Victorians, conscience of the injustices that were present in the rapidly expanding cities of Britain, due to the Industrial Revolution. The story includes three morals, demonstrated by the three Ghosts of Past, Present and Future, which attempt to convert the protagonist, Ebenezer Scrooge, from his greedy ways. The morals of this novella, as a result, which was originally written to communicate with the Victorians, is just as relevant today, which contributes to the book’s label as a “classic”. Dickens uses a variety of techniques to convey his morals to the audience effectively.
Dickens conveys that the rich have a responsibility to help the poor by depicting them in a very sympathetic manner. This is shown in the middle of Stave 3, where the Cratchet family try to remain merry despite being struck by reduced privileges when Dickens narrates: “even Tiny Tim … beat on the table with the handle of the knife, and feebly cried Hurrah!” The spirits remain high despite the fact that they are poor, as shown by the words ‘even’ and ‘feebly’, which create sympathy because they try to remain upbeat even at times when they are less fortunate than others. One of Dickens’ messages in A Christmas Carol is that the rich have a responsibility to help relieve the suffering of the poor. Dickens was taken out of school at a young age to work in a filthy warehouse by force, therefore he knows by experience what it is like to work and be poor at a very young age. This past experience inspired him to write A Christmas Carol in a way to express a message that rich people can use their money to donate to the suffering of the poor. One of the crude ways of which the wealthy ignore the