This essay focuses on the theme of Love in A Christmas Carol, including context and detailed analysis of quotes. This was marked as a Grade 9 and written for the Eduqas exam board.
Introduction:
In his novella, A Christmas Carol Dickens presents love through many of his character, all used to jux...
Write about how Dickens presents love in his novella.
In your response you should:
• Refer to the extract and the novel as a whole
• Show your understanding of characters and events in the novel
• Refer to the contexts of the novel (40 marks)
In his novella, A Christmas Carol Dickens presents love through many of his
character, all used to juxtapose Scrooge and his misanthropic, cruel character,
wishing to keep himself isolated from family and joyful company. In the Era
Dickens wrote, Victorians kept to themselves, the more affluent especially, to
preoccupied with their own lives to take care of and be compassionate to those
around them. Dickens explores the theme of love through the Fred, Fezziwig and
the Cratchit, to remind the reader of their obligations of compassion and love to
the less fortunate in Christianity.
At the beginning of the novella, Dickens successfully presents love
through Fred interactions with Scrooge in Stave One, his insistence that Scrooge
come to dinner showing the affection he has for his uncle though it is not
returned. He greets him with: ‘A merry Christmas uncle! God save you!’ His use
of an exclamative demonstrates how eager and happy he is to see Scrooge, the
use of ‘god save you’ perhaps reminding the reader of their religious obligations
of love, as quoted in the Bible, as most Victorians would also be devout
Christians. Scrooge however scorns his nephew’s views on love, commenting:
‘Because you fell in love!’ growled Scrooge as if that were the only thing in the
world more ridiculous than a merry Christmas. The exclamative used by him,
contrasts Fred’s as it illustrates how disparaging he is of love, the verb ‘growled’
highlighting his own ill mannered and almost animalistic character, possibly
showing how the lack of love in an individual’s life causes them to lose their
human nature. The adverb phrase ‘only thing more ridiculous’ portrays Scrooge’s
intense hatred of romantic love, as Scrooge appears to hate it even more so than
Christmas, arguably the most important trait of Scrooge, therefore evoking
mystery in the audience to why he hates it so. However, this foreshadows the
engagement between him and Belle which is broken off, revealed when he is
taken through his past – possibly the origin to his hatred of love. Dickens
successfully presents the disparity between the two characters’ views on love, its
important to religion and character.
As Stave One continues, Dickens effectively presents the importance of
love through the Ghosts, Marley warning Scrooge of the consequences of not
having loving the poor and the Ghost of Christmas Past showing Scrooge familial
love. Marley states: ‘The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy,
forbearance and benevolence.’ The adjective ‘common’ perhaps conveys how
love can be expressed in many ways, not constricted to romantic love or love for
family, but overall love for humanity. The asyndetic list used denotes how love is
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