GCSE A Christmas Carol Essay

Please can someone mark this essay. I would greatly appreciate it. It's the 2021 paper 1 AQA eng lit.

Starting with this extract, explore how Dickens presents ideas about joy and happiness in A Christmas Carol.

Through the drastic transformation of Scrooge from a miserly parsimonious man to a jubilant, happy person Dickens conveys the idea that the simple yet valuable presence of joy in one’s life can greatly influence their behaviour and outlook on the world, shaping them into a better person. Also, through various role models such as Fezziwig and the Cratchits scrooge can reflect upon his way of living.

At the start of the novel Dickens immediate portrays Scrooge as an isolated man, who shuts out the outside world from him and doesn’t associate himself with others, this led to him leading a miserly life where the only fulfilment he felt was by making profits . Scrooge was ‘as solitary as an oyster’, the comparison of Scrooge to an oyster emphasises how Scrooge has chosen to isolate himself from society and how lonely he is as oysters live alone in the vast oceans indicating how Scrooge is surrounded by people such as Fred who exhibit valuable qualities like love and happiness, yet he still chooses to shut himself out. Through this simile Dickens uses exaggeration to present scrooge as more isolated and unhappy as humanely possible, however it could also indicate that scrooge has a softer, more happy side to his negative persona as oysters hold a pearl deep within their hard, stern exterior.

As a result of this long-term Isolation Scrooge endures, he shuts out all forms of happiness from his life. when Fred invited him to A Christmas Dinner scrooge repeatedly yells ‘Bah Humbug’. The mere mention of Christmas -the embodiment of happiness and joy- was enough to cause Scrooge to be uncomfortable and annoyed, perhaps because he’s isolated himself for so long that this warm and joyfulness has become unfamiliar to him and forces him to step outside of his comfort zone. By this attitude Dickens enforces the idea that living a ‘solitary’, isolated way of life causes you to lack emotions and the ability to love others.

The ghost of Christmas past brings scrooge to a valuable memory where he attended a Christmas party held by his first boss Fezziwig, this memory reveals scrooge to the jubilant, happy young man he once was which causes him to reflect on how he currently treats his own employee, Bob. Scrooge ‘remembered everything, enjoyed everything and underwent the strangest agitation’, the repetition of the word ‘everything’ shows how Fezziwig built a positive, joyful working environment for his employees in efforts to keep them as comfortable as possible, unlike scrooge Fezziwig went out of his way to bring happiness into his employees lives by meeting their needs in contrast to the poor treatment scrooge gave to Bob Cratchit where he only gave him 1 piece of coal to keep warm, this practice of scrooge was common amongst middle class business owners in the Victorian time thus this stark contrast between the treatment of scrooge and Fezziwig causes not only scrooge but Dicken’s middle class audience to reflect on their actions and look up to Fezziwig as a role model.

As the play progresses the Ghost brings scrooge to the Cratchit family, who represent the lower classes of society who remain stoic and joyful despite being in a position of hardship and suffering. Tiny Tim states ‘God bless us, everyone’ despite being a ‘cripple’, the phrase ‘bless us’ indicates that although Tim faces struggles in life and prejudice from people due to his disability which was common in the Victorian era, he still wants his as well as God’s love to extend onto his family and humanity as a whole. The inclusive pronoun ‘us’ further emphasises this and it also indicates that despite being different to many others such as the people at church who stare at him, he still sees himself as belonging to a community which could be his family or humanity by extension.

Dickens sets up Tiny Tim as a role model for scrooge and therefore his audience (given that scrooge acts as a microcosm for the middle-class business owners) as he’s revealed to his joyful nature which challenges his former beliefs that the lower class should focus on building their wealth rather than spending their time being loving and caring towards others. Also in the Victorian time people were devout Christians, and the behaviour of Tim meant that they saw him as a good, follower of God as he embodied the values of Christianity. Dickens usage of Tiny Tim mean that negative stereotypes of the lower classes such as the poor being greedy, selfish and thieves is broken down which effectively deconstructs the ignorance of his audience through literature. By deconstructing the ignorance found in many during the Victorian era Dickens is able to tackle many problems such as prejudice and greed as ignorance are the root of these problems

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 1

Matilda9121

I mean without the extract this is difficult, but with some assumptions and stepping back I can still give some feedback :smile:

Overall, your essay demonstrates a strong understanding of the novel and the ideas presented about joy and happiness. It goes onto use really effective quotations to support most of its arguments and lays out the general reasoning behind your assumptions. Your personal use of literary devices such as similes, repetition, and inclusive pronouns are also persuasive in your argument.

In terms of structure; You have a clear introduction and thesis that sets up the focus of the essay, which then leads onto a well organized body paragraphs & their respective themes. However, the conclusion does come off as a bit of a summary rather than a closure of the essay. Gramatically, you have a consistent sentence structure and varied sentence lengths, which enhances the essay's readability and flow.

* You could improve your use of evidence by providing more specific quotes and examples from the text to support their analysis. For instance, when discussing the Cratchit family, you could provide a specific quote from the text to demonstrate how Tiny Tim embodies the values of Christianity and challenges negative stereotypes of the lower classes