Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

Growing up in the Victorian period, Christmas didn't have too much of an influence on society, particularly in England, where Dickens' grew up. This could be why one might possibly find it odd that this man is known so well for his interest in Christmas, and his many stories that reflect that interest. Charles Dickens' has forever changed the lives of people everywhere by the characters he portrays in his stories. From the innocent Tiny Tim, to the humbug Ebenezar Scrooge, to the mysterious ghost of Christmas Past, Present, and Future...Dickens' has a way to look and write about Christmas from the point of view many could not even imagine. He even brought the tradition of feisting on turkey and ham on Christmas Day into our daily December 25 ritual, now how can one not cherish the man for that.

"Money had always been a worry for Dickens when he was growing up, for he was born into a struggling lower-middle class family. His father went to debtor's jail when Dickens was only twelve years old. Not able to go to school anymore because of his father's financial problems, Dickens was forced to get a job. This obviously caused him to have a lack of appropriate education, so Dickens began to develop on interest into books. He was later sent back to school when his dad got out of jail, but when his parents could again no longer afford to pay for their son's education, he found work in a law

office, then as a newspaper reporter. It was here that Dickens' taught himself shorthand," (www.ucsc.edu/dickens/DEA/ACC/dickens.bio.html, Dickens' Life and The Carol). This began the writing of the many Dickens' classics we enjoy to this very day. One particular book being, A Christmas Carol, a well-known holiday classic.

"Dickens' childhood poverty lead to his compassion for the lower class, especially the children. Even in his writings, he portrayed then with sympathy as well as compassion," (Hromatko, 5). "A Christmas Carol greatly reflected the life of Dickens', for just like the Crachit family, he was poor living in a four-room house. The six Crachit children correspond to the six Dickens' children at that time," (www.ucsc.edu/dickens/DEA/ACC/dickens.bio.html, Dickens' Life and The Carol).

"One may also recall a quite mean and miserly man who went by the name of Ebenezar Scrooge; he represents Victorian England at the time Dickens' wrote the story.

Victorian England was rich and snobby and didn't exactly experience what true Christmas meant, at least that's what Dickens' thought," (www.fidnet.com/~dap1955/dickens/christmas.html, Dickens' Christmas Page). He and the other lower-class citizens, represented by Bob Crachit and his family, didn't take things for granted and appreciated what they had. Many people today compare present day Americans to Victorian England, how selfish Americans are about their wealth.

"A Christmas Carol masterfully illustrates the timeless conflict between good and evil, challenging us to examine the consequences of our actions--which, in our global community have even greater impact than Dickens' times," (www.turnerlearning.com/tntlearning/christmascarol/message.html, Message to the

Educator). "In 1843, while he was most active at Little Portland Street chapel, Dickens created the first and greatest of his Christmas boos, A Christmas Carol. Around this time Christmas Day was again beginning to be celebrated and the holiday transformed," (Hromatko 3). Dickens' writings did greatly impact society today, in more ways than what I previously stated. Dickens' has probably has more influence on the way we celebrate Christmas today, than any single individual in human history. "At the beginning of the Victorian period, the celebration of Christmas was in decline. The Industrial Revolution, happening in Dickens' time, allowed workers little time for the celebration of Christmas. It was the Christmas stories of Charles Dickens, particularly A Christmas Carol that rekindled the joy of Christmas in Britain, as well as America,"

(www.fidnet.com/~dap1955/dickens/christmas.html, Dickens' Christmas Page). Dickens' describes the holiday as, "A good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open the shut-up hearts freely, and to think of other people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys," (Levisohn) And that quote, I believe, is the very essence of Christmas today, not at the greedy commercialized level, but in one's heart and one's home.

"Dickens' presents over and over again, his idealized memory of Christmas coming from a large, not-too-well-off family, as the fathering of the family to play games such as Snap Dragon and Blind Man's Buff, both of which his model lower-middle class

father,

...