Introduction to Charles Dickens’ classic novella A Christmas Carol.
Transcript of Introduction to Charles Dickens’ classic novella A Christmas Carol.
Charles Dickens1812-1870
Take a guess as to how many film and television adaptations of Charles Dickens’ novels, novellas, and short stories there have been in the 200 years since he wrote.
Charles Dickens1812-1870 Take a guess as to how many film
and television adaptations of Charles Dickens’ novels, novellas, and short stories there have been in the 200 years since he wrote.
200!
Charles Dickens1812-1870
One of the most widely-read and beloved writers of his time
His works have never gone out of print
Selected as #41 in a 2003 BBC list of “100 Greatest Britons”
5 of his novels are in the Top 100 Novels list currently out by the BBC
Finish the Dickens quote…(I bet you can!)
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”
Dickens’ most famous novel, A Tale of Two Cities, is the best selling novel of all time.
The Pervasive Theme "Virtue shows quite as
well in rags and patches as she does in purple and fine linen."
Take a look at this famous Charles Dickens quote, said in New York City on one of his trips to the United States.
What do you think he meant by that? What issue do you think he dedicated his literary works to addressing and solving?
Poverty&
Social Inequalit
yOliver Twist:
Oliver is a poor orphan boy who suffers the
outrageous conditions of a orphanage – no food,
no heat, nothing more to wear than rags – before getting sucked into a life
of crime.
Oliver Twist shocked readers by showing the middle class – people who read novels – the true face of crime: sometimes people had to resort to it in order to survive.
Poverty&
Social Inequalit
yOliver Twist:
Oliver is a poor orphan boy who suffers the
outrageous conditions of a orphanage – no food,
no heat, nothing more to wear than rags – before getting sucked into a life
of crime.
Oliver Twist shocked readers by showing the middle class – people who read novels – the true face of crime: sometimes people had to resort to it in order to survive.
Great Expectations:Pip is a poor orphan (shocker!) living with
his much older sister and her husband who is given an anonymous gift that propels him
into a new social class.
Great Expectations shows that social class is never what it seems and that being rich isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Poverty&
Social Inequalit
yOliver Twist:
Oliver is a poor orphan boy who suffers the
outrageous conditions of a orphanage – no food,
no heat, nothing more to wear than rags – before getting sucked into a life
of crime.
Oliver Twist shocked readers by showing the middle class – people who read novels – the true face of crime: sometimes people had to resort to it in order to survive.
Great Expectations:Pip is a poor orphan (shocker!) living with
his much older sister and her husband who is given an anonymous gift that propels him
into a new social class.
Great Expectations shows that social class is never what it seems and that being rich isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
A Christmas Carol:Scrooge has all the money in the world
but no friends or family to speak of.
Why Poverty?
http://www.biography.com/people/charles-dickens-9274087
Dickens was known to use autobiographical elements in his literature.
Dickens’ birthplace is a museum now! In Portsmouth, England – the same town where Sir Arthur Conan Doyle hails from.
Social and Historical Context
1843:
A Christmas Carol is published
1837:
Queen Victoria crowned at the age of
19. She would reign for 64 years.
Social and Historical Context
1843:
A Christmas Carol is published
1837:
Queen Victoria crowned at the age of
19. She would reign for 64 years.
1882:
“Married Women’s Property Act” passed: women have the right to buy, sell, and own
property.
Social and Historical Context
1843:
A Christmas Carol is published
1837:
Queen Victoria crowned at the age of
19. She would reign for 64 years.
1882:
“Married Women’s Property Act” passed: women have the right to buy, sell, and own
property.
1834:New Poor Law:
“Prisons for the Poor” Workhouses
Living Conditions
Social and Historical Context
1843:
A Christmas Carol is published
1837:
Queen Victoria crowned at the age of
19. She would reign for 64 years.
1882:
“Married Women’s Property Act” passed: women have the right to buy, sell, and own
property.
1834:New Poor Law:
“Prisons for the Poor” Workhouses
Living Conditions
1833:Factory Act
Attempts to regulate child work laws and help the conditions
Social and Historical Context
1843:
A Christmas Carol is published
1837:
Queen Victoria crowned at the age of
19. She would reign for 64 years.
1882:
“Married Women’s Property Act” passed: women have the right to buy, sell, and own
property.
1834:New Poor Law:
“Prisons for the Poor” Workhouses
Living Conditions
1833:Factory Act
Attempts to regulate child work laws and help the conditions
1898-1902
Spanish-American War&
Boer War
Social and Historical Context
1843:
A Christmas Carol is published
1837:
Queen Victoria crowned at the age of
19. She would reign for 64 years.
1882:
“Married Women’s Property Act” passed: women have the right to buy, sell, and own
property.
1834:New Poor Law:
“Prisons for the Poor” Workhouses
Living Conditions
1833:Factory Act
Attempts to regulate child work laws and help the conditions
1898-1902
Spanish-American War&
Boer War
1901Death of Victoria
1870Death of Dickens
Queen Victoria
Victoria’s reign is most commonly associated with:
1. Industrial Expansion
2. Economic Progress
3. Empire and Colonization
Queen Victoria
Victoria’s reign is most commonly associated with:
1. Industrial Expansion
2. Economic Progress
3. Empire and Colonization
Between 1840 and 1882, there were seven attempts made on
Victoria’s life. (She rarely appeared in public toward the end of her rule.)
Queen Victoria
Victoria’s reign is most commonly associated with:
1. Industrial Expansion
2. Economic Progress
3. Empire and Colonization
Between 1840 and 1882, there were seven attempts made on
Victoria’s life. (She rarely appeared in public toward the end of her rule.)
Fairly conservative for the time: she opposed giving
women the right to vote.
Queen Victoria
Victoria’s reign is most commonly associated with:
1. Industrial Expansion
2. Economic Progress
3. Empire and Colonization
Between 1840 and 1882, there were seven attempts made on
Victoria’s life. (She rarely appeared in public toward the end of her rule.)
Fairly conservative for the time: she opposed giving
women the right to vote.
Passed a lot of acts and
measures to try and help
the poor.