Unit 9 Research

Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol

Charles Dickens Full name is Charles John Huff am Dickens

Date and Place of Birth was in Portsmouth , 1812.

Charles was the second born of eight children. His father was a pay clerk in the navy office. Because of financial difficulties, the family moved about until they settled in Camden Town, a poor neighborhood in London, England. At the age of twelve Charles worked with working-class men and boys in a factory that handled "blacking," or shoe polish. While his father was in debtor's prison, the rest of the family moved to live near the prison, leaving Charles to live alone. This experience of lonely hardship was the most significant event of his life. It colored his view of the world and would later be described in a number of his novels.

Charles returned to school when his father received an inheritance and was able to repay his debts. But in 1827, at age fifteen, he was again forced leave school and work as an office boy. In the following year he became a freelance reporter and stenographer (using shorthand to transcribe documents) at the law courts of London. By 1832 he had become a reporter for two London newspapers and, in the following year, began to contribute a series of impressions and sketches to other newspapers and magazines, signing some of them "Boz." These scenes of London life went far to establish his reputation and were published in 1836 as Sketches by Boz, his first book. On the strength of this success Charles married Catherine Hogarth. Together they had ten children.

https://www.notablebiographies.com/De-Du/Dickens-Charles.html

A Christmas is a Novella written by Charles Dickens in 1843. The Novella is based on a elderly man called Scrooge who is visited by several ghost overnight , the first being his late business partner Jacob Marley, then followed by The ghost of Christmas Past, leaving the Ghost of Christmas Present and Yet to come. The ghost take scrooge through moments of his life in order to make him see sense and change for the better, scrooge is a bitter miserly man who doesn't she the point of Christmas and family and rather focus on his money instead. After having been visited by the three ghosts especially the last, he begins to have a change of heart and wakes up with nothing but joy and excitement for Christmas day.

''His father was a pay clerk in the navy office. Because of financial difficulties, the family moved about until they settled in Camden Town, a poor neighborhood in London, England. At the age of twelve Charles worked with working-class men and boys in a factory that handled "blacking," or shoe polish. While his father was in debtor's prison, the rest of the family moved to live near the prison, leaving Charles to live alone. This experience of lonely hardship was the most significant event of his life. It colored his view of the world and would later be described in a number of his novels.''(Notablebiographies.com, 2018) 

Character Profiles: Toexplore my Characters and to find out more about them I used Stanislavsky method

1. Who Am I?  I am young scrooges Fiance. 
2. Where Am I? I am at our home where me and Scrooge stay. 
3. When Is It? late July 
4. What Do I Want? I want to be happy and be with scrooge forever and never what him to change.
5. Why Do I Want It? I want this  because i fell in love with his heart and didn't care if he was poor as he was very loving and caring. 
6. How Will I Get It? unfortunately scrooge changes and I cannot get what I want as he is a cold heartened  man and cares more about his money than anyone and anything else. 
7. What Do I Need To Overcome? The pain and disappointment left after the break up.

In a Christmas Carol I play the role of Belle and Belinda. Belle is Young Scrooges first love who is proposed to in the play. She then calls off the engagement as Scrooge changes towards which he promised he would never do. As he grows in wealth his priorities change.

Belle is a loving, beautiful young Lady in her early 20s.

To be able to explore my character more , I decided to create more of an background story based on my knowledge of how is was for woman in the 1800 to late 1800s back when the play was written.

Belle was in the lower working class and so was Scrooge at the time but as you know woman didn't have as much power during this period. Although she didn't have much power , she was able to end the engagement as they weren't married as yet.

Costume and Appearance.

 Belle wore very neutral make up and had her hair up in a bun. Here are a few images that inspired me to choose costume and looks. 

Belle's Costume to the right >

The the other role i played was Bob Cratchits daughter Belinda
Belinda was one of the younger daughter of Cratchits also the sister of tiny Tim
She was very close with her younger sibling Rebecca and had a very Joyful spirit. Her family are very poor and don't have much money . With this knowledge I decided to pick the green dress and white tights and scarf. Even though it looks expensive it was found and saved for this particulate time of year.

London During the 1800's
30 June 1846

Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel resigns after the Corn Laws are repealed

Sir Robert Peel's famous reforming Conservative government came to an end shortly after legislation to repeal the Corn Laws was passed. This measure removed protective duties which had helped to keep the price of bread high. He championed it despite opposition from most of his own party, and the motion was carried by Whig votes. Peel never took office again and was remembered as the prime minister who gave the working classes cheaper bread.

      July 1848

Public Health Act aims to reduce death rates

Following pressure from the administrator Edwin Chadwick and the findings of the Health of Towns Commission, parliament passed legislation to improve urban conditions and reduce death rates. Local boards of health were established in places where the population's death rate exceeded 23 per 1,000. The act was seen as an unwelcome intrusion by central government and proved very unpopular. The central Board of Health was wound up in 1858.

9 August 1870

Women obtain limited rights to retain their property after marriage

This act changed the previous legal situation, in which all property automatically transferred to the control of a husband on marriage. It granted some limited separate protection to a married woman's property and also permitted women to retain up to £200 of their own wages or earnings. Similar changes did not take effect in Scotland until 1877.

1 January 1883

Married women obtain the right to acquire their own property

The 1870 Married Women's Property Act had been widely criticised for failing to provide sufficient safeguards for married women. A further act provided something approaching equality for women since it allowed women to acquire and retain any property deemed separate from that of their husband's. They also received the same legal protection as husbands if they needed to defend their right to property.http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/timeline/victorianbritain_timeline_noflash.shtml

Christmas during 1800s

Christmas to most bushiness weren't consider as a holiday but by the end of century became one of the most annual celebrated time of year. 

The holidays – The wealth generated by the new factories and industries of the Victorian age allowed middle class families in England and Wales to take time off work and celebrate over two days, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Boxing Day, December 26th, earned its name as the day servants and working people opened the boxes in which they had collected gifts of money from the “rich folk”. Those new fangled inventions, the railways allowed the country folk who had moved into the towns and cities in search of work to return home for a family Christmas.

The Scots have always preferred to postpone the celebrations for a few days to welcome in the New Year, in the style that is Hogmanay. Christmas Day itself did not become a holiday in Scotland until many years after Victoria’s reign and it has only been within the last 20-30 years that this has been extended to include Boxing Day.

The Gifts –At the start of Victoria’s reign, children’s toys tended to be handmade and hence expensive, generally restricting availability to those “rich folk” again. With factories however came mass production, which brought with it games, dolls, books and clockwork toys all at a more affordable price. Affordable that is to “middle class” children. In a “poor child’s” Christmas stocking, which first became popular from around 1870, only an apple, orange and a few nuts could be found.

Turkey Time – Turkeys had been brought to Britain from America hundreds of years before Victorian times. When Victoria first came to the throne however, both chicken and turkey were too expensive for most people to enjoy. In northern England roast beef was the traditional fayre for Christmas dinner while in London and the south, goose was favorite. Many poor people made do with rabbit. On the other hand, the Christmas Day menu for Queen Victoria and family in 1840 included both beef and of course a royal roast swan or two. By the end of the century most people feasted on turkey for their Christmas dinner. The great journey to London started for the turkey sometime in October. Feet clad in fashionable but hard wearing leather the unsuspecting birds would have set out on the 80-mile hike from the Norfolk farms. Arriving obviously a little tired and on the scrawny side they must have thought London hospitality unbeatable as they feasted and fattened on the last few weeks before Christmas!

https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/A-Victorian-Christmas/
Victorian Value and Morals
The term Victorian morality is often used to describe the values of the period, which included

• sexual proprietary
• hard work
• honesty
• thrift
• sense of duty and responsibility towards the less well off

Religion, morality, elitist thinking, industrialization all played an important role in the formation of what we today know as the Victorian era morality. It changed England totally by altering the very thread of social interaction, mores and traditions.

Victorian era is thus named after the monarch ruling over England during this period and this particular term was employed for the first time when the Great Exhibition of 1851 took place in London. This was the platform where all that Victorian morality and inventions and discoveries were showcased to the world at large.

http://www.victorian-era.org/victorian-era-morality.htmlhttps://youtu.be/X7exyTgfWK8
The themes of A Christma Carol are;

• Christmas is a Christian celebration of the birth of Christ, though it also encompasses Greek, Roman and pagan traditions of giving gifts and feasting around the Winter Solstice. It is a time when families and friends come together to share food and exchange gifts.
  

  Dickens wrote this novella before Christmas 1843. The story of Scrooge takes place on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and uses the ideas of generosity and compassion that we associate with Christmas to highlight the transformation of the main character. We see Scrooge change from a miserly man, contrasting with the spirit of Christmas, to someone who is full of joy.
• redemption is the idea of being saved from sin or evil. In Scrooge we see a man who is transformed from a greedy, selfish miser into a generous and good-natured character by the end.
  

  He is shown the error of his ways by the ghosts that visit him and is redeemed by his own willingness to change. The moral message of the novella is that all human beings have the opportunity to behave in kinder ways towards each other.
• social injustice , Dickens felt strongly that Victorian society ignored the poverty of its underclass. On the one hand were the rich who enjoyed comfort and feasting at Christmas, and on the other were children forced to live in dreadful conditions in workhouses.

https://www.bbc.com/bitesize/guides/z9r49j6/revision/4

Bibliography

 Notablebiographies.com. (2019). Charles Dickens Biography - life, family, childhood, children, story, wife, school, young, son. [online] Available at: https://www.notablebiographies.com/De-Du/Dickens-Charles.html [Accessed 28 May 2019].

Bbc.co.uk. (2019). BBC - History : British History Timeline. [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/timeline/worldwars_timeline_noflash.shtml [Accessed 28 May 2019].

Historic UK. (2019). A Victorian Christmas. [online] Available at: https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/A-Victorian-Christmas/ [Accessed 28 May 2019].

Anon, (2019). [online] Available at: http://www.victorian-era.org/victorian-era-morality.htmlhttps://youtu.be/X7exyTgfWK8 [Accessed 28 May 2019].

 BBC Bitesize. (2019). Themes - Revision 4 - GCSE English Literature - BBC Bitesize. [online] Available at: https://www.bbc.com/bitesize/guides/z9r49j6/revision/4 [Accessed 28 May 2019].