level 9 a christmas carol essay

Mr Salles Teaches English

A Christmas Carol: Every Grade 9 Essay in One

There is some context which is relevant to any essay.

And is guaranteed to make parts of any essay worth grade 8 and 9.

As a free subscriber, I am going to give you all of it.

Paid subscribers will get it transformed into a 930 word 30/30 answer. Actually, it is way better than 30/30. If you write only 700 words of this, you’ll still get 30/30.

So, in my commentary, I also share which sentences are essential to getting 100%.

This is an extract from my Ultimate Guide to A Christmas Carol (which also includes 7 grade 9 essays).

I wrote it to help you love the novel, get grade 9 and understand and enjoy literature so that you could choose English literature A level (if you wanted to - some people have to become doctors and chemists, but 100X more will want to read and write for the rest of their lives!)

This topic is going to be 100% relevant to any question you ever get on A Christmas Carol.

How is A Christmas Carol a Criticism of Social Policy in Victorian England?

Dickens shows his opposition to The Poor Laws, which created “workhouses”, by making Scrooge support them: “Are they still in operation?”.

The Victorians Thought the Poor Deserved to Be Poor

Scrooge also supports the criminalisation of the poor, “Are there no prisons?” and believes these are necessary to “decrease the surplus population”, even if this means the poor would “rather die” than attend them. The Ghost of Christmas Present quotes Scrooge’s support back at him ironically when Scrooge is desperate to save Tiny Tim, now that he knows what “the surplus population” looks like.

Thomas Malthus

This language uses the politicians’ interpretation of Thomas Malthus’s economic theory. Because only male property holders could vote, Dickens targets his book at them, pricing it at an expensive five shillings, a third of the “fifteen shillings” a worker like Bob Cratchit earns. Dickens invites the readers into the warmth of the Cratchits’ family Christmas, so that they too can understand the social effects of low wages.

Trading Laws Which Starve the Poor

On the way, Scrooge challenges the ghost for shutting bakers on a Sunday, which was a law upholding the Christian tradition of the Sabbath, forbidding trade, which will “cramp these people’s opportunities of innocent enjoyment...deprive them of their means of dining every seventh day”. Dickens juxtaposes the harshness of society with the “hard and sharp as flint” Scrooge, pointing out that the miser is actually more generous than the reader who votes for such laws.

How the Cratchits Symbolise the Poor Working Class

Inside the Cratchits’ home on Christmas day, we wait for the eldest daughter Martha, a maid of all work, who has still had to “clear away” on Christmas morning for her thoughtless, and entirely normal, employers. The mother and second daughter make their old dresses appear more festive with “ribbons”, Peter wears a ridiculously large present of his father’s old shirt, whose collar is so big it gets “into his mouth”. Only Bob and Tiny Tim have been to church, presumably because the rest of the family lack suitable clothing. Bob himself has no “greatcoat” and his best clothes are “threadbare”. Although this is a comic portrait, it is also a clue that the winter is a threat to health in a poor family.

Next, Dickens italicises the children’s excitement at the feast: “there’s such a goose,” and contrasts this with the goose’s meagre size, so that the family even eat the bones, and there is only an “atom of a bone” left on the table. After witnessing this comic scene, Scrooge brings us back to real life, asking the Ghost “if Tiny Tim will live”. He won’t.

So, Dickens challenges his readers to realise that the going rate of pay creates the working poor, which leads to their malnourishment, poor health, servitude and often death. Scrooge, like the reader, has simply supposed the poor are “idle people'' who choose poverty because of defective character. Dickens wants to disabuse these readers, as he shocks Scrooge into transforming.

Scrooge’s Transformation

It is tempting to see Scrooge’s transformation as needing The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, but actually this question in Stave Three is the pivotal moment. Dickens shows us this structurally, as it occurs in the middle of the novel, and also thematically at the end, when Scrooge becomes a “second father” to Tiny Tim.

If this last ghost is not necessary for Scrooge’s transformation, why is he introduced? Dickens uses him to show the reader how wider society is affected by their poor pay. Bob has a comparatively good job for a working-class man. Those who earn less live in slums, where he now takes us: “the whole quarter reeked with crime, with filth, and misery”. Like the reader, Scrooge has avoided seeing the “wretched” conditions in which the poor live, and “never penetrated” there.

Don’t Forget the Workers Who are So Poor That They Become Criminals

Here we meet tradespeople Scrooge has employed, a “laundress” and “charwoman”, and an “undertaker’s man” who has prepared Scrooge’s body. They have all stolen from the dead man’s room. They have “all three met here without meaning it!” because they are embarrassed at their crimes. They are surprisingly polite to each other, and with “gallantry” decide that the poorest, the cleaner, should be last to ask old Joe for a price for her stolen goods, and therefore get a better price. Old Joe himself has made a tiny profit from crime. He is still having to do this, even though “nearly seventy years of age”. His poverty is introduced comically as he invites them into “the parlour... the space behind the screen of rags.” This ironic juxtaposition reveals Dickens' social commentary, where not just poverty, but a significant amount of crime is caused by middle class indifference to the consequence of low wages which they pay.

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This Book’s Readers are Employers

This is harder for a modern audience to grasp, but all Dickens’ original readers were exactly this kind of employer. Even Fred, the model of Christmas cheer who puts up with his uncle’s “Bah...Humbug!” has a live-in housekeeper who is still working on Christmas day to welcome Scrooge to Fred’s home!

Dickens expects the reader to identify with the morally good “master” Fred and perhaps now to question their indifference to the lives of their employees.

Revolution and Education

Dickens also warns of greater consequences than crime if society, and the reader, does not change. Because Scrooge begins his transformation, he notices the figures of “Ignorance” and “Want” whom Dickens personifies as a boy and a girl. The Ghost of Christmas Present delivers Dickens’ warning, “but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased.”

“Ignorance” symbolises the lack of education denied to the poor, which results in a spiral of unemployability, or a qualification only for low-wage work. This unspecified “doom” suggests violent crime or political protest, or perhaps predicts the kinds of revolution which swept Europe five years later.

This scene is not necessary to the plot of Scrooge’s redemption, so it works like an aside to the reader, calling our attention to the author’s wider purpose, which is not just to entertain, but persuade the reader to build a fairer society.

The Importance of the Ending

Therefore, Dickens ends the novella with Scrooge raising Bob’s “salary” as his final act.

We remember that his lack of charity was a sign of his miserly behaviour. But Bob’s salary was only the going rate in 1843, not a product of Scrooge’s miserliness. So, this action becomes a clear signal to the reader to increase what they pay their employees and domestic staff.

The final line, ending with “God bless us” is partly ironic. God isn’t going to help the poor, so we, like Scrooge, have to.

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Rewritten as an Exam Answer

Although Dickens writes the novel as an entertainment, he wants the story of Scrooge’s moral awakening to “haunt” the reader, and so lead to a change in how his readers think about the poor.

A 3 part thesis statement, which sets out Dickens’ ideas, and acts as a plan for your essay. I always write a 3 part thesis statement. Some grade 9 answers get away with 2 - but that leaves your marks to chance.

Dickens shows his opposition to The Poor Laws, which created “workhouses”, by making Scrooge support them: “Are they still in operation?”. Scrooge also supports the criminalisation of the poor, “Are there no prisons?” and believes these are necessary to “decrease the surplus population”. Then Dickens creates Tiny Tim to show us what “the surplus population” looks like, and he uses Tiny Tim’s impending death to transform Scrooge’s view.

Rather than explode a quote to death, use your quotes to build an argument. The argument has to be about the writer’s ideas. This gets your AO2 marks. The more quotes you use, the higher your AO1 mark. Exploding quotes adds very little to AO1, because you use too few ‘references to the text’. Obvious really!

I hope you can see how to turn the context into an essay. Paid subscribers get the rest, with my comments.

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Essay Titles

For your revision you should plan an essay based around each of the following questions., remember that you can use quotes - or even entire paragraphs - in multiple questions, so be wise when you prepare. also, b ear in mind that you will have an extract on the day but for revision purposes you're best to plan without one and then incorporate it where you see fit., for each essay, try to plan in the following way:, write your opening paragraph, know what each of your 2 or 3 paragraphs will be about, revise the quotes you’ll use in them, ten key questions:, 1. how does dickens present the character of scrooge in a christmas carol , 2. how does dickens present the cratchits in a christmas carol , 3. how does dickens present the ghosts in a christmas carol , 4. how does dickens explore the theme of redemption in a christmas carol , 5. how does dickens explore the theme of greed in a christmas carol , 6. how does dickens explore the theme of social justice in a christmas carol , 7. how does dickens explore the role of the family in a christmas carol , 8. how does dickens present selfishness in a christmas carol , 9. how important is christmas to the novel a christmas carol , 10. how does dickens criticise society in a christmas carol , an example:, question: how does dickens present the character of scrooge in a christmas carol , opening paragraph:, scrooge is the central character in a christmas carol, and the novel charts his change from being a mean old miser to being a happy member of society . throughout the book he changes for two main reasons: fear of what will happen if he doesn't change , and excitement at the joys he can experience if he does ., paragraphs:, scrooge as a miser: "solitary as an oyster" ... "warning human sympathy to keep its distance" ... refusing to give to the portly gentlemen ... refusing to go to fred's for dinner, scrooge changing through fear: the "neglected grave" ... the selling of his bed covers ... ignorance and want - doom written on the brow of ignorance ... "the poor boy, neglected by his friends", scrooge changing through excitement at society: "scrooge wept to see his former self" ... "the happiness he gives is quite as great as if it had cost a fortune" ... (tiny tim) is as "good as gold and better) ... fred saying that he will carry on inviting him to dinner because he feel "pity" for him, scrooge as a happy member of society:, quite the baby - i'd rather be a baby ... "second father" to tiny tim ... god bless us - every one ... goes to freds, gives to the poor and becomes a hero of christmas, note : you should see that there were loads of different quotes i could have focused on here, and a number of different ways i could have structured my essay. you should choose quotes you feel a real connection to - ones you could write a lot about - and try to reuse quotes (or entire paragraphs) in other essays..

Miss Huttlestone's GCSE English

Because a whole class of wonderful minds are better than just one!

‘A Christmas Carol’ Grade 9 Response on Fred’s Characterisation

Hi all – another AMAZING essay penned by my year 11 student Ashley. Use as a model for how to structure a top band response:

Within his festive, allegorical novella, Dickens crafts Scrooge’s only nephew Fred to function as a model for embracing Christmas. Most importantly, he demonstrates the virtues associated with this time of year, namely goodwill, benevolence, family and community.

Primarily, the first time the reader meets Fred he is depicted as an embodiment of the Christmas spirit. Fred is ‘all in a glow’ when he comes to meet his uncle. The lexical choice ‘glow’ connotes light which is often linked with purity and hope, emphasising that Fred acts as a role model for Scrooge to learn from. Fred spreads his Christmas cheer and is happy despite not being wealthy. Additionally, Fred is said to have walked through the ‘fog and frost’; the fog could symbolise the lingering presence of the Industrial Revolution in the 1800s and all the negativity it brought such as apathy and ignorance. The ‘fog’ blinkered many capitalists from the fact that the people of London were suffering greatly due to the functions of power failing to protect them and for choosing capitalism over socialism. Fred being ‘all in a glow’, stands out from this metaphorical atmosphere of capitalism and material gain; whilst doing so, he clears a path for goodness and cheerfulness to seep into Scrooge’s melancholy life. He therefore paints himself as selfless and caring – qualities that were quite rare in the 1800s.

Secondly, Dickens cleverly utilises structure to illustrate the weak relationship between Fred and Scrooge. Throughout the extract the terms ‘nephew’ and ‘uncle’ are repeated several times. Dickens intention for this technique may have been to remind the reader that Scrooge and Fred are blood relatives; therefore they should have a familial connection. This is extremely ironic considering the way Scrooge communicates with his ‘nephew’ by calling him ‘poor enough’. This remark can be perceived as very rude, dismissive, ignorant and derogatory to a reader; one may even say their conversation resembles two strangers conversing. Dickens does this to highlight the distance between the two, one whose ‘eyes sparkled’ and one who is ‘hard and sharp as flint’. However, despite this obstacle, Fred continually tried to bridge the gap between them by inviting Scrooge to his annual Christmas dinner every year. From this we can infer that Fred is persistent in ensuring that his uncle stops marginalising himself and is included in familial engagements. This is because Fred understands the importance of community and how one can benefit spiritually from it, something Dickens strongly believed people needed to have.

In stave 3, the ghost of Christmas present takes Scrooge to a ‘bright, dry and gleaming room’, which we soon learn to be part of Fred’s home. The description of this setting is essential in understanding the character is Fred. The adjective ‘gleaming’ implies that Christmas spirit is almost leaking out of Fred’s house as it is so full of joy and benevolence. This proves that Fred’s house stands out, drastically, from the cold darkness that many people, like Scrooge, fall into on special occasions like Christmas. Here Dickens shows the vast division between those who are wealthy in the Christmas spirit and those who are wealthy but lack the spiritual benefits of Christmas through imagery. Therefore urging readers to understand that importance of family and relationships in order to avoid isolation.

In essence, Dickens utilises Fred to jolt Scrooge and his targeted capitalist readers out of this apathetic ways via his thoughtfulness, cheerfulness and ‘extraordinary kindness’.

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A Christmas Carol

Royal Central School of Speech & Drama - MA Performance Practice & Research

Experienced English Tutor and Professional Playwright and Poet.

Notes || Exam Prep || Character Profiles || Themes || Additional Reading & Videos

This topic is included in  Paper 1 . You can find notes and guides for it below.

• Glossary of Key Terms
• Key Terms Flashcards
• Guide to Paper 1
• How to plan and write a top mark essay

Additional Reading & Videos:

• Dickens as a social commentator
• The Appeal of A Christmas Carol by Michel Faber

Character Profiles

• Bob Cratchit
• Ebenezer Scrooge
• Marley's Ghost
• Minor Characters
• Materialism and Wealth
• Poverty and Social Injustice
• Redemption and Change
• Religion and Christmas
• The Supernatural

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A Christmas Carol: Task and Essay Plan (Scrooge)

A heavily structured essay plan for a task on the initial presentation of Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, click on the button above to download.

The aim is to help students express their ideas with accuracy and precision at sentence level >>

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Grade 9 Essay Scrooge's Transformation A Christmas Carol

Subject: English

Age range: 14-16

Resource type: Assessment and revision

Last updated

27 May 2018

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A grade 9 essay analysing Scrooge’s transformation in A Christmas Carol. AQA GCSE English literature.

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — A Christmas Carol — A Christmas Carol: Themes, Redemption, and Dickens’s Craft

A Christmas Carol: Themes, Redemption, and Dickens's Craft

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Published: Mar 13, 2024

Words: 538 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

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The novella begins, themes of the novel, memorable characters, literary devices.

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