Need ideas and paragpraph structures for these prompts
"A Christmas Carol is an entertaining novel which also unsettles the reader." Discuss.
"By the end of ACC, Scrooge is a changed man. How is his redemption achieved."
"Scrooge suffers more from ignorance than from selfishness." Discuss.
"A Christmas Carol is an entertaining novel which also unsettles the reader." Discuss.
In this question, you need to attend to it being an entertaining novella, as well as the elements of the novella that are unsettling. The enthralling elements (e.g. supernatural beings, gothic settings, temporal inconsistencies) as well as the sinister messages that Dickens conveys to the readership, are the unsettling elements you should attend to.
Body Paragraph One: Entertaining
- The actual title - reinstating musical qualities of the novella (light-hearted nature) through associating story with a carol
- Christmas setting
- Scrooge's comical character
Body Paragraph Two: Enthralling Elements
- Scrooge's transformation is mediated by supernatural beings
- Spirits are capable of creating temporal inconsistencies (enunciates the power of the supernatural that is intended to unsettle the reader).
Body Paragraph Three:
- Through the redoubtable Scrooge, Dickens reinstates that failing to mend his avaricious ways in life will condemn him to an afterlife of an 'incessant torture of remorse'.
- Dickens insinuates that a lifetime of being engrossed by the 'master passion, Gain' as opposed to human relations and 'affectionate grouping' will result in an individual's death being rejoiced, and their lasting memory will only be negative (discuss this in relation to Scrooge).
Body Paragraph Four:
- Dickens indicates that the negligence of the Victorian elite has contributed to the appalling living conditions of the 'half-naked' poor of the slums (discuss the children of men, Ignorance and Want, and also the looters, and how these are allegorical figures of the Victorian under-class that has been stripped of their human qualities by the elite).
- Dickens proposes that by failing to nurture the poor, the poor will take from the wealthy all they were deprived on when they become 'bereft, unwatched, uncared' corposes following their death (discuss in relation to the looters, and how they profit from Scrooge's death through the theft of objects as trivial as an 'old fashioned silver teaspoon'.
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"By the end of A Christmas Carol, Scrooge is a changed man". How is his redemption achieved?
Key word in that question -
how. This means that we need to discuss Dickens' conscious decisions in the structure of the narrative, that enable Scrooge to achieve a successful and enduring redemption.
I would tackle the following points:
- Dickens mirrors his narrative structure on the tri-temporal process of healing that he indicates is essential for Scrooge's reclamation. The consummation comes down to the single quote: 'I will live in the Past, the Present and the Future'.
BODY PARAGRAPH ONE:
- Dickens indicates that first, Scrooge must accept that he is at fault and that he is need of redemption so as to avoid the 'incessant torture of remorse' that his former companion Jacob Marley currently suffers.
BODY PARAGRAPH TWO:
- The author insinuates that delving into the past is an integral element of redemption. Through venturing into 'the Past', Scrooge recognises the happiness and love that he has repressed as a result of being engrossed by the 'master passion, Gain', as well as to work out the origins of his present condition.
BODY PARAGRAPH THREE:
- Having acknowledged that his bitter pursuit of wealth has cost him the 'joy, the gratitude and the ecstacy' that he witnesses in the lives of those around him EXCEPT his, Scrooge must now witness the communal theme of 'affectionate grouping'. I would somewhere in this paragraph mention that he must witness this after his heart has softened to visions of his childhood, which as a reader we know makes his 'cold eye glisten' and his 'heart [leap]'.
BODY PARAGRAPH FOUR:
- Now, Scrooge is at a position where he realises the essence of changing. Dickens indicates that after being guided by the previous spirits, Scrooge must now articulate his own failings to conclude the final chapter of this redemptive strategy. He must also witness the repercussions of his ignorance on himself and others, and his admission 'I am not the man I was' underscores the success of this.
Make sure with this essay you continuously refer to Dickens - tbh, just writing this plan was almost like constructing a plan for language analysis lol.
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