English Department Update

A Christmas Carol is the core text for KS4 studying GCSE English Literature this term at ACE. If you have never read it or watched one of the numerous film adaptations, add it to your seasonal ‘to do’ list!

Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol, not only to entertain his audience, but to also make Victorian society question their treatment of the poor, ill and destitute who were living in towns and cities across the UK during the industrial revolution. It’s a tale of many juxtapositions: greed vs generosity; rich vs poor; immorality vs morality and cruelty and neglect vs kindness and compassion.

We follow the main character, Ebeneezer Scrooge, from his experiences as a young, lonely boy abandoned by his family to becoming an apprentice. Then later, his experience of love and his obsession with money and eventually into the reformed character he becomes at the end. 

Dickens encourages people to consider the impact of their choices on others; to treat people with compassion and as though we are on a shared ‘journey’ through life. He not only comments on this issue in relation to Scrooge’s behaviour towards others but demonstrates how Scrooge himself was adversely affected by his own up-bringing, which created the greedy and selfish character we are introduced to at the start of the novella.

The key message: Where there is compassion there is always hope.

Season’s Greetings from everyone in the ACE Schools English Department.