Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all! I have finally pulled myself away from the gluttonous and lazy holiday life and have come to post for the holiday season. Granted, 'tis past Christmas day; however we are still in the midst of Christmastide (the Twelve Days of Christmas), which permits me to do so – joyously!

I thought for this year's holiday season I would share a brief look at Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Dickens' classic Christmas ghost story has been popular ever since it was originally published in 1843, which is said to have sold six thousand copies within the first few days of its release. Every Christmas there is at two film versions shown on the television, and there are many local stage productions of this "little carol" put on every year.

On top of being a story of one man's redemption, A Christmas Carol is also a story that illustrates an important social situation in Victorian London. Like many of his other novels, such as Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickelby, A Christmas Carol focuses on the welfare of the impoverish people living in London, especially on the treatment of children. Many consider Dickens as a Victorian William Blake, a writer from the Romantic period who wrote and illustrated The Songs of Innocence and Experience that contain many poems like “The Chimney Sweep” that speak of the lives of children in city. According to records, in the year 1839 it was estimated “nearly half of all the funerals in London were for children under the age of ten,” and for the children who lived “grew up without education and resource and virtually no change to escape from the cycle of poverty” (Perdue.) Due to his own experiences growing up poor with his family (he even bases the Cratchit family in Camden Town where he lived with his family), Dickens becomes an advocate, in a sense, for the important welfare of children.

In A Christmas Carol, Dickens uses Tiny Tim as an example of how impoverished children live. Some scholars in medical fields believe, according to the hints in the text that Bob Cratchit’s son is ailing from a kidney disease, which was unrecognized during the 19th century and is fueled by the poverty level that the family is under.

The two other “characters” in this story that illustrate the authors passionate interest in this matter are the twins Ignorance and Want who are seen under robe of The Ghost of Christmas Present. These allegorical children tell the foreboding message of, “This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased” (Dickens 1500). They are the children of Man and “they cling to me, appealing from their fathers” (Dickens 1500.) This warning is telling the readers that unless the education for the impoverished children changes for the better, children will continue to spiral downward – bringing society with them. Ignorance is the downfall of society.

The experiences of seeing the life of the Cratchit family, especially the poor condition of Tiny Tim, and seeing the allegorical twins are two major factors in the change that the readers see in Ebenezer Scrooge. This is first seen when he reaction of “Oh, no kindred spirit. Say he will be spared” when spirit says that he “see[s] a vacant seat, in the poor chimney-corner, and crutch without an owner, carefully preserved. If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, the child will die” (Dickens 1493.) Then, in the scene were Scrooge sees Ignorance and Want: “‘Have they no refuge or resource?’ cried Scrooge. ‘Are there no prisons?’ said the Spirit, turning on him for the last time with his own words. ‘Are there no workhouses?’” (Dickens 1500.)

Through his literature, Dickens did help bring the wellbeing and education of impoverished children. However, the conditions did not truly improve until after his death. During the 19th century there was a rise of literature with a child protagonist and literature orientated for young readers. Dickens greatly contributed this genre and will be forever known as a man who wanted to make a difference.

If you would like to explore Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, his other novels, and about the author himself, please visit David Perdue’s Charles Dickens Page. It is the best website that I have found out there on the Web and has great discussions and facts about everything Dickens.

Perdue, David. "A Christmas Carol." Charles Perdue's Charles Dickens Page. 2007. 27 Dec. 2007 .

Dickens, Charles. "A Christmas Carol." The Longman Anthology: British Literature. Ed. David Damrosch and Kevin Dettmar. New York: Pearson Longman, 2006. 1464-1513.

Website Recommendation

If anyone is interested in children’s literature from the past the website Children’s Books Online: the Rosetta Project is the place to go. This website houses complete texts and illustrations of vintage children’s stories, poems, rhymes, chapter books and illustrations.


One of my favorite pieces of children’s lit. is found here: a 1902 copy of Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses which contains poems such as “Bed in Summer,” “The Land of Counterpane,” and “Happy Thought.” Stevenson’s poems are from the point of view of a child, but they also have a sense of the “adult nostalgia for lost innocence and simplicity” (1840.) His work is absolutely wonderful and played an important role in children’s literature during the 19th century.

Damrosch, David, and Kevin Dettmar, eds. The Longman Anthology: British Literature. 3rd ed. Vol. 2B. New York: Pearson Education, Inc, 2006. 1840.

William and Dorothy Wordsworth

I am not a huge fan of poetry; however, I do have my loves. Because of my previous post, A Poem for Spring, I thought I would share with you what I know of William Wordsworth.

William Wordsworth, the author of "I wandered lonely as a Cloud" (seen in the post A Poem for Spring) is a fascinating and wonderful poet. He is one of the English Romantics, the others being William Blake, Samuel Coleridge, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and John Keats. The Romantics lived and write between the late 18th to early 19th century in England (roughly the same time America had their Transcendentalists).


Romanticism is defined as, "A term describing qualities that colored most elements of European and American intellectual life in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, from literature, art, and music, through architecture, landscape gardening, philosophy, and politics. With the social, political, and intellectual structures of society, the Romantics stressed the separateness of the person, celebrated individual perception and imagination, and embraced nature as a model for harmony in society and art. Their view was an egalitarian one, stressing the value of expressive abilities common to all, inborn rather than developed through training (Damrosch 1125.)

Wordsworth’s work have a simplicity to them, many of which incorporate nature into many of his work, that allows the reader to truly see the meaning of the poems. Another fascinating aspect of Wordsworth is the correlation between him and his sister Dorothy Wordsworth, who on her own is another captivating character in literature.

Dorothy never thought of herself as a true writer/poet and never truly wanted to publish her work, which she said for her family and friends as well for local records (her Grasmere Journals). With a few publications done by her brother along with his own work, her work was not truly published until the end of 19th century, decades after her death which was brought on by a combination of years of illnesses and a pre-senile dementia that is said to be similar to Alzheimer’s disease, and old age.

Dorothy lived and traveled with William for most of her adult life, which creates the parallel that is found in their works. This is wonderfully seen in Dorothy’s entry in one of her Grasmere Journals:

[A Field of Daffodils]

Thursday 15th. [April 1802] - When we were in the woods beyond Gowbarrow park we saw a few daffodils close to the water side, we fancied that the lake had floated the seeds ashore & that the little colony had so sprung up - But as we went along there were more & yet more & at last under the boughs of a country turnpike road. I never saw daffodils so beautiful they grew among the mossy stones about & about them, some rested their heads upon these stones as on a pillow for weariness & the rest tossed & reeled & danced & seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind that blew upon them over the Lake, they looked so gay ever glancing ever changing. This wind blew directly over the lake to them. There was her & there a little knot & a few stragglers a few yards higher up but the were so few as not to disturb the simplicity & unity & life of their one busy highway. we rested again & again. the Bays were stormy, & we heard the waves at different distances and in the middle of the water like the Sea (555.)

To see the similarities between Williams poem and Dorothy's journal entry is fantastic. Plus, there is a very interesting fact about this. William wrote "I wandered lonely as a Cloud" in 1804 (he did do a revision and republication in 1815), two years Dorothy's journal entry. It is believed that upon reading Dorothy's work William was inspired to write his poem. Unlike the few who do not believe this fact, I, personally, believe it and think it's incredible.

However, despite William being influence by Dorothy’s journal, there is a noticeable difference in the way both poets write. First, and probably most noticeable is the style of writing. Dorothy’s “A Field of Daffodils” is wonderfully detailed, as many personal journals are like. I personally love her descriptions of the flowers:

“I never saw daffodils so beautiful they grew among the mossy stones about & about them, some rested their heads upon these stones as a pillow for weariness & the rest tossed & reeled & danced & seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind that blew upon them over the Lake, they looked so gay ever glancing ever changing.”

I can truly see her imagery and hear a bright, clear laughter as if someone is in rapture.

In comparison, William has a more of poetic take on the same setting:

They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Outdid the sparkling waves in glee: - (l. 9-14)

As seen, while Dorothy is simply reported of the entire event with details, which are poetic in their own sense, William as made the event with a great poetic focus on nature (very Romantic).

Another interesting aspect of these sibling writers that I wanted to include in this novella-of-a-post is their involvement, with fellow writers and poets, in the abolition of British slavery and slave trade. William wrote several poems on the matter, such as "To Thomas Clarkson," which he wrote to his friend upon the bill of abolition being passed in the year 1807.

In my opinion these writers are simply wonderful.

Damrosch, David, and Kevin Dettmar, eds. The Longman Anthology: British Literature. 3rd ed. Vol. 2A. New York: Pearson Education, Inc, 2006. 1125.

Wordsworth, Dorothy. "A Field Of Daffodils." The Longman Anthology: British Literature. Ed. David Damrosch and Kevin J. H. Dettmar. New York: Pearson Education, Inc, 2006. 555.