Dickens was forced to work in a boot blacking factory when he was 12 years old.
Dickens father was a prisoner in Marshalsea Prison in 1824 for being in debt.
Dickens had 10 children and a wife called Catherine.
Family was the only source of help when you were unemployed or sick.
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London
In 1843 London was the world's largest city.
In 1843 nealry 2 million people lived in London.
The population doulbed from the start of the 19th century.
Rapid indulstrilisation made London very polluted and crowded.
Working class and poor people lived in basic and cramped conditions.
Rapid movement of people from country to city made workhouses unable to cope with the number of unemployed and homeless they had to care for.
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Christmas and Holidays
Christmas was the only public holiday of the year.
Most people had Sundays off work.
Working class people had no paid holidays apart from Christmas.
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Work
Workplaces were dangerous and difficult.
14-16 work hours a day.
Working class children were expected to be in paid work by the age of 13 or 14.
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Religion and Christianity
In the 1840s, 50% of people attented a Christian religion service every week.
Dickens was concerned with the New Testament values (E.G. kindness, charity and meekness).
Dickens was not concerned about the Old Testament values. (E.G. hard inflexible rules about how to live and behave
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Gothic Literature
Popular in the first half of the 19th century.
Involves the supernatural (E.G. ghosts)
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Workhouses, Prisons and Poverty
Prisons would be unpleasant places for people who committed crimes.
Prisoners were made to do difficult and tedious work (E.G. seperating strands of rope).
In 1943, The poor law was passed by Parliament. It was designed to reduce the cost of helping the poor people who needed help, who had to go to workhouses for help.
Workhouses offered similar conditions to prisons.
People living in workhouses had to complete dull and repetitive work just to get a bed to sleep on and basic food.
No National Health Service (NHS), which meant that no help was given if people could not afford a doctor.
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About the book
A Christmas Carol is a response to the 1843 Government report about working class conditions for women and childen.
Dickens intended the book to be a 'Sledgehammer blow'.
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