The Crucial Perspective in A Christmas Carol
1) Charles Dickens’ perspective plays a significant role in the biased depiction of the socioeconomic imbalance in Victorian London presented in A Christmas Carol. 2) In literature, perspective is the lens through which the reader views the story and bias is defined as prejudice in favour of or against one thing, person, or group. 3a) Firstly, Charles Dickens’ portrays his own life in the novella through setting and theme, thus enforcing his perspective. The setting is identical to his life, set in Victorian London. Thematically, the story is fixated on wealth, as displayed by Scrooge’s reaction to his nephew’s spirit “ …What right have you to be merry? What reason have you to be merry? You’re poor enough…,” (Page 3) linking his nephew’s socioeconomic status to a simple holiday greeting. Charles Dickens was in significant debt at the time of writing the novella, and experiencing poverty himself, Dickens was especially opposed to the socioeconomic imbalance, resulting in a biased point of view on wealth. 3b) Additionally, the characters are extreme representations of wealthy men from Dickens’ perspective. As the narrator is unnamed, there can be no simulated bias based on a fictional character’s perspective, thus meaning the depiction of characters and events can be associated directly to the author. Scrooge is described as “…a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner…,” (Page 2) a perfect portrayal of a rich man from a poor person’s perspective, based on real experiences of gr...
