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A Christmas Carol: A Vision of Victorian Time

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A Christmas Carol: A Vision of Victorian Time
NAME: Thatching Ferreira
FORM: WTME

A CHRISTMAS CAROL ESSAY.

How does Dickens create atmosphere and tension in the opening Stave of 'A Christmas Carol? How successfully does he create a vision of Victorian time?

Dickens uses many ways to get the audience interest in the opening stave as well as creating atmosphere and tension. One of these ways is the introduction of the main character of 'A Christmas Carol' novel: Scrooge. Dickens gives loads of descriptive sentences about Scrooge, so that the audience get familiar with him. Scrooge is described by Charles Dickens as: "solitary as an oyster". The word solitary show the audience that Scrooge is lonely, making the audience feel sympathy. Then he shows the audience that Scrooge is lonely, but tight by comparing him to an oyster which are hard to open just like Scrooge is hard to others around him. Scrooge is also described by the author as: "hard and sharp as a flint". Charles presents the main character as someone who has thick skin, someone who can cause harm to others. Someone not approachable. This quotation also shows the reader that Scrooge is like stone, with no feelings at all because he is compared to a flint. In my opinion this is a very good sentence to describe Scrooge because it makes the audience wonder why he acts this way, making us feel sympathetic and kind of curious about him. In addiction Dickens says: "external heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge". He is suggesting that Scrooge was never effected by anything or anyone. That Scrooge could live on his on with no help coming from others. In my opinion the author is showing that nothing could be worse than Scrooge even the cold days that make you freeze or the hot days when you feel like you are about to melt, none of these days would effect Scrooge in anyway. It shows how horrible he is and at the same time how powerful he seems to be. Another way the writer tries to make the reader interested in the story is by

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