Hello, everyone.

My name's Ms. Keller, and welcome to today's lesson.

In this session, we are going to be exploring how Charles Dickens depicts poverty and suffering in "A Christmas Carol." So grab your copy of the text, and let us get started.

So by the end of today's lesson, we will be able to explore how Dickens uses the Cratchit family to humanise the poor, and encourage his readers to show compassion towards them.

So let's explore today's keywords.

So do take a moment to familiarise yourselves with each of these definitions because we are going to be encountering these words quite a lot in today's lesson.

But before you do, I'd just like to draw your attention to that word utilitarian, which means a belief focused on practical and functional purposes, valuing usefulness over beauty or comfort.

So we've got this idea of a belief perhaps that people are only valued for their usefulness, a view that perhaps a lot of wealthy Victorians might have had with regards to their employees.

So how is today's session going today? We are going to start off by exploring Dickens' descriptions of poverty and suffering in the novella, and then we're going to look at poverty and suffering in Victorian London.

Many people have argued that "A Christmas Carol" is a novella that aims to highlight the plight of Victorians living in abject poverty, so we've got that keyword there, meaning really extreme poverty that is dangerous to somebody's health or to their life.

So I'd like to hand over to you for a discussion to start us off.

Why do you think Dickens may have wanted to highlight this issue? So pause the video while you take some time to have a think, discuss it with the people around you, or make some notes if you're working on your own, and when you are ready for us to feedback together, click play.

Welcome back.

Some really interesting responses there that I overheard.

So let's just summarise some of those fantastic ideas.

So you might have said there was no government support available in the Victorian period, and people were forced to rely on the church, charities, and philanthropists, and remember that word means wealthy or rich people who have chosen to donate their time and money to supporting the needy and vulnerable.

And Charles Dickens was a philanthropist who campaigned for social reform, and helped to set up a home for vulnerable women.

So that piece of contextual information is really important for us to remember because, arguably, Charles Dickens' views about social reform and social inequality really helped to drive the message of this text.

Over to you again for another discussion.

So we thought about why we might expect to see these depictions of poverty and suffering.

So now, we need to think about how we see it in the text.

So which characters or scenes from "A Christmas Carol" do you think Dickens uses to highlight the plight of those living in poverty? So we're particularly thinking about characters or scenes where we're seeing people suffering in abject poverty.

So pause the video again while you have a think, discuss it, and make your notes, and when you're ready for us to feedback together, click play.

Welcome back.

I could hear lots of really fantastic suggestions there.

And as I'm sure many of you realised, there are quite a few different scenes where we see poverty and suffering.

So some examples, we have the Cratchit family, especially Bob Cratchit, and the Tiny Tim, because Dickens really does focus on the plight that these two characters face.

We also have the introduction of the characters Ignorance and Want while Scrooge is with the Ghost of Christmas Present.

We have the charity collectors called the Portly Gentlemen from Stave 1 who arrive and ask Scrooge to donate money to help the poor and vulnerable.

And then, finally, towards the end of the novella, in Stave Four, we see a scene with Old Joe, the charwoman, the laundress, and the undertaker who are all discussing things that they have found in the home of a rich person who has died, and they've taken these things.

And in this particular scene, we see that it is set in a slum, a particularly poor part of London.

So today, we are going to focus on the Cratchits, and we're going to explore an extract from Stave 3 of "A Christmas Carol" where Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Present are watching the Cratchits celebrating Christmas at home.

So I'd like to take some time to read the extract carefully, and you can find a copy of this extract in the additional materials section of the lesson.

And once you've read the extract, I'd like you to then take some time to discuss or make some notes or begin annotating the extract if you'd like to, thinking really carefully about how Dickens presents poverty and suffering in this part of the text.

So pause the video here, and take as much time as you need to read and fully understand what is going on in this extract, and to begin to pull out those examples of Dickens' use of language.

So pause the video here, and click play when you're ready to continue.

Okay, welcome back.

So I hope that you had enough time there to really feel like you've got to grips with this extract.

So let's go through some examples of how Dickens is using language here in greater detail.

So I'd like to start off with how the Cratchits' clothes suggest that they are living in poverty.

So just take another look at this first paragraph from the extract again, and see if you can identify any words or phrases linked to what the Cratchits are wearing, and then even better, think about the impression that Dickens is trying to give us here.

What is he trying to say about the Cratchits or their life, or about poverty in general? So pause the video while you take some time to have a read and a think, and when you are ready to discuss it together, click play.

Okay, welcome back.

I could hear lots of people suggesting different examples from this extract 'cause we've actually got quite a few descriptions here that relate to what the Cratchits are wearing.

So first of all, let's zoom in on this adjective here at the top.

We've got twice-turned gown.

We've got this idea that Mrs. Cratchit's dress or gown has been repeatedly mended and altered, giving us the impression that this might be the only nice item of clothing that she owns, the only thing she can wear for celebrations such as this.

She's not rich enough or wealthy enough to be able to have a wardrobe full of nice clothes.

We've also got some repetition.

We've got this brave in ribbons appearing twice there.

First of all, to talk about Mrs. Cratchit's gown, but then also later talking about Belinda Cratchit, one of the Cratchit daughters.

So we've got this adjective, brave, this idea that they're trying to dress up, they're bravely trying to dress up for this occasion, even though they can't afford it.

And we've got some confirmation there above where it says "Which are cheap, "and make a goodly show for sixpence." So we're getting this impression that the Cratchit women are trying to make do and do the best with what they have, look as good as they can for as little money as possible.

And then, finally, we have got a description here, Peter Cratchit, the son, and this idea that his monstrous shirt collar, Bob's private property.

So that word monstrous there really emphasises how oversized this shirt is.

He's wearing ill-fitting, secondhand clothing.

They can't afford for each of the Cratchits to have nice clothing of their own.

So A, we've got this idea of hand-me-downs, but also we've got this idea that perhaps they feel smart, but they might not necessarily look that smart because these clothes don't fit them properly.

So now, let's continue later on in the extract to the description of the two smaller Cratchits, so the youngest members of the family.

So how do the younger Cratchits feel about celebrating Christmas in this extract? So again, over to you.

Pause the video while you reread this section, have a think, and discuss any examples that you can find, and when you're ready for us to go through it together, click play, and we'll continue.

Again, some really interesting discussions.

And I like the way that people are really starting to drill down into Dickens' use of specific word classes, adjectives, verbs, or nouns, because actually this is something that he does quite often.

It seems very much to me that Dickens chooses his words very, very carefully, and there's often a lot that we can read into, his word choices.

So for example, if we look at the use of verbs in this paragraph, tearing, screaming, basking, danced, exalted, all of these verbs suggest that the younger Cratchits are excited by this Christmas food.

It's really helping to create this excitable and perhaps slightly chaotic atmosphere of them running around, perhaps around the table and running around outside, really unable to wait any longer to have this exciting Christmas food.

And then we've also got this adjective as well, luxurious.

Luxurious thoughts of sage and onion.

So here, sage and onion stuffing is something that is described as a luxury item to this family.

So perhaps these seasonings, these exciting flavours, are things that the Cratchits class as quite exciting, which implies that perhaps their usual diet is a lot simpler and a lot plainer.

So how do these descriptions of the younger Cratchits imply that the family are living in poverty? So pause the video again while you have a look at the words highlighted here in purple, and really think about the impression that Dickens is trying to create.

So pause the video here, and click play when you're ready to continue.

Welcome back.

Some really interesting suggestions there that I overheard.

So you might have said that it suggests that the Cratchits aren't used to this extravagant food.

They can't afford to eat these ingredients throughout the year, so this is a really, really special meal for them.

Also, another thing that we can notice from this paragraph is that the whole family are helping to cook the food.

They're all mucking in and doing different jobs in order to make sure that this feast is ready.

If we compare this to middle or upper class families at the time, not only would the whole family not have been cooking, but it's likely to think that no one in the family would've been cooking because they would've had domestic servants to prepare the Christmas dinner.

They would've had perhaps housekeepers, butlers, maids laying the table, and chefs or cooks working in the kitchens to prepare the meal.

So onto the next part of the extract then.

So here, we've got lots of dialogue between the different members of the family.

So over to you for another discussion question.

How does Dickens use dialogue here to emphasise the struggles of poor Victorians? So pause the video here, and click play when you're ready for us to feedback together.

Welcome back.

So in this scene, we have got Mrs. Cratchit asking the other members of the family where Bob and Tiny Tim and Martha are, the last three members that they are waiting to join them for dinner.

And at that moment, Martha arrives, and what we learn from what she has said is actually that she has had to work on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

And if we see down the bottom there, it says, "We'd a deal of work to finish up last night, "and had to clear away this morning." So even though it's the festive season, Martha still has to work, and this really leads onto this idea that many, many poor people in Victorian London, and in the Victorian era more generally, were working in very poor working conditions for low wages and extremely long hours, and it seems here that Martha is having to do this.

And then if we look up there at the top with what Mrs. Cratchit says, "And Martha warn't as late last Christmas-day "by half an hour." So okay, Martha is even later than she was last year, but this isn't the first time that she's been late to Christmas dinner because she's had to work.

So this isn't necessarily a one-off situation.

It has happened before.

So let's just isolate those two quotes we were just discussing there, and I'd like to hand over to you again.

What did these two statements suggest about Martha's boss? What sort of person do you think Martha's boss is? And secondly, why do you think Dickens included this dialogue? So thinking really carefully about what we know about Dickens, and about the message or the messages about social justice and social equality that we can see in this text.

So pause the video here while you have a think.

Take some time to discuss it, and when you're ready for us to feedback together, click play, and we'll continue.

Welcome back.

So what does this suggest about Martha's boss then? Well, like Scrooge, who reluctantly lets Bob have Christmas Day off in Stave 1 as long as he promises to make up the time he's lost the next day, it seems that Martha's boss also believes that work and the money that they're able to make from it is more important than the workers.

We're getting that word there, that utilitarian mindset that we were discussing at the beginning, that people, to some of these wealthy bosses, were just viewed as a means to make money, as a pair of hands, perhaps, to manufacture a product, and not a fully-rounded three-dimensional human being with loves and wants and desires, and a need to relax and unwind with their family.

Martha's denied this opportunity to relax and celebrate on Christmas Day, arriving late after having seemingly worked through the night, which suggests that her boss doesn't show any respect for their employees.

So onto that second question then.

Why do we think Dickens included this dialogue? Well, many of Dickens' upper or middle class readers may have been business owners themselves.

Remember that we didn't have state education at this point, and also that poor people didn't have a lot of disposable income to buy books and enjoy reading as a hobby.

So it's safe to assume that a lot of Dickens' readership were wealthy.

So perhaps he's encouraging his wealthy readers to show more respect for their workers, or to encourage other people they know, perhaps, who own businesses by providing a glimpse into how working class people celebrate Christmas because this is perhaps something that a lot of wealthy people might have been oblivious to, particularly, if like Martha's boss, they aren't able to humanise the poor.

So let's explore the end of the extract.

So this is after the Cratchits have had dinner, and they've all gathered around the hearth.

What is significant about this scene? So just take a moment to reread this last little bit, and think about what we learned about the Cratchits, what we learned about poverty, and what you think Dickens is trying to tell us in this scene.

So pause the video here, and click play when you're ready for us to discuss it together.

Welcome back.

I certainly heard some people touching on potentially subtle or deeper meanings in this extract.

So let's unpick perhaps what we think is really going on here, or why we think Dickens has included this particular moment.

So at the beginning of this extract, we learned that the Cratchits have nothing.

Their crockery is mismatching, and it's broken.

In order for them all to have a drink together, they're using two tumblers and a custard cup without a handle, so they're using this broken, mismatching dinner set.

However, they don't care about material possessions.

"These held the hot stuff from the jug, however, "as well as golden goblets would've done," because to the Cratchit family, what is important is that they have each other.

The real value for the Cratchits is not in material possessions, but it is in the time that they spend time together and the joy that they can find in the simple pleasures in life.

So now, let's pause and check our understanding.

So what is most valuable to the Cratchits? Take a look at these four options and make your mind up.

And when you're ready for me to reveal the correct answer, click play.

Welcome back, and well done to those of you who said D, family.

Here, Dickens draws on the common idea that money can't buy happiness because the Cratchits have a happy and joyful Christmas, despite their lack of extravagant clothing, food, or gifts.

So it's really drawing on this idea of perhaps the true meaning of Christmas being about those simple pleasures, and not about all the things that you can buy.

So second question, which of the following quotes suggest the Cratchits don't care about material possessions? So have a read of each of the quotes, make your mind up, and when you'd like me to reveal the correct answer, click play.

Welcome back and well done to those of you who said B, "Tumblers and a custard cup "without a handle held the hot stuff from the jug, however, "as well as golden goblets." You've got this idea that their broken crockery might as well be golden goblets because they are not bothered.

It does the job, and allows them to enjoy a drink together.

So now it's time for the first practise task of today's lesson, and I would like you to use a single paragraph outline to plan a paragraph responding to this question.

How does Dickens present poverty in the extract taken from Stave 3 of the novella? So we're still working with this extract about the Cratchit Christmas.

So in order to complete this single paragraph outline, we will need a topic sentence, some supporting detail, and a concluding sentence, and you've got some top tips for what you need to include in each sentence there in purple.

So pause the video, and take as much time as you need to give this a really good go, and when you're ready for us to feedback together, click play.

Okay, so let's have a look at an example of how you might have responded to this question.

So for your topic sentence, you could have said Dickens humanises people living in poverty.

The Cratchits may not have material wealth, but they value the joy of their time together as a family.

And then for our supporting detail, so we could have used this repetition of the quote "Brave in ribbons." It implies and emphasises that the Cratchits still value Christmas, and indulge in what little they can afford to make it special.

And then we've also got that similarly there from the end of the extract, "The tumblers and a custard cup without a handle "held the hot stuff from the jug, however, "as well as golden goblets," which implied that their possessions may be old and broken, but the Cratchits value their time together, and not the things that they own.

And then finally, for the concluding sentence, Dickens creates a vivid image of the Cratchits' struggle in poverty while proving that they are still able to be happy.

Perhaps he is trying to persuade his wealthy readers that there are more important things than money.

So now it's time for you to review your response, and we're going to go through each section briefly, and have a think about whether it includes enough detail.

So does your topic sentence link to poverty? We need to look for that all-important keyword, so that we know we're sticking closely to that question focus.

Does your supporting detail link to your topic sentence? So are the quotes you've chosen the best ones to prove the point you've made above? And finally, does your concluding sentence link to the message of the novella? So are we thinking about Dickens' intentions, Dickens' readership, and those messages of social justice and social inequality? So we've made it to the halfway point of today's lesson.

Now, we've explored Dickens' descriptions of poverty and suffering.

It is time for us to look at poverty and suffering in reality, so what it was like in Victorian London.

So here are some statements about Victorian London and about the Victorian era, and my question to you is this.

Which of the following statements are true? So take some time to read them carefully, discuss, debate with the people around you which you think are true and which you think are false.

Pause the video here and click play when you're ready to continue.

Okay, welcome back.

I could hear lots of fierce debates there with not all of us necessarily agreeing.

So let's go through the statements one by one, and see if they were true are false.

Over 30% of Victorian Londoners lived in abject poverty was, unfortunately, true.

The life expectancy of working class Victorians was as low as 29 years in some parts of London.

Again, unfortunately true.

One in five children died before their first birthday.

Also true.

Entire families often lived in single rooms or basements, true.

And poor people could apply to the government for council housing and/or financial assistance.

This statement was false.

State support, along with the NHS and state education, didn't exist until the 1900s.

And instead of support, people were actually punished for getting into debt.

They were sent to workhouses or debtors prisons.

So let's explore what life was like for poor Victorians.

So look at this drawing entitled The Poor Woman's Hovel from 1860.

What can you infer about life as a poor Victorian? And can you spot any links between this image and "A Christmas Carol?" Pause the video here while you take some time to have a think, discuss it with the people around you, and when you are ready for us to feedback together, click play.

Okay, welcome back.

So things that you might have said then.

This is dirty and unsanitary accommodation.

It's broken.

It's dilapidated.

There, we can see cracks on the walls.

We can see spiders in the background.

People are suffering due to ill health, and stood behind the woman there, it looks as though somebody is laying out on a bed or a chair.

Perhaps we could assume that this ill health is caused by pollution, or by the poor living conditions.

And links to "A Christmas Carol" then, we could arguably link this to the Cratchit home, and Tiny Tim's health struggles.

So Victorian conditions then, we've got another image, this time of a photograph of a Victorian factory.

So over to you again then.

What can you infer about Victorian working conditions from this image? And again, can you spot any links to "A Christmas Carol?" Pause the video here, and click play when you're ready to continue.

Okay, welcome back.

So what were we able to spot in this image then? You might have said that child labour was common.

We've got a child down there at the front.

Difficult and unsafe working conditions.

We've got a lot of exposed machinery there.

Doesn't seem like anyone's wearing any protective equipment.

Long hours and low pay, working class jobs involved manual labour, factories, mines, and workshops, which we can see here.

And then links to possible moments or characters in "A Christmas Carol," we've got the links to the Cratchit children having jobs, and also to Bob having to work over Christmas.

We've got this idea of those strict and perhaps unfair working conditions.

So abject poverty, challenges and social stigma, and that word there, stigma means unfair judgement.

So the poor working conditions and no NHS meant that many people in poverty experienced ill health, disabilities, or died young, just as Tiny Tim does in the novella.

It was common for women to die in childbirth and for babies to die young.

Remember that fact from the beginning of this section that one in five babies didn't make it to their first birthday.

And there was also no state education, so working class children didn't go to school, and instead many were forced into manual jobs to survive.

One of the most common jobs that children did when they were young at work was chimney sweeps because they were small enough to be able to fit up the chimneys and clean them.

And this obviously had a real negative impact on the health of a lot of young children because they were breathing in all this soot and ash and dust.

So what impact do you think these challenges had on people's ambitions and opportunities for the future? So pause the video here while you have a think and discuss it, and when you're ready for us to go through it together, click play.

Welcome back.

Some really interesting suggestions there.

So you might have said that ambitions and career plans, perhaps things that we are encouraged to have nowadays and things that we might even take for granted, were for middle and upper class people in the Victorian era.

Poor people did whatever they could to make money and survive.

It wasn't a case of what job they wanted to do.

It was a case of what job they could get.

If people couldn't find work, they could be forced into a life of crime or prostitution in order to avoid a prison sentence or life in a workhouse.

And as a result, people in poverty faced stigma from the middle and upper classes.

So over to you again then.

Why do you think there was such stigma attached to poverty in Victorian society, and how might this have impacted efforts to help the poor? So pause the video here and click play when you're ready to continue.

Okay, welcome back.

So here are some examples of things you might have covered in your discussions.

So people in poverty faced stigma from the middle and the upper classes.

They were often viewed as morally inferior, lazy, or stupid, and this resulted in a lack of sympathy from the wealthy, and as such, a lack of support.

We had this idea that if wealthy people were viewing poverty as somebody's own fault, they would be less likely to want to help them.

Because it was a common belief that if people worked hard enough, they could escape poverty, this survival of the fittest mentality, which obviously is not one that includes compassion or a sense of community.

So can you think of any links to these ideas, this stigma, these views in the novella? So pause the video here while you have a think, and click play when you're ready to discuss it together.

Okay, welcome back.

So you might have said that Scrooge refuses to donate to the charity workers, stating "If they would rather die, they had better do it, "and decrease the surplus population," and we've got this decrease the surplus population there at the end.

We could argue that this reflects a harsh, utilitarian view that sees the poor, sick, and vulnerable as a burden on society.

They're surplus, they're extra, they're not needed.

And Scrooge suggests that those who can't support themselves should die, thus reducing the number of people dependent on others.

Dickens arguably criticises Victorian attitudes towards poverty, where the poor were viewed as expendable, and their suffering was disregarded, and this is really important when we think about the message of the text.

So let's check our understanding.

If people got into debt, they would be what? Pause the video while you make your mind up, and click play when you're ready for me to reveal the correct answer.

Welcome back, and well done to those of you who said B and D.

They would be sent to prison or sent to a workhouse.

Dickens' own father was actually sent to debtors prison, and 12-year-old Charles was forced to work in a boot-blacking factory to survive.

So this is actually something that he had firsthand experience of himself.

So now, it's time for the final practise task of today's lesson.

So after witnessing the Cratchits celebrating Christmas, Scrooge turns to the Ghost of Christmas Present.

Here we have an extract from the conversation that they have, ending with a repetition of Scrooge's earlier line from Stave 1, decrease the surplus population.

So I'd like to hand over to you for a discussion.

What does this imply about Scrooge's character and his transformation? And how does Dickens use this scene to encourage his readers to show compassion for the poor and vulnerable? So pause the video here, take some time to discuss it, and click play when you're ready for us to go through it together.

Okay, so here is how some of our Oak pupils responded to this scene in their discussions.

So that first question then, what does this imply about Scrooge's character or his transformation? So Sam said, "This scene shows that Scrooge is starting to change.

"When the Ghost repeats Scrooge's cruel words from Stave 1, "'decrease the surplus population,' "he realises how heartless he was before." So Sam was really clever there to pick up on that echo from Stave 1.

And Alex said, 'Scrooge is worried about Tiny Tim "and starts to sympathise with him.

"He's becoming more caring "and beginning to understand "that everyone's life is important, "no matter how poor they are." So he is stepping away from that utilitarian view to viewing the Cratchits as human beings.

And then onto that second question then, how does Dickens use this scene to encourage his readers to show compassion for the poor and vulnerable? So Izzy says, "Dickens uses this scene "to make readers feel sorry for the poor "by showing how sad it would be "if Tiny Tim, an innocent child, died.

"He humanises those living in poverty "to encourage sympathy for them." And Jacob said, "By reminding readers of Scrooge's cruel words, "Dickens makes them think about how unfair it is "to ignore the poor.

"He wants readers to understand how important it is "to care for people like Tiny Tim." So I have one final task for you.

Take a moment to review our Oak pupils' responses, and if you can, share your responses with those around you, and then note down at least one new idea you hadn't thought of either from our Oak pupils or from an idea you've heard from somebody around you.

Pause the video here while you do this final task, and when you're ready to continue, click play.

Okay, so we've made it to the end of today's lesson.

So in this session, we explored: how Dickens' detailed descriptions of the Cratchits and their belongings emphasise how they're living in abject poverty, how he conveys the message that money doesn't buy happiness by showing how they value family time over material possessions, how Dickens encourages his wealthy readers to show compassion by using the Cratchits to humanise poor people, how poor Victorians lived in cramped conditions and endured awful working conditions to avoid debtors prisons or workhouses, and finally, how there was a lot of social stigma around poverty.

Many believed poor Victorians were lazy, stupid, or morally inferior.

So thank you for joining me in today's lesson.

I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Have a fantastic day, everyone.