Hello everyone.

My name's Ms. Keller, and I'm so glad that you could join me for today's lesson.

In this series of lessons, we are going to be doing a deep dive into Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," and in particular thinking about how he uses this text to critique Victorian values.

In this session, we are going to be focusing on Dickens' depictions of Victorian London.

So grab your copy of the text and let's get started.

So by the end of today's lesson, we will be able to analyse how Dickens uses his descriptions of settings to depict Victorian London.

So let's explore today's key words.

We have unsanitary, industrial revolution, ominous, philanthropist, and foreshadows.

So we are going to be talking a lot about the industrial revolution today.

So I'll park that definition for the time being because we're going to come back to it.

But I'd just like to draw your attention to two words here, unsanitary, first of all.

We've got this idea of a place that's lacking at cleanliness or hygiene leading to potential health risks.

So we're gonna be using that word a lot when we're discussing what life was like for poorer people in Victorian London.

And then also that word ominous, which means it suggests that something bad or threatening is about to happen.

It's like when we get that bad feeling in our tummy, we get an ominous feeling.

So do pause the video here before we can continue and really familiarise yourself with each of these definitions because we are going to be encountering these words quite a lot in today's lesson.

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

So how is today's lesson going to look? Well, we are going to start by exploring what life was like in Victorian London, and then when we've done that, we're going to apply this knowledge to Dickens' depictions of Victorian London in "A Christmas Carol." So I'd like to start off by having a look at this drawing of Victorian London.

I'd like to start off with a discussion.

So with the people around you, take some time to really look at this image and discuss the following questions.

How would you describe this place? And would you like to live there? And why or why not? So don't worry if you're working on your own.

Just take a moment to independently look at this image and make some notes on your laptop or your paper or in your exercise book.

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

Okay, welcome back.

Some really, really interesting discussions taking place there.

So let's just summarise some of the descriptions that I overheard.

So first of all, a lot of people picking up on this idea that this place looks very dirty, and I overheard some people also using that key word from today's lesson unsanitary.

So remember that's lacking in hygiene.

We also have this idea that it is very crowded and very busy.

There are lots of people clustered about in the image.

If we look up there, the sky, a lot of people saying it was quite gloomy, foggy and grey really gives the impression of it being perhaps not a very nice place to live.

There are lots of people it seems living in poverty.

These people don't look like they necessarily lead lives of luxury.

And finally, if we really zoom in on the facial expressions of some of the people in the pictures, they don't look very happy.

They don't look necessarily as though they are enjoying their life here.

So overall, many of us come into that conclusion that this doesn't seem like a very nice place to live.

People seem like they're suffering in poor and sanitary and overcrowded conditions.

So let's think about why that might be.

Why was life like this in Victorian London? So what big changes characterised the 1800s? Well, the biggest one arguably is the industrial revolution, and we're going to explore exactly what this was on the next page.

But essentially the industrial revolution brought new technology, factories and jobs to London in the 1800s.

So it completely changed the landscape of this city.

For this reason, the population grew rapidly across the century, so it grew from 1 million to 6 million.

So this is a really big increase and it could have led to that overcrowding that we saw there in the image.

The factory jobs brought about by the industrial revolution attracted people from far and wide.

So from rural areas to the countryside and also from abroad, which led to the construction of vast new housing areas.

This is known as urbanisation.

So because of all these people that were flocking to London, houses were required for them to live in.

And finally the city itself expanded.

So with the introduction of all these new houses, all these new businesses and all these people, the city itself geographically expanded.

It got bigger.

And for that reason we needed transport links because people needed to get across from one side of London to the other.

So during the 1800s, we sought the introduction of the London Underground, so the trains and also horse drawn buses.

So we saw the start of what we might associate as public transport in London today.

So at this point I'd like to hand over to you again for another discussion.

So now we've got this extra information on top of that image that we looked at at the beginning, how would you describe life in Victorian London now? So pause the video while you have a think.

Discuss it with the people around you or make some notes.

And when you are ready for us to feedback together, click play and we'll continue.

Okay welcome back, had lots of really interesting ideas again.

So here is what you might have covered in your discussions.

So London was noisy, busy, and overcrowded.

So we definitely got that idea from the image.

And I think what we've learned here is only helping to confirm that.

And also when we are thinking about the people that lived in London, we could argue that the population was diverse, made up of different cultural backgrounds and social classes because we've got this range of jobs from factory jobs all the way through to those people at the top who owned those factories.

But also this idea that the factory jobs were bringing in people from all over, from different countries and from different parts of the UK.

So now it's time to think about the industrial revolution.

So what was it and how and why did it lead to such big changes in Victorian society? The industrial revolution all began with the invention of the steam engine.

So what impact do you think this could have had on Victorian society? How did this invention and this engine change the way that the world looked? So pause the video here again for a quick fire discussion with the people around you or take a moment to think and make some notes and when you're ready for us to discuss it together, click play and we'll continue.

Okay, welcome back.

Lots of really interesting ideas again there with people thinking really carefully about how these technological advances affect the people that end up using them.

So the steam engine transformed London's economy.

So it shifted from a focus on farming to becoming a centre of manufacturing, trade and commerce.

So factories and workshops were common sites in the city.

So it industrialised this city, it turned it into a hub of manufacturing.

So how do you think this information affected Londoners? How did this shift from farming to manufacturing affect their day-to-day lives? So pause the video again while you have a think and a quickfire discussion and when you're ready to continue, click play.

Okay, welcome back.

So let's discuss it in detail.

So here are some things that you might have said because arguably the introduction of factories impacted Londoners in two important ways.

So firstly, pollution and disease.

Factories emitted smoke and waste into the air and the River Thames causing environmental problems like the great stink, which I think is probably fairly self-explanatory.

But yes, there was a terrible odour that spread across London and also what was known as pea souper yellow fog.

And we've got that picture there on the right hand side illustrating what this fog was like.

People couldn't see in front of their own noses when they were walking down the street.

And actually the pea souper fog is something that features quite a lot in Victorian literature and especially in Charles Dickens' novels.

So it was quite an important part of life in Victorian London.

And as a result of these environmental problems, we also saw lots of health problems such as outbreaks of cholera, which is a disease which can affect water and pneumonia, perhaps caused by the emissions and the smoke that was emitted into the air.

And then the second way that factories impacted Londoners was it increased the class divide.

So the class divide is the gap that exists between the poorest and the richest people in society.

So factories provided jobs for many working class people.

And we've got here a picture of a fuse factory in London during the Victorian time.

So we can see a little bit of what life was like to work in a factory.

So if we think about the two types of people that are involved in factory work, we've got those at the top, the factory owners, the business owners, and then those at the bottom like we see here in our image that are working to make and manufacture the products.

So this craft divide only increased.

Factory owners quickly became very wealthy because the machines were enabling them to make perhaps twice as many, three times as many, maybe more products than they were able to do before with just human employees.

And then as a result of that, employees were working very long hours for low wages and with little regulation, particularly for women and children.

So actually factories were very dangerous places to work because during the Victorian times, they didn't have the health and safety legislation that we do now.

And they also didn't have any other laws around working conditions, minimum wage and working hours.

So actually when we think about life for the factory owners and the employees, it couldn't have looked any more different.

So I'd like you to think here about how it was different.

So thinking in detail perhaps about what daily life was like for both types of people.

So pause the video here while you discuss it or make some notes and click play when you're ready to continue.

Okay, welcome back.

So as we touched on before then, the poverty gap or the class divide in Victorian London was enormous.

So life for the rich was a life of luxury.

Wealthy areas were home to grand townhouses, these really big houses that were often staffed by large teams of housekeepers, maids, butlers and cooks.

And also the rich benefited from this industrial wealth because they were making more money because more products were able to be produced and therefore emerging middle and upper classes, meaning that perhaps people that were just slightly more well off before suddenly rocketed into becoming very wealthy and living this life of luxury.

Whereas for poor people, they lived in overcrowded and unsanitary slums. So we are thinking back to how life looked in that image.

Whole families often lived in single rooms or cellars and debts resulted in prison sentences or life in a workhouse.

So life for the poor in Victorian London really wasn't very nice at all.

So what support was available for poorer people at this time? Because obviously in today's society we have lots of different support available from the state, from different organisations.

So what was available back then? So pause the video here while you have a think.

Share your ideas with the people around you or make some notes and click play when you're ready to continue.

Welcome back.

So heard some of you touching on the unfortunate fact that there wasn't really any support available for poorer people during Victorian times.

So things that we all value today, like the NHS, state education and council housing, which really do help to support the poorest in society, were actually not introduced until the 1900s.

So it's hard for us to imagine life without these lifelines that we have today, but they didn't exist.

And in fact, the only support available to poorer people was through churches, charities, and philanthropists who provided limited support.

So philanthropists, there is one of today's keywords, and if you remember, it means a wealthy person who donates time or money in order to support those in need.

However, many wealthy people were not philanthropists.

This was a very small proportion of the wealthy.

And now it's time to pause and check our understanding so far.

So can you complete this sentence? The industrial revolution caused what? So pause the video while you take some time to think.

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

Okay, welcome back.

And well done to those of you who said A and C.

It caused pollution and it caused overcrowding.

And in fact, the other two almost could be the opposite responses in order to be correct, it caused an increase in the population and it caused wealth inequality, that widening of the class divide.

Okay, second question then, true or false this time.

Poorer people could access limited financial support from the government.

Pause the video again while you have a think and click play when you're ready for me to reveal the correct answer.

Okay, welcome back.

And well done to those of you who said false.

There was no government support available and people were forced to rely on the church, charities and philanthropists.

And actually Charles Dickens was a philanthropist himself and he campaigned for social reform throughout his life and he actually helped to set up a home for vulnerable women.

So that's really important to bear in mind when we are analysing how Dickens might be critiquing Victorian values in this novel because we know that he disagreed with the way that the poor were treated during Victorian times.

So now it's time for our first practise task of today's lesson.

So on the left hand side of that table there I have summarised some of the important contextual information that we've been discussing.

And what I would like you to do is think really carefully about "Christmas Carol" and see if you can identify any examples from "A Christmas Carol" that could link to this important contextual information.

So grab your copy of the text if you haven't already, and think really carefully about key scenes perhaps that have stood out to you while you were reading.

<v ->So pause the video here and click play</v> when you're ready for us to feedback together.

Okay, welcome back.

I hope you had a chance there to really think carefully about the novella and all those different scenes that we could link to this contextual information.

I certainly overheard some of you discussing some really interesting responses.

So let's just summarise what you might have said to fill in this right hand side of the table.

So first of all then, factory pollution caused environmental or health problems. So links to the novella then, I could think of two really important links to "A Christmas Carol." First of all, the foggy weather.

Dickens actually does describe the foggy weather in the text.

And I would argue this helps to actually build a sense of a gothic ghost story.

So he quite cleverly uses the fog that we associated with Victorian London anyway and that a lot of his readers would've associated with their daily life in order to almost bridge that gap between reality and then this fantasy sense of the ghost story.

And then also we've got the character of Tiny Tim who is suffering with a debilitating illness in the text.

And possibly this could be due to pollution or the poor living conditions that he suffers living in poverty.

So onto the second one then, working conditions were poor, especially for women and children.

So what we learn when Scrooge visits the Cratchit's Christmas is that the Cratchit children have jobs all except for the youngest two Cratchits.

And they work long hours during the festive season because Martha actually arrives home during that scene and she says that there was lots of work to do, so she had to stay on.

So not only do all these children work, but they're also working long hours in poor working conditions.

And then finally the class divide was huge and limited support was available for the poor and the vulnerable.

So I was instantly attracted to the scene in Stave One where Scrooge is visited by the charity workers and when he is asked if he wants to donate, he says, "are there no prisons? And the union workhouses?" He straightaway assumes that prisons and workhouses are the support that poor people have available to them.

Scrooge represents the uncaring, unsympathetic rich.

He doesn't see that his responsibility to help, to support poor people.

So now we've made it the halfway point of today's lesson.

We've explored what life was like in Victorian London in reality.

So now let's step into fiction and explore how Dickens depicts Victorian London in "A Christmas Carol." So as we've seen in that last task there, Dickens often highlights the negative effects of the industrial revolution in this text.

Why do you think it is that he does this? Perhaps what do we know about him? What might we think is his reason for this negative depiction? Pause the video here and click play when you're ready for us to discuss it together.

Okay, welcome back.

I could hear lots of you picking up on some contextual information that we were discussing earlier.

So well done if you spotted those important links.

So first of all, Dickens was a philanthropist who wanted to raise awareness of the poverty gap caused by the industrial revolution.

So he was known for campaigning for social reform, and perhaps we could argue that he also used his literary work to push these messages as well.

And secondly, many of Dickens' readers were middle or upper class 'cause we have to think there was no state education and people living in poverty wouldn't have had a lot of spare money, disposable income to purchase books.

So it's fair to assume that a large proportion of Dickens' readership were middle or upper class.

They had the time and the money and the resources and the education to enjoy reading as a hobby.

So actually we could interpret this novel as a warning to them to help those in need.

And we could actually start to see some of the richer characters in the novel as perhaps symbolising different types of readers, symbolising a warning to those wealthier readers as well as highlighting social issues in the plot.

Dickens' detailed descriptions of setting also paint a vivid image of Victorian London.

So we have those more obvious references that we discussed in that previous task, and now it's time for us to look at perhaps the more subtle ways that Dickens also links to this contextual knowledge and these social issues.

So in this part of the lesson, we are going to explore two extracts from the novella analysing how Dickens uses language to present London.

So we're gonna start with this extract from Stave One.

So take some time to read this extract independently and think to yourself and perhaps discuss with the people around you or make some notes.

How does Dickens describe London here? How is he depicting it? What impressions of London is he giving? And particularly thinking about those all important contextual links we discussed in the first part of the lesson.

So pause the video here while you take some time to read and think and discuss.

And when you're ready for us to go through it together, click play and we'll continue.

Okay, welcome back.

I hope you had sufficient time there to get to grips with this extract and start thinking about Dickens' use of language.

So let's begin by reading through together.

"It was cold, bleak, biting, weather, foggy withal, and he could hear the people in the court outside, go wheezing up and down, beating their hands upon their breasts and stamping their feet upon the pavement stones to warm them.

The city clocks had only just gone three, but it was quite dark already.

It had not been light all day, and candles were flaring up in the windows of the neighbouring offices, like ruddy smears upon the palpable brown air.

The fog came pouring in at every chink and keyhole, and was so dense without, that although the court was of the narrowest, the houses opposite were mere phantoms. To see the dingy cloud come drooping down, obscuring everything, one might have thought that nature lived hard by." Okay, so let's have a look at perhaps some of these subtle links to what Victorian London was like.

So first of all, well done if you were picking up on these many references to the fog.

So foggy, it had not been light, this brown air and this idea that the houses opposite were mere phantoms. So A, we've got that word phantom there, linking to or foreshadowing perhaps the fact that these ghosts are going to arrive.

Overall Dickens is describing the fog as ominous and pervasive.

It's sneaking into every nook and cranny and making a London seem like a gloomy place.

So what perhaps could he be suggesting with all these descriptions? So pause the video while you really think about what impressions each of these descriptions creates.

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

Okay, welcome back.

Some really, really interesting analysis that I overheard them.

So well done if your discussions were also picking up on this idea that the pollution caused by the industrial revolution is here turning London into this ominous, gloomy place from a ghost story.

And particularly that description we were discussing a moment ago, the houses opposite were mere phantoms. So here Dickens is using a metaphor, phantoms, because the houses aren't actually ghosts to suggest that the houses just across the way in this very narrow court that Scrooge is looking at are so almost foggy and translucent that they are like phantoms, they can't be seen properly.

They're shadowy figures perhaps.

But also that word phantoms is really helping to build up that ghost story atmosphere.

Again, as we were discussing earlier, the fog which is actually caused by poverty and the wealth divide, so it's caused by the industrial revolution that is causing these unsanitary conditions, causing all of this environmental damage foreshadows the ghosts' visits that are going to teach Scrooge to be more compassionate.

So it is phantoms that are going to arrive and teach Scrooge to be more compassionate.

So we might have that social message, that really subtle message about social inequality running underneath these descriptions.

So over to you again, now we've talked about this ominous atmosphere.

Are there any other links to the effects of the industrial revolution in this extract? So pause the video again while you have another go over the extract and see if you can pull out any other effects.

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

Okay, welcome back.

So overheard some people there who had spotted this idea that the people are wheezing in the cold, biting weather.

So the weather, the coldness is really starting to affect people's ability to breathe.

So perhaps this fog and the pollution has caused those respiratory diseases that we were talking about earlier.

Okay, so let's pause again and check our understanding at this point.

So true or false.

Dickens' depictions of the fog helped warn readers to show compassion for the poor and vulnerable.

Pause the video here where he takes some time to think.

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

Okay, welcome back and well done to those of you who said true.

They create this ominous atmosphere and set the scene for the ghost story to come, drawing important links between the effects of the industrial revolution that made so many of Dickens' readers rich and these visits from the ghosts.

So now it's time for this second practise task of today's lesson.

And I'd like you to have a go at independently annotating and analysing another extract from Stave Four.

So in this extract it's describing a different part of London.

So I'd like you to annotate the extract, exploring how Dickens presents London here.

So think really carefully about the things that we were pulling out of that extract from Stave One.

You can find a copy of this extract in the additional material section of the lesson.

So pause the video here and take as much time as you need to read this extract carefully and think about how Dickens is presenting London.

Remember with annotations, we are looking for underlined or circled or highlighted words, but also those all important labels, thinking about the impressions that Dickens creates with the language and identifying any methods that you could spot him using in the extract.

So pause the video and click play when you're ready for us to feedback together.

Okay, welcome back.

So let's explore this extract together then and pull out some of the annotations you could have made.

So here is our extract.

So first of all, we could have been zooming in on these descriptions of the people.

Dickens makes it clear that the people here are suffering in terrible poverty.

They are half naked, drunken, slipshod, ugly.

We're getting this depiction perhaps of them not necessarily able to keep up their appearance, they don't have the money to dress well, to look clean, to look neat.

And then we've also got this description at the bottom of how the whole quarter, so this whole area of London wreaked with crime, with filth and with misery.

So we are really getting this depiction of it being not a very nice place.

The living conditions are overcrowded and unsanitary, which we know we can associate with people living in poverty and slums in Victorian London.

So the waves were foul and narrow, the shops and houses wretched.

So we are getting these awful descriptions here.

Horrible buildings, or really narrow dirty alleyways and archways like so many cesspools, disgorged their offences of smell and dirt and life upon the straggling streets.

So Dickens is really building up this impression of filth and bad smells.

There's an enormous divide between the rich and the poor, which we can see up here in this line at the top.

"Scrooge never penetrated before, although he recognised its situation and its bad repute." So Scrooge has been brought here by the ghost of Christmas yet to come and we instantly see that Scrooge has never been to this part of town before.

He's never had the need to go there, which suggests that the wealthy in Victorian London didn't ever really stray into these poorer areas.

Although he recognised his situation and its bad repute.

So the wealthy perhaps were lucky and privileged enough that they could avoid having to enter these areas with bad reputations.

So one final discussion question for you then.

Why do you think Dickens depicts London in this way? So really drawing together everything we've covered in this lesson.

So pause the video here while you have a think.

Make some notes or discuss it with the people around you.

And when you're ready we will feedback together.

Okay, welcome back.

So here is how some of our Oak pupils responded to that discussion question.

So Alex said, "I think Dickens depicted in this way to highlight the awful conditions experienced by poorer people living in Victorian London.

A lack of state education meant that most of Dickens' readers were upper or middle class.

So perhaps he was trying to persuade them to change like Scrooge." And Aisha said, "I think Dickens aim to scare his middle or upper class readers into feeling a sense of duty towards poor and vulnerable people.

Here he cleverly uses the effect of the industrial revolution to foreshadow the ominous ghost story that is to come to those who turn a blind eye to the suffering." So you've got some similar themes there, perhaps about how Dickens is really trying to have an effect on those wealthy readers.

So who do you think has the most compelling answer here? So take a moment to review these answers, discuss it with the people around you or make some notes and click play when you're ready to continue.

Okay, so we've made it to the end of today's lesson and a massive well done for all your hard work.

We've covered quite a lot of contextual information today, but it's so important to shaping our understanding of this novella.

So let's summarise what we've covered in today's session.

Victorian London was noisy, overcrowded, and diverse with people from various cultural backgrounds and social classes.

The industrial revolution transformed the city, worsening pollution and widening the class divide.

The poor lived in cramped, unsanitary conditions with little support available to improve their lives.

Dickens campaigned for social reform and the novella encourages middle class readers to show compassion for the poor and descriptions of the setting foreshadow how this ghost story exposes the harsh realities of poverty in Victorian London.

So thanks for joining me in today's lesson and I look forward to seeing you all again soon.

Have a fantastic day everyone.