How does Dickens examine the social problems of his age in A Christmas Carol?’ Essay

Through the character of Ebenezer Scrooge; Dickens observes the social problems of the world within the novel A Christmas Carol. Dickens examines the social problems this world faces which some of us may have thought about from time to time, however none daring enough to comment on like Dickens have done. The social problems that Dickens lays out within his novel, A Christmas Carol though the character of Ebenezer Scrooge include: Christmas is just a time of a year where you are left poorer, without money you cannot be happy in life, and finally Observes that you should look after yourself and only yourself in life. Christmas is just a time of year where you are left poorer. This examination is shown within the novel A Christmas Carol, through the character of Ebenezer Scrooge. Ebenezer Scrooge stated â€Å"What’s Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older, but not an hour richer; a time for balancing your books and having every item in ’em through a round dozen of months presented dead against you?† This is one way of thinking about Christmas, however Dickens also observed Christmas in a whole lighter sense through the character of Ebenezer Scrooge’s nephew Fred. Fred shared a whole different way of observing Christmas when he stated â€Å"I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round — apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that — as a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.† These are two very different and conflicting observations noticed and presented within A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Without money you cannot be happy. This analogy is presented once again through the character of Ebenezer Scrooge in his conflicting confrontation with his nephew Fred. After Ebenezer Scrooge’s nephew; Fred pushed his luck a bit too far with his â€Å"merry Christmas†¦ God bless† speech, Ebenezer Scrooge brought out all his thoughts to the table stating mainly that you cannot surely be happy if you have no money. Ebenezer Scrooge has stated this when he mentioned `Merry Christmas! What right have you to be merry? what reason have you to be merry? You’re poor enough.† Or how about this following statement when Ebenezer Scrooge notes the following; â€Å"Much good may it do you! Much good it has ever done you!† (In other words stating that good only derives from profit and not happiness.) and finally the last quote â€Å"My clerk, with fifteen shillings a week, and a wife and family, talking about a merry Christmas. I’ll retire to Bedlam.à ¢â‚¬  This is one of Dickens examinations of the social problems within our world, presented through the character of Ebenezer Scrooge. You should look after yourself and only yourself in life, is the Last and final observation from Mr. Dickens on the topic concerning the social problems of his age in a Christmas Carol. Mr. Dickens makes this very clear through the Character of Ebenezer Scrooge in the novel A Christmas Carol through the confronting and some may be unpleasant comments. Scrooge states the following; â€Å"I don’t make merry myself at Christmas and I can’t afford to make idle people merry.† Or â€Å"If they would rather die†¦.they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.† And the final quote; â€Å"It’s not my business,† Scrooge returned. â€Å"It’s enough for a man to understand his own business, and not to interfere with other people. Mine occupies me constantly. Good afternoon, gentlemen!† Dickens has brought a vast variety of observations towards the topic, the social problems of his age in the novel A Christmas Carol. The majority of observations were presented through the character of Ebenezer Scrooge, however one examination was presented by Ebenezer Scrooge’s nephew called Fred. This novel was made to open the minds of the norm to see other ways the rare person may see and observe life, situations, and Christmas.