A Christmas Carol - The Kansas City Repertory Theatre

DICKENS AS A SOCIAL REFORMER
Charles Dickens (1812‐1870) was one of Victorian England's most popular novelists and outspoken social
critics. His articles, novels and lectures were infused with social commentary, which shocked readers
with images of grinding poverty and the effect it had on families, especially children. He was also a
severe critic of the Victorian legal and penal systems and the human cost of imprisonment for debt, a
subject he knew well. When Dickens was 12, his family's financial hardships made it necessary for him to
leave school and work in a factory, living on his own in a small, rat‐infested room. His father, unable to
pay the family's bills, was arrested and sentenced to a debtor's prison, where he was joined by his wife
and younger children, a common practice of the time.
During Dickens' lifetime, London's population increased 450 percent, from one million people at the
turn of the 18th century to four and a half million in 1881. At this time, Britain was the major economic
and political power of the world. The Industrial Revolution with its newly built factories and improved
transportation attracted droves of people to urban areas with the promise of jobs, albeit jobs with
miserable working conditions, gruelingly
long hours and little pay. With few social
programs and organizations available to
assist the growing number of poor, slums
proliferated and many women and
children were also forced to work in the
factories, for even lower wages.
Dickens' childhood experiences informed
his writing and enlightened his readers
about the forgotten poor and
disadvantaged at the heart of the British
Empire. Although he championed a wide
range of social issues, his works are most
remembered for their ability to change
public opinion about class inequalities and
the exploitation and repression of the
underprivileged. He strongly and publicly
condemned the public officials and
institutions that not only allowed such
abuses to exist, but flourished as a result.
Couched as a holiday story, Dickens' novel
A Christmas Carol, published in 1843, was a
forceful reaction to the British
It has been 165 years since
A Christmas Carol was first
published; yet the story continues
to be among the best known works
of literature in the world. Dickens
called it "a most prodigious
success — the greatest, I think, I
have ever achieved."
government's Poor Laws, which required welfare recipients to work on treadmills, as his now‐famous
character Ebenezer Scrooge points out early in the story.
A Christmas Carol: Learning Guide Page 13