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“These are but the spirit of things that have been.” The metaphorical words of the Ghost of Christmas Past are typical of Dickens’ melodramatic writing style. Set in Victorian England, a time rife with greed and social stratification, Charles Dickens’ novella ‘A Christmas Carol’ unveils his view on the values of the time period not … Read more
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was a committed abolitionist who viewed slavery as an abomination and the Civil War as a just cause for the Union, as long as it resulted in an end to slavery and subsequent reconciliation between the North and South. “Christmas Bells” references the Civil War directly as a result of a personal … Read more
The importance of A Doll’s House being set during the Christmas season is because the Christmas season is easily relatable and this can help the reader to make inferences about what is going on through familiarization. In A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, Ibsen uses the Christmas season, the Christmas tree and the new year … Read more
‘A Christmas Carol’ by Christina Rossetti is a devotional poem that has been set to music many times, most famously by Gustav Holst in 1906, and remains a choral favourite today. It is centred around the birth of Jesus Christ, as told from the perspective of a speaker who although is excluded from this biblical … Read more
Much of Charles Dickens’ representation of morality in his most famous of Christmas stories, A Christmas Carol, is derived from “the wisdom of our ancestors.” (1) From the beginning of his narrative Dickens explains his usage of the phrase “dead as a doornail,” in relation to Marley, as trusting in the “wisdom of our ancestors,” … Read more
Are you a parent? If so, there is a good chance that you already know just how much kids love the holidays. That is why you may want to think about letting your children help you decorate for Christmas. In fact, in addition to just letting them help you hang Christmas decorations, you may also … Read more
John Betjeman and Philip Larkin were contemporaries, though Larkin was an atheist and John Betjeman an Anglican. Compare and contrast Church Going, by Larkin and Christmas by Betjeman. Although both contemporary poets Philip Larkin and John Betjeman differ in their religious beliefs, this is reflected in the two poems, Church Going and Christmas. In their … Read more
‘Jacob Marley was as dead as a doornail.’ The celebrated author Charles Dickens accentuates this inert nature of a door nail to the society to 1843 England through his classic novella ‘A Christmas Carol.’ The novella’s titular character, Ebenezer Scrooge, is a product of human hypocrisy. Scrooge accedes to ‘Ignorance’ and ‘Want’ in order to … Read more
“These are but the spirit of things that have been.” The metaphorical words of the Ghost of Christmas Past are typical of Dickens’ melodramatic writing style. Set in Victorian England, a time rife with greed and social stratification, Charles Dickens’ novella ‘A Christmas Carol’ unveils his view on the values of the time period not … Read more
Have you ever tried stepping up, making a change in your own life? Everyone is scared of taking chances and making differences in their lives. Scrooge, the main character of Charles Dickenss novel, The Christmas Carol, is no different. Scrooge is an old man who does not celebrate the Christmas season like everybody else. He … Read more
Introduction The film Black Mirror begins with two men Matt and Joe who are living at a remote station in the middle of the snow filled wilderness. To pass some time, they tell each other about their lives. Matt is preparing Christmas dinner and talk to Joe about what brought him to the remote station … Read more
“I wear the chain I forged in life… I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will, I wear it.” Jacob Marley’s words allude to the harrowing impact that emotions such as remorse have on the human psyche, as … Read more
As the Christmas holiday season starts to approach, a large number of individuals and families start decorating for Christmas. While just about anything in the home can be decorated, a large amount of focus is placed on the Christmas tree. Since there is a good chance that you may want to purchase a Christmas tree … Read more
Literary Appreciation of the Reader’s Response to the Use of Tone in Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol” Charles Dickens’ successful control of the narrator’s and characters’ tones in A Christmas Carol evokes a variety of responses from readers. The literary devices used in A Christmas Carol work together to create a certain emotional atmosphere through … Read more
Amy’s Fish Cheek A young teenage girl goes through a rough Christmas Eve dinner with her Chinese family and an American family as their guests in “Fish Cheeks” by Amy Tan. The main character, Amy, has fallen in love with the son in the American family. The point of view and the imagery in the … Read more
Everybody has an obligation to scrutinize, dissect, or otherwise work towards reform in his or her given society. The status quo should always be held up to a highly critical eye, as it is perpetually flawed. Dickens, more so than most people of his time, was well aware of this duty to arrest the progressively … Read more
The word Christmas comes from the old English “Cristes maesse” meaning Christ’s Mass. The Holiday celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. The actual birthday of Jesus is not known; therefore, the early Church Fathers in the 4th century fixed the day around the old Roman Saturnalia festival (17 – 21 December), a traditional pagan festivity. … Read more
A distant relative of Truman Capote’s, Sook Faulk, took care of him through his childhood. Sook dubbed Truman with the nickname “Buddy,” after a former best friend. During one November morning, when Buddy was seven, Sook decided it was fruitcake weather. She called him to get their buggy and her hat to go pick pecans. … Read more
