by Bar de Ness

Created on: December 19, 2009

When the Ghost of Christmas Present parted his cloak and revealed to Scrooge the street urchins known as "ignorance" and "want", it was perhaps one of the most powerful and emotive chapters in English literature.

The allegorical twins both poor and wretched represented to the author the plight of London's poverty stricken children.

"This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased."

"A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens was published just in time for the Christmas of 1843. He financed the book himself and set a price to try and make it affordable to all. But even at five shillings it was still beyond the price of many - but perhaps it was intended for those who could afford it - those who needed to read the message.

Due to unrelenting poverty, disease and filth, half of all funerals in that year were for children under ten years old. Such was the plight of the poor, that sex was regarded as the only affordable pleasure, and so a cycle of distress was born upon the unplanned and unwanted children of early Victorian England. They were a commodity to be used and abused, mistreated and unloved. Uncared for, exploited and ignored.

It's hard to imagine today the pain and suffering of children all those years ago, and yet it wasn't that long ago. Compulsory education, at it's most basic did not become law until 1870 when Dickens died.

At the dawn of the 21st century, we can look back and realise that only 140 years have passed since. It is a blink of an eye in context of human development.

Prior to 1870 the only free education was provided by charitable organizations and was extremely limited. Indeed most emphasised religious instruction over and above everything else. Dickens believed that the only escape from social deprivation was education and was particularly angry that the one day the working class poor had relief from the grinding back-breaking week was on a Sunday.

Dickens attacked the Christian doctrine known as Sabbatarianism - the strict observance of Sunday as a holy day reserved for worship. It imposed religious restrictions to prevent recreation, therefore enforcing severe limitations on the very day that people could relax in some way and enjoy themselves.

The only day available for fun and play was a day of solemn and reserved behaviour. The only day when children, who for six days prior climbed up chimneys,

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>