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Charles Dickens is one of the numerous writers whose life experiences greatly attributes to his wonderful writing career. Everything he wrote can be traced back to childhood experiences that influenced him throughout his life. Charles Dickens writing career was influenced by his maid and his family getting thrown into jail. In the book A Christmas Carol, Dickens created the characters Tiny Tim and Scrooge because of experiences that influenced throughout his life (Engel 4). The first and most prominent figure that led to Dickens grotesque imagination was someone whom he met at the age of three and never saw again after the age of five. This person was Dickens maid, named Mary Weller.
Mary Weller was a twenty four hour maid who lived with the Dickens family. Mary, used to tell Charles Dickens bedtime stories before he went to bed. However, this was not just any bedtime story. Mary Weller had the talent of telling the best blood and guts horror story anyone had ever heard. Mary Weller would always tell Charles the most unbelievable stories with the most unbelievable characters. Mary taught Dickens that if your ever going to tell a story people want to hear, you must never tell the truth.
Dickens carried the knowledge Mary had instilled in him throughout his life, because not one of Dickens novels has a believable character in a realistic setting with people talking in a sensible manner. All of his characters are complete and utter nonsense (Engel 2). For instance, A Christmas Carol tells of a character named Ebenezer Scrooge who cares about nobody and is extremely stingy, but in just a short amount time he is portrayed as a loving and gentle soul because of four ghost that visit him on Christmas eve. In reality, no one can go from being as hateful as Scrooge was at the beginning of A Christmas Carol, to as to as loving as he was at the end of A Christmas Carol because of four ghost. Furthermore, Tiny Tim is nothing like a five year old child would act like in real life.
In one scene, Tiny Tim and his father Bob Cratchit were coming home from Church on Christmas morning and Mrs. Cratchit meets them at the door and says Well father how was our son, Tiny Tim, in church on Christmas? Bob Cratchit says Oh mother he was good as gold, even better. Really, says Mrs. Cratchit, what happened in church? Well Bob Crotchet says, you remember how late it was mother when we finally got off to Christmas service?
Oh Yes, says Mrs. Cratchit. Then Bob Cratchit says, by the time we got to church, we were so very very late that everybody was already seated. So, as we came down the aisle to get into our pew everybody turned around to look at Tiny Tim because that metal crutch of his made so much noise. And I said, Tiny Tim does it bother you that your a hopeless cripple and have to thump down the aisle making so much noise that nobody can here the minister and there gapping at you to shut up with that crutch. And Tiny Tim looked up at me and said Oh no daddy, I love it because everybody will look at me and see that Im a cripple on Christmas and realize that their not a cripple on Christmas so they will have a better Christmas, God bless us everyone.
Anyone who knows what a real five year old is like would have difficulty believing that a five year old would say that. Most five year olds are selfish and want what is in it for them. They would never pray to be a cripple on Christmas so that other people could look at them and be happy because there not a cripple too. Tiny Tim and Ebenezer Scrooge are characters that are unbelievable in real life. Dickens was influenced to create his nonsensical characters by Mary Weller (Engel 4). Furthermore, Dickens can also give credit to his remarkable novels, because his family was thrown into debtors prison.
When Dickens was twelve years old his father, John Dickens, got into so much debt that Dickens whole family was thrown into debtors prison. The only way for the Dickens family to get out of debtors prison was for them to select one child whom they thought could go out and earn a living the quickest and the easiest way. John Dickens chose his son, Charles Dickens, to be the one to get his whole family out of debtors prison. At this time Charles Dickens was only twelve years old and was expected to make enough money to support his family and himself (Engels 1) In A Christmas Carol, Scrooge symbolizes the man who locked up Dickens family and Bob Cratchit Symbolizes Charles Dickens. Scrooge was very mean to Bob Cratchit and is portrayed as a nasty old man who abuses his good-nature employee. Similarly the man who locked up Dickens family was probably view by Dickens to have been a mean man because he threw his family into jail.
In addition, Bob Crochet was trying to make a living for his family and was treated horribly by Scrooge. Like Bob Cratchit, Dickens too was faced to make a living for his family and was probably treated crudely at the prison. Dickens came up with the characters Scrooge and Bob Cratchit because of his family being thrown into prison, which left him having to provide a living. As I have shown, Charles Dickens was dramatically influenced throughout his life which had a significant affect on his writing the book A Christmas Carol. Dickens uses unrealistic characters in the book from what he learned from Mary Weller He also creates Scrooge and Bob Cratchit to depict the person who threw his family into jail and himself. Bibliography:
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