A Christmas Carol

1
A Christmas Carol
By Charles Dickens
2
About the Author

• Charles Dickens
• 1812-1870
• Famous author and social campaigner
• At 12 began working full days at a warehouse
• Work conditions and cruel treatment influenced
  Dickens later writings

3
Birth/ Early Life

• One of eight children
• Favorite pastime when young was reading
• Photographic memory of people he met and things
  he read
• Raised in a middle class family
• --Family debt forced young Dickens to
  begin working
• --Father placed in debtors prison

4
More about the author

• Writing
• Wrote most of his stories in short installments
  for newspapers
• Used cliffhangers- story pauses, leaving
  character in an exciting or difficult situation
• Paid by the page contributes to the length of
  his stories

5
Important Works

• Great Expectations
• A Tale of Two Cities
• Oliver Twist
• A Christmas Carol

• David Copperfield
• Pictures from Italy
• A Trial for Murder

6
From Books to Movies

• Many of Dickens famous works were later turned
  into movies
• --A Christmas Carol
• -- A Tale of Two Cities
• --Great Expectations
• --Oliver Twist

7
Death

• Died of a stroke after working on his last novel
  Edwin Drode
• Died exactly 5 years after being in a train
  accident

8
Dickens writings

• Social Commentary
• Disliked the division between social classes in
  Victorian England
• Felt that the poor were treated unfairly
• Advocate for charity

9
Victorian Christmas Traditions

• Many Christmas traditions celebrated today were
  introduced during Dickens time

• Decorating Christmas trees
• Christmas cards
• Gift giving from parents to children
• Traditional Christmas carols
• Christmas stories

10
Theatre Terms

• Dialogue words spoken by characters. Preceded by
  characters names in plays
• Dramatic monologue speaker in play addresses a
  silent listener
• Gesture physical movement of a character during
  a play
• Props articles or objects that appear onstage
  during a play

11
More theatre terms

• Soliloquy character reveals thoughts by talking
  aloud to himself not meant to be heard by anyone
  else onstage
• Aside actor speaks directly to audience is not
  heard by others onstage
• Monologue only one character speaks others
  onstage can hear him
• Playwright author of a play

12
More theatre terms

• Stage directions comments given by the author to
  describe dialogue, setting, and action of a play
• Stagingposition of actors on stage, backdrops,
  costumes, props, and lighting
• Blocking movement and position of actors on
  stage within a scene
• Theme unifying subject or idea of story
• Symbol object that stands for something other
  than itself

13

• Characterization- The act of creating and
  developing a character
• Direct Character- A writer states the characters
  traits or characteristics
• Indirect Character- A writer depends on the
  reader to draw conclusions about the character
  traits

14
Figurative Language Project

• A Christmas Carol Scrooge and Marley is filled
  with figurative language.
• Go through the play and find one figurative
  language quote.(word for word copied from the
  text)
• Make a colored illustration that describes the
  quote, include the quote, the name and the page
  number.
• This is worth a quiz and a classwork grade. Do
  your BEST and be NEAT! 0)