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A Christmas Carol
Kate Nicholls
In Charles Dickens’ novella, “A Christmas Carol” there is a number of
gothic elements that are displayed
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This is why in the 1840s Dickens
got involved in the Ragged Schools; these schools aimed to give poor
children a basic education
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The main gothic elements that are
shown throughout the novella are: romance and a longing for things that
have been lost; the darkness within humanity; the architecture and
setting; death and remorse; the supernatural and the mysteries and
twists that run through the novella
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The first is in Scrooge’s former sweetheart, Belle
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In
gothic terms, romance is simply a longing for something that has been
lost
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She left
him, and they parted
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Why do you delight to torture me?” through these words we can
feel Scrooge’s despair
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The other way that romance is displayed is in
the course of Scrooge’s gradual longing to take part in Christmas
celebration and giving
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This is shown in
Dickens’ characteristic describing of food and also in Scrooge’s changed
dictation
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” This enhances
our own longing for the food and the experiences that are being
described; we relate what we are feeling to how Scrooge must be feeling
(which is a longing for Christmas celebration that, in scrooge, had been
suppressed and lost for many years
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“Here is a new game,” said Scrooge,

“one half hour, spirit, only one!” this makes Scrooge sound like a child
which is a huge contrast from the cold and bitter old man that Scrooge
seems to have twisted himself into
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when this strain of music sounded
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and thought if he might have listened to it
more often
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” This is Romance in every sense of the
word
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Dickens uses this change in dictation simply because
it’s a very effective way of making the reader suddenly feel sorry for
Scrooge
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Dickens used metaphors such as, “the cold within him froze his old
features
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He believed that the rich, who had enough money
to afford to, should give some to the poor and that if they chose not to
then they were cruel and basically a bad person, however, he also
believed that any bad person has the ability to do good and vice versa
this is shown constantly through the character of Scrooge
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” And also when Scrooge
changes and turns his life around on Christmas morning, “I’ll send it to
Bob Cratchit’s,” whispered Scrooge, rubbing his hands, and spitting with a
laugh
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”
Scrooge was a wealthy man who refused to make a donation to the poor,
indicating that he was a bad person but then that bad person did good by
giving a huge turkey to a family in need, and what’s more, he did it
anonymously
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clanked its chain hideously
in the dead silence of the night
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The weather and setting not only show that the novella is gothic,
by using adjectives and imagery like, “the house fronts looked black and

the windows blacker, contrasting with the smooth, white sheet of
snow
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” as we learn that scrooge is cold and dark towards
others, the weather gets cold and dark, “the fog and frost hung about the
black, old gateway of the house, that it seemed as if the genius of the
weather sat in mournful meditation at the threshold
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The main way that a Christmas carol is a gothic novella is through the
element of death
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There was no doubt
whatever about that
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” Dickens uses a simile to
emphasise the fact that Marley was definitely dead
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The next run in with death occurs in stave three when Scrooge asks
the giant looking ghost of Christmas present if Tiny Tim, Bob Crachit’s
crippled son, will live to adulthood, “tell me if Tiny Tim will live
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a crutch without an owner
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The element of death continues to run through
stave three, turning its attention to Scrooge himself
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” For this stave
Dickens has used primarily irony to show Scrooge’s death/dead self to
him
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Whilst the plot progresses Dickens intensifies the chill, that should
by this time be running down your spine, by using long chains of
adjectives such as, “oh cold, cold, rigid, dreadful death
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read upon the stone of the neglected
grave his own name, Ebenezer Scrooge
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The supernatural gothic element is in every stave throughout the novella
...
Dickens then uses the symbolism of old, disused bells ringing to
increase the suspense, “a disused bell
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rang
out loudly, and so did every bell in the house
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The supernatural aspect carries on, we see the ghost of Jacob Marley and
his long chains, he warns Scrooge and tells him that he has arranged to
have three other phantoms haunt him so that Scrooge might have a
chance of escaping his own fate
...
The next supernatural aspect
is the ghost of Christmas past, “light flashed up in the room upon an
instant
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” Dickens has used the adjective
unearthly to increase the ghost’s abnormality
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These
include how the ghosts behave, “the voice was soft and gentle
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This also applies also to the second of the
three ghosts
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The ghost of Christmas present is the
jolly giant that we may associate with Father Christmas, but in fact he is
supposed to represent religion, the scabbard without a sward represents
peace and his “over eighteen thousand” brothers each represent a
different religion
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Another
twist in the novella is when Scrooge wakes up in his own bed on
Christmas morning and is overjoyed that he can still make amends, “they
are not torn down
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They are
here
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In conclusion, I have proved that “A Christmas Carol” is a gothic novella
by showing that it consists of and contains key gothic elements such as:
romance, the darkness within, the architecture and setting, death, the
supernatural and mysteries and twists
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