A Christmas Carol:
Establishing Setting
The Time: The Industrial Revolution
While Charles Dickens was writing his novels and stories, a
major shift was taking place in world economics, and it started in
Dickens’s own home country of England. The Industrial Revolution
began as a result of advances in technology that made it much easier
to mass-produce goods in factories. Before this, most people in
England worked on farms to produce their own food and made their
own clothing, furniture and other goods. Once factories began
producing these things much faster and cheaper than individuals
could, these craftspeople were forced to work in the factories to make
a living.
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Since the practice of using machines to mass-produce products
Illustration of young British textile workers from Frances
was relatively new, ideas about safety and fairness in the workplace
Trollope’s Michael Armstrong: Factory Boy, 1840.
Courtesy, Spartacus Educational.
had not yet been developed. The instances of injury and death in
factories were high. Many factory workers worked 10 or 12 hour days
for little money. There were no child labor restrictions, and most families needed their children to work alongside
adults just to make enough money to survive. Charles Dickens himself spent time working in a factory.
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The Industrial Revolution led to a large gap between the lower classes, who worked in the factories, and the
upper classes; this is something that Dickens explored in many of his works, including A Christmas Carol. Bob
Cratchit is lucky not to have to work in a factory, but his daughter Martha works long hours at a milliner’s (a hat or
dress maker). Bob Cratchit mentions how he is lining up a “situation” for his son Peter. Though he never says
what this might be, this job could very ???????????????????()Q???A??????
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