So you think know "A Christmas Carol"? Which one of these questions would surprise you if you knew the answer?11 of 25
What two popular concepts about marriage of that day is Dickens opposing by having Scrooge objecting to Fred's marriage for love and Scrooge observing that Cratchit's own family and financial condition and then showing Scrooge the opposite? After all, Scrooge does group Fred and Cratchit together when he says, right after Fred leaves, and he is looking at Cratchit, "There's another fellow" ... "My clerk, with fifteen shillings a-week, and a wife and a family, talking about a merry Christmas."
Dickens opposes:
- the old tradition of a dowry for the bride. Supposedly Fred's wife has no dowry. Belle, Scrooge's love had no dowry when they break up. But Scrooge doesn't want to end it.
- the Malthus and Adam Smith concept that people should not marry until the can afford to be married and afford to have a family. This concept is not throughly explained in ACC but the Dickens railed against it more throughly in the next Christmas book, "The Chimes". Oddly , most of Dickens readers disagreed with him and did agree that people should unless they can afford to be married. However, in ACC, Belle admits that both she and Scrooge delayed their marriage when she says,"Our contract is an old one. It was made when we were both poor and content to be so, until, in good season, we could improve our worldly fortune by our patient industry ."
PeopleSimon Callow
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