This definitions covers Key Terms within Theme: Victorian Poverty & Class for GCSE English Literature. Revise Theme: Victorian Poverty & Class in A Christmas Carol for GCSE English Literature with 10 exam-style questions and 15 flashcards. This topic shows up very often in GCSE exams, so students should be able to explain it clearly, not just recognise the term. It is section 11 of 17 in this topic. Make sure you can use the exact wording confidently, because definition marks are often lost through vague language.

📖 Key Terms

Laissez-faire (French: "let it be"): The economic doctrine that government should not intervene in the market — no regulation, no welfare. Scrooge's worldview in Stave 1 is laissez-faire ideology made personal.
Malthusian: Relating to Thomas Malthus's argument that the poor are a "surplus population" whose suffering is economically inevitable and should not be relieved by charity. Dickens uses Malthusian language to make Scrooge's cruelty recognisable as ideology, not individual wickedness.
Allegory: A story in which characters or events represent abstract ideas. Ignorance and Want are allegorical figures — they stand for the conditions of the Victorian poor, not individual children.
Anaphora: Repeating the same phrase or sentence structure for rhetorical effect. Dickens uses anaphora when the Ghost echoes Scrooge's "Are there no prisons?" — the repetition transforms a policy statement into a moral indictment.
Intrusive narrator: A narrator who steps into the story to address the reader directly and pass moral judgement. Dickens's narrator ("Oh! but he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge!") shapes how the reader understands the poverty argument from the opening line.

Practice questions for Theme: Victorian Poverty & Class

In Stave 3, the Ghost of Christmas Present reveals two allegorical children beneath his robe. What are their names?

A. Ignorance and Want
B. Sin and Sorrow
C. Greed and Poverty
D. Malice and Misery

1 markfoundation

Identify ONE technique Dickens uses in his description of Ignorance and Want and explain how it shapes the reader's response to poverty. (2 marks)

2 marksstandard

Quick recall flashcards

I'll raise your salary, and endeavour to assist your struggling family

<div class="fc-quotation-meta"><span>Scrooge</span><span>Stave 5</span><span>Transformation · Class · Social responsibility</span></div><p><strong>What it shows:</strong> Dickens places the resolution of the poverty theme at the level of the individual employer: Scrooge does not campaign for legal reform — he acts within his own economic sphere. The phrase "struggling family" acknowledges poverty as a condition, not a moral failing, marking the full reversal of Stave 1.</p><div class="fc-quotation-significance"><strong>Significance</strong>This is the ANSWERED stage's enacted answer. Dickens's argument is pragmatic: he does not wait for Poor Law repeal — he shows that one reformed employer can materially improve one family's life. The scale is domestic; the argument is universal.</div><div class="fc-quotation-deployment"><strong>Use in essays on</strong>Victorian poverty and class; Scrooge's redemption; Dickens's proposed solution to poverty; the novella as social reform text.</div>

What mnemonic captures the poverty theme's trajectory in A Christmas Carol?

EXPOSED → VISIBLE → ANSWERED EXPOSED (Stave 1): Dickens exposes the ideology — Scrooge voices it VISIBLE (Stave 3): Dickens makes poverty physical — Cratchits, Ignorance and Want ANSWERED (Stave 5): Dickens enacts the answer — reformed employer, raised salary In essays: track how Dickens MOVES through these three stages, not just whether poverty appears.

Victorian Context: The New Poor Law, Malthus, and the Ragged Schools

Key Facts

Key Terms

📖 Key Terms

Practice questions for Theme: Victorian Poverty & Class

Quick recall flashcards

10 questions on Theme: Victorian Poverty & Class — practise free