 Hello and welcome back to yet another GCSE revision lesson. Now with the English literature GCSE exams less than two weeks away, what I wanted to do was to give you a last minute revision for Christmas Carol. If you forget everything else, I wanted to show you the top three context points, the top five themes as well as the top 10 quotations. Remember, if you forget everything else on the day of the exam, you can use any of these context themes or quotations in any exam question and you'll be securing some really good marks as well as you can as long as you commit them to memory. Let's begin with context. What are the top three context points to remember if you forget everything else? The first most important context point is to do with the 1834 new poor law. Remember that this was a law that essentially punished poor people for being poor by telling them, look, if you are poor and you've lost a job, you don't have any kind of employment or income to avoid being put away in prison, okay? Because you can't just be homeless and just lounging about. You can get accommodation as long as you work for free in a workhouse. Dickens was incredibly critical of this law. And of course he eludes to this when Scrooge asks, are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses? And these words are echoed by the ghost of Christmas present. Dickens was intensely critical of this poor law because it basically punished poor people for being poor. The second context point to remember, of course, is more broadly when it comes to the Victorian era, there were very deep class divisions that Dickens wanted to highlight. A lot of rich upper class people, which were just a very tiny fragment of society at the time, were unaware that people like Bob Cratchit, the lifestyles were so difficult and they were unaware of children like ignorance and want. So he wanted to highlight the deep class divisions that existed in Victorian society. And the final really, really crucial context point is Dickens. Actually, when he's writing about children like Tiny Tim, ignorance and want, he is speaking from a place of experience. He was 12 when his father went to debtor's prison and for a few months he had to be put to work in a shoe blacking factory. So he speaks directly from experience. You can really empathize with poor children and the struggles and the suffering they face because he himself also had to work at a young age. Those are the three context points. If you forget everything else, make sure you use them in any Christmas Carol essay. Let's now look at themes. Now, in terms of the top five themes, remember, the first, of course, is charity. The main message within this story is the importance of charitable actions from rich people towards poor people. Okay, Scrooge becoming a patron for Tiny Tim. That's what Dickens envisioned for rich Victorian readers. The second theme is, of course, that of redemption. What Scrooge wanted to show to his very religious audience, remember that Victorian people were very religious and they believed in God in the afterlife. He wanted to show them that if they like Scrooge changed their ways, okay, they would alter what happened in the afterlife. If they were really greedy, if they died, they would go to hell and they'd be punished for their actions almost a little bit like Jacob Marley. However, if they changed, then God would give them a second chance. They were capable of redemption much like Scrooge was redeemed. The third theme is to do with Christmas. Dickens, again, is trying to remind his religious audience of the sacrifice that God made for us as human beings by sending Jesus who was born on Christmas Day. The fourth theme is that of family. What Scrooge illustrates is he neglected his family and this is one of the things that contributed to his misery. However, people like Bell, people like Fred and even people like Jacob Cratchit or rather Bob Cratchit were incredibly happy because they placed family as the center of their lives. Remember that this story also is a very vivid reminder of the importance of family and this is something that Scrooge learned. The fifth and final quotation is that to do with class and social injustice. Of course, what Dickens was trying to illustrate is that rich business people, rich people like Scrooge contributed to the really extreme class divisions that existed in Victorian society because they were too greedy and that underpaid the workers. Obviously, the contributed to the social injustice that happened towards people like Bob Cratchit and Dickens wanted to change this. Those are the five theme points to remember when it comes to Christmas Carol. Now, let's go over the top 10 quotations to forget everything else. Make sure you commit these quotes to memory. The first quotations, of course, how Scrooge is described as a solitary as an oyster and this similarly illustrates how isolated and alienated he is from society because of his greed. The second quotation is to do with when Scrooge when the charity men come and ask for charity, he says, are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses? Now, this rhetorical question illustrates his support of the 1834 poor law, which Dickens was criticizing. The third quotation is when we can see the lives of poor people like the Cratchit family. We find that on Christmas Day, they had a small pudding ellipses for a large family. The oxymoron small and large illustrates the poverty but in spite of the poverty because they were together as a family that was still really happy and really jovial. In contrast to Scrooge who had so much, he had plenty, yet he was very miserable. The next quotation also relating to Tiny Tim is we can see that in spite of his disability, in spite of the challenges that he faces, he's still really, really thankful because he says, God bless us. And this is the time which the sentence shows his thankfulness. The next quotation is the fifth quotation is to do with Jacob Mali. He appears as a ghost to Scrooge and he tells Scrooge that he's going to face punishment. Okay, so he states, he wears the chain I forged in life. Now, of course, this metaphor is really powerful to show Dickens is rich readers that if they don't change their ways and if they're not more charitable, they too will end up like Jacob Mali in the afterlife. The sixth quotation is the really powerful description of the Ghost of Christmas past. It's described as looking like a child, but also like an old man. And this similarly is really powerful because like a child represents Scrooge's childhood. Okay, so of course, it takes him back to his childhood. But of course, also the ghost looks like an old man representing Scrooge at the time he is showing him his past. The next quotation is the seventh quotation is of course to do with Belle, where she says another idol has displaced me now. Idol here is a metaphor for Scrooge's love of money which isolates him and also makes Belle his only love the love of his life break up with him. The eighth quotation is when the Ghost of Christmas present the Jolly Giant basically presents these two horrific looking children and says this boy ignorance and this girl is want. Okay, so this boys ignorance and this girls want and these two children represent the consequences of the actions of people like Scrooge. Okay, so of course, them underpaying the workers means that the workers can't look after the children and the children are that they produce are like ignorance and want that can't go to school like ignorance and they were even tattered ragged clothing like the girl want. The ninth quotation is how the Ghost of Christmas yet to come is described it this ghost for shadows Scrooge discovering how he dies. Okay, and this is shown through the description of its clothing it more a deep black garment and the final quotation which illustrates that Scrooge is capable of redemption he's been given a second chance and we can see that he changes so he represents the ideal that Dickens wants his rich readers to reach is when he says or rather when he says I was going to give another quotation where he wants to live in the past present and future. However, I'm going to change that because the final quotation here is actually to do with Fred. Okay, so guys, the other quotation probably be an 11th quote but the final final quotation which I do want to end off with is what Fred says to his uncle Merry Christmas uncle and of course here what the reason why she chose this quotation even more so than live in the past present and future is because obviously Fred illustrates the importance of family and also how much he keeps on forgiving and giving his uncle second chances. Okay, that's really it when it comes to the top 10 quotations. Of course, if you wanted to add an 11th quotation, you could also use the final quote when Scrooge says I will live in the past present and future. However, if you literally just want to have a quote for each character all the main characters in the story, they are completely covered within these top quotations. So I hope that helped and thank you so much for listening.