A Christmas Carol Background
Trevor Ostenson
Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812 in Landsport, Portsmouth, England. His father was a navy clerk and the family was often relocated because of this. When Dickens was twelve years old his father was sent to prison for debt, and Dickens had to leave school and work at a warehouse. This experience would inspire several books he wrote.
Dickens lived during the Industrial Revolution and the Victorian Era, and Dickens implemented many social issues of the time into his stories. Child labor was common during this time which is something Dickens disapproved of, possibly because of his childhood experience, so many of his books portray child labor in a negative light. People were either very rich or very poor with very few in between during the Victorian Era, so many of Dickens characters were in poverty, and the rich were portrayed as evil like Scrooge in A Christmas Carol.