Themes

A.                 Living in the past

“a cry that only serves the present time, by showing men how much it needs their help when any ears can listen to regrets for such a past.”

Evidence 2

B.                  Neglecting people who have despaired

“Who turns his back upon the fallen and disfigured of his kind; abandons them as vile; and does not trace and track.”

C.                  Believing that human sorrows and tribulations are insignificant to a higher power

, ‘‘who hears us make response to any creed that gauges human passions and affections, as it gauges the amount of miserable food on which humanity may pine and wither”

Craft

Heavy use of symbolism.

The Chime bells

“how often you have cheered me up when I’ve been low” (Dickens, Charles)

The Chime bells kept Trotty’s hope, and he looked up to them as a reminder that his time would eventually come

Goblins reprimanding Mr. Trotty for having a lack of faith in a superior being

“who hears us make response to any creed that gauges human passions and affections, as it gauges the amount of miserable food on which humanity may pine and wither; does us wrong” (Dickens, Charles)

The Goblins represent the higher being that influences men’s actions and faith.

D.                 Allegory

1.                  Meg is driven to contemplate suicide as a refuge.

2.                  Mr. Aldeman discouraging “lower class” people.

II.                 Exigency – published 1844

A.                 The novel is based on the 1840s. This was a time of political and social unrest.

1.                  Mr. Veck reads about the working class’s wickedness and how a woman tried to drown herself and her baby.

B.                  Poverty

1.                  The book presents a man who is poor but has worked all his life.

C.                  Justice

1.                  Richard is regularly apprehended for petty crimes.