Grade 9 A Christmas Carol Essay (OCR GCSE English Literature)

Grade 9 A Christmas Carol Essay Question Model Answer

Component 1, Section B of your OCR GCSE contains questions about a 19th-century prose work. You will write an essay responding to one of two options:

• Question 1 asks you to write an essay based on an extract from the novel or novella you have studied

• Question 2 is a “discursive” essay question and doesn’t contain an extract

You can find a model answer for the extract essay by following this link. This page provides a model answer for the discursive essay question.  A “discursive” essay presents a clear argument, explores the text in detail and contains a range of points. You need to include references to the whole text to support your argument, rather than focusing on one scene or section.

How am I assessed?

You will have 50 minutes to answer the question, and your essay will be awarded a maximum of 40 marks. This table shows how the marks are divided:

Grade 9 A Christmas Carol essay question model answer

Below is an example answer for an OCR GCSE essay question on A Christmas Carol. The annotations show how the assessment objectives (AOs) above have been met. Here is the question:

A Christmas Carol is mainly about Scrooge's transformation. How far do you agree with this view? Explore at least two moments from the novel to support your ideas. 

[40]

Grade 9 model answer

Although A Christmas Carol explores themes of poverty, memory and family, Dickens’ main focus is on Scrooge’s transformation from an uncaring, miserly character to a generous, “good” man (AO1). At the beginning of the novella, Scrooge’s character represents the willful ignorance of many people towards the poverty and suffering that surrounded them in Victorian England (AO3). Dickens illustrates the injustice of social inequality through a series of interactions and supernatural experiences that transform Scrooge’s perspective and character. By detailing Scrooge’s journey towards awareness and empathy, Dickens demonstrates that transformation and redemption are possible for anyone (AO1). 

Scrooge’s initial attitude towards those less fortunate than himself is illustrated in Stave 1, when he refuses to make a charitable donation to support the poor (AO1). His uncaring ignorance of the true circumstances of poverty is shown when he equates poor people with criminals, demanding to know why they are not in “prisons'' or “workhouses” (AO1). Scrooge’s miserly nature is described directly by Dickens early in Stave 1, but it is further demonstrated when he arrives at his cold, dark home and the narrator comments that “darkness is cheap, and Scrooge liked it”. The gloominess and emptiness of Scrooge’s chambers emphasise his physical and social isolation, and create an eerie atmosphere, setting the scene for Marley’s ghost to appear. The darkness represents the money Scrooge has saved by only using a single candle to light his enormous lodgings, but Dickens also uses darkness as a metaphor, presenting Scrooge’s ignorance as a type of mental darkness, which is not yet illuminated by awareness or truth (AO2). 

Dickens makes a clear connection between an individual’s actions and their consequences when the Ghost of Jacob Marley appears to Scrooge later in Stave 1. Marley’s ghost tells Scrooge, “I wear the chain I forged in life”, referring to the chain made of objects representing Marley’s — and now Scrooge’s — business of property ownership and the lending and hoarding of money (AO1). Marley’s ghost has been prevented from entering heaven and is instead doomed to wander the earth, wrapped in a chain made, by his “own free will”, through his miserly actions in life. However, Scrooge has a chance of escaping Marley’s fate if he can learn what he needs to from the three spirits who will visit him. In this scene, Dickens demonstrates that nothing is completely inevitable in a person’s life, because human beings have “free will” and therefore the capacity to change their actions and alter their fate. Thus, Dickens portrays the possibility of transformation for Scrooge and others like him (AO1). 

Dickens further emphasises the consequences of Scrooge’s actions in Stave 2, when the Ghost of Christmas Past takes Scrooge on a tour of his memories, showing him the love and happiness he has lost in his life (AO1). In Stave 3, the Ghost of Christmas Present shows him a series of Christmas scenes that illustrate the way in which other people enjoy generosity and fellowship, regardless of their circumstances. The Cratchit family’s Christmas celebrations, though meagre, are loving and joyous. Despite their poverty, which is largely due to the low wages Bob receives from Scrooge, they are a happy family, who are “grateful” and “pleased with one another”. Such images of family togetherness emphasise Dickens’ message that true value is not monetary, but is based on the good that people can do for each other. When the Ghost tells Scrooge that Tiny Tim will die if the Cratchit family’s circumstances do not improve, Scrooge is horrified. When the Ghost quotes Scrooge’s own harsh words about the poor back to him, he is “overcome with penitence and grief”. Structurally, Scrooge’s feelings of “penitence” are a turning point in the novella and signal the beginning of his transformation (AO2). 

Following the harrowing experience of witnessing his future lonely death and unvisited grave in Stave 4, Dickens shows that Scrooge’s transformation is complete when he protests: “I am not the man I was” (AO2). He proves that he is a transformed character through acts of generosity, including buying a huge turkey for the Cratchit family and raising Bob’s salary. The emphasis on Scrooge’s transformation and redemption is made clear in the narrator’s repetition of “good” in the final description of him. The last words in the novella are given to Tiny Tim: “God bless Us, Every One!” His exclamation emphasises Dickens’ message of mutual respect and equality between all people, “every one”, regardless of their status. 

In conclusion, while Dickens’ main focus is on Scrooge’s transformation, as evidenced by Scrooge’s new-found understanding that all actions have consequences, ending A Christmas Carol on this inclusive statement also makes a universal case for empathy and social change (AO1).

Sources

Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Writings, Penguin, 2003