A Christmas Carol
- Mood Writing Was Well Deployed by Charles Dickens -Charles Dickens (1812 to 1870) believed that creative writing was key to creating a more compassionate society. Although he was born into relative affluence, at only twelve years old his father’s gambling debts proved disastrous. As the rest of his family went to a debtor’s prison, young Charles toiled ten hour days in a vermin infested factory.
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A Christmas Carol
- Mood Writing Was Well Deployed by Charles Dickens -Thus, he evermore felt the ‘social blade’ of ‘financial morality’ with a keen sharpness; his lifelong trauma-scar became both road map and mission. Upon gaining his freedom, he set out to humanise the down trodden and harangue the miserly, entitled and condescending rich.
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A Christmas Carol
- Mood Writing Was Well Deployed by Charles Dickens -In his masterpiece, A Christmas Carol (1843) Dickens created the perfect book to encourage a sense of Christian charity. The future fate of tiny Tim pulls at the social heart strings. Scrooge’s reacquaintance with his youthful self, acts as a kind of ‘soul resuscitation’ for the elderly protagonist.
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A Christmas Carol
- Mood Writing Was Well Deployed by Charles Dickens -Old Marley, his former business partner, speaks of a hellish afterlife for those committed to avarice. One by one, the ‘spirits of Christmas; set his protagonist on a powerfully redemptive pathway - Dickens thus role-modelling both remorse and heartfelt generosity to each reader.
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A Christmas Carol
- Mood Writing Was Well Deployed by Charles Dickens -Dickens was deliberate with his literary craft, viewing it as a way to positively influence current and future generations. In this book, we will look at his range of literary devices: imagery, word choices, primal instincts, symbolism, personification, repetition and alliteration. As with all classic authors, he had his own unique pattern - his “author fingerprint.” As ever, it is a privilege to learn from one of the all time great masters of English Literature!
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Use of Mood Writing in the Charles Dickens novel, A Christmas Carol.
Mood Word Clusters
The clustering of mood words changes how we feel about a scene. Words that feel light, bright and happy create merry scenes of blithe ease. Conversely, words that feel dark, cold and miserable create scenes with senses of dread, fear or mournful grief. Given the bleak times Dickens wrote of, we’ll see more of the latter than the former. As you read these quotes, notice the words in bold and their scattering within the prose.
Positive clustering of mood words:
[Stave five: The End of It]
“Bell, dong, ding; hammer, clang, clash! Oh, glorious, glorious!
Running to the window, he opened it, and put out his head. No fog, no mist; clear, bright, jovial, stirring, cold; cold, piping for the blood to dance to; Golden sunlight; Heavenly sky; sweet fresh air; merry bells. Oh, glorious! Glorious!”
Negative clustering of mood words:
[Stave one, Marley’s Ghost]
“Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A frosty rime was on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the dog-days…”
Summary
Dickens placed mood words in a way that enabled them to be absorbed into the scene. They become a necessary part of the description rather than a list of adjectives. As with many of his contemporaries, he was fond of long sentences with plenty of commas and connective words. In this style he could ‘house’ far more evocative mood words!
Learning Activities
1. Think of two scenes with opposite moods. Perhaps one can be a stormy day, cold and dark; the other can be a spring day in a meadow or a special occasion. Using the examples from Dickens as inspiration, write your own versions.
2. Go to The Mood Book for inspiration and write your own creative paragraphs.
Use of Mood Writing in the Charles Dickens Novel A Christmas Carol
The Sweet 'n' Salty Guide to Becoming a Poet, The Second Edition.
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