Gothic Fiction & Victorian England
English Lit: AQA GCSE A Christmas Carol, topic 4.1.5
Gothic Fiction: Characters
Gothic fiction boasts several different types of characters:
Heroes
- After being the villain, Scrooge transforms into the hero.
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Angels
- Fan, who Scrooge loved but she died before her time.
Ghosts
- Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Yet to Come.
Persecuted women
- Belle, who suffers because Scrooge becomes too greedy.
Gothic Fiction in Victorian England
In Victorian England, Gothic fiction set in an urban area became very popular, especially novels set in London. Before this era, Gothic novels were generally set in the countryside or somewhere else very isolated.
Gothic features
- Therefore, readers would be drawn into this novella – it contains all the staple features of popular Victorian gothic fiction, including being set in bustling London.
Rich helping poor
- It also tells a controversial tale of the rich helping the poor:
- The devoutly Christian readers of Victorian England may have liked this novella because the moral of the story reminds them to be kind and compassionate to the less fortunate at Christmas time.
- But, Victorian readers may have disliked elements of the story as it was published during a time of high poverty and, therefore, high taxation on the richer people – the middle and upper classes already felt that they should not be required to give money to support the ‘lazy’ lower classes.
Test yourself on Gothic Fiction & Victorian England
Which character could be thought of as an angel?
Which character could be thought of as a persecuted woman?