Charles Dickens’s idea for A Christmas Carol originated in the north of England when he traveled to speak at the Manchester Athenaeum, a sort of philanthropic organization for the working poor—a population that was largely uneducated, powerless, exploited by factory owners, and ignored by everyone else. He was part of an event in October 1843 that was intended to raise money for the Athenaeum; he shared the stage with the prominent politicians Richard Cobden and Benjamin Disraeli.
Dickens was already a popular and successful novelist, a self-made man with a social conscience. His time in Manchester convinced him that he needed to confront the problems of Want and Ignorance, which he personified in his Christmas tale as two horrifying children. These were the threats facing England, and they were being bred in the slums of the country’s newly industrialized cities. Dickens could fight them, he decided.
Six weeks later, A Christmas Carol was finished.
Dickens continued writing what he called his Christmas Books for several years afterward. They were popular in their time, but none of the others have gone into endless rotation on television or on the stage. Only A Christmas Carol became a modern fairy tale.
Literary Character Study: Fact or Fiction?