TEACHER STUDY GUIDE
Written and Researched by Taylor M. Wycoff
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About this Guide
This Study Guide contains a variety of resource material to accommodate different classes and levels.
Teachers need not use all the material found here but rather choose the most appropriate materials
given their current curriculum. Topics may be used separately or in any combination that works for you.
Table of Contents
page(s)
About the Play………………………………………………………………………………………….….……… 3
Play Synopsis………………………………………………………………………………………….….…… 3
Characters ………………………………………………………………………………………………….…. 4
Important Terms……………………………………………………………………………..……..……….. 5
Our Production…………………………………………………………………………………………...………… 6
The Artistic Team…………………………………………………………….……………………………...... 6
The Cast……………………………………………………………………….………………….……….……6
From the Director………..……………………………………………….……………………….………
6
About the Author, Charles Dickens…..……………………………………….………….……………….….… 7
Biography…….…………………………………………………………….………….…………..………… 7
Other Notable Works…………………….……………….…………………………………..………….…… 8
A Hankering After Ghosts……………………………….………………….…………….…………..……………9
Dickensian London…………………….………………….……….……………………………………..….........10
An Introduction to the Industrial Revolution…………………………………….……….………………………12
What was wrong with Tiny Tim?.….…..…………………………………..………..………………….………...13
The Golden Age of Radio………………………………………………………………….….……….……........14
Foley Sound Effects……….………………………………………………………..……………………………..15
Theatre Etiquette…………………………………………….……………………….…….………………….......16
Recommended Resources………………………………………………………………………………….…….17
Cygnet Theatre Company values the feedback of teachers on the content and format of its Study Guides. We would appreciate
your comments or suggestions on ways to improve future Study Guides. Comments may be directed to Taylor M. Wycoff by
email at [email protected].
2
About the Play
Cygnet Theatre’s live “radio” presentation of this Charles Dickens classic returns. It’s 1944 on
Christmas Eve and you are part of the live studio audience as the WCYG Playhouse of the Air players
bring the story of Ebenezer Scrooge to life. Complete with holiday music, vintage commercials and
live sound effects, this show is a treat for the whole family.
Plot Synopsis
A Christmas Carol is a Victorian morality tale centering on the mean-spirited, miserly old man named
Ebenezer Scrooge who bullies his downtrodden clerk Bob Cratchit. The night of Christmas Eve, Scrooge receives a
chilling visitation from the ghost of his former partner Jacob Marley, who relates his own unfortunate story. As
punishment for his greedy and self-serving life, his spirit has been condemned to wander the Earth, weighted down
with heavy chains. Hoping to save Scrooge from sharing the same fate, Marley informs him that he will be visited by
three spirits.
The first to arrive is the Ghost of Christmas Past, who escorts Scrooge on a journey through previous
Christmases from the curmudgeon’s earlier years. Invisible to those he watches, Scrooge revisits his childhood
school days, his apprenticeship with a jolly merchant named Fezziwig, and his engagement to Belle, a woman who
left Scrooge because his lust for money eclipsed his ability to love another. The Ghost of Christmas Present takes
Scrooge through London to unveil Christmas as it is now, showing him the bustling Cratchit family, his nephew’s
Christmas party, and two starved children. Finally, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come leads Scrooge through a
sequence of mysterious scenes related to an unnamed man’s recent death. When Scrooge sees that the grave of the
dead man is his own, Scrooge desperately implores the spirit to alter his fate. He promises to renounce his
insensitive, avaricious ways and to honor Christmas with all his heart.
Overwhelmed with joy by the chance to redeem himself and grateful that he has been returned to Christmas
Day, Scrooge rushes out onto the street hoping to share his newfound Christmas spirit. He sends a giant Christmas
turkey to the Cratchit house and attends Fred's party, to the stifled surprise of the other guests. As the years go by, he
holds true to his promise and honors Christmas with all his heart: he treats Tiny Tim as if he were his own child,
provides lavish gifts for the poor, and treats his fellow human beings with kindness, generosity, and warmth.
3
Characters
EBENEZER SCROOGE: The Protagonist, Scrooge, is a cold, miserly owner of a London counting-house, a
nineteenth century term for an accountant’s office. It is his redemption to kindness and selflessness that
forms the arc of A Christmas Carol. Scrooge represents the Victorian rich who neglect the poor and think
only of their own well-being.
JACOB MARLEY: In the living world, Jacob Marley was Scrooge’s old, equally greedy partner. Marley died seven
years before the narrative opens. He appears to Scrooge as a ghost condemned to wander the world bound
in heavy chains. Marley hopes to save his old partner from suffering a similar fate by warning him about the
dangers of being obsessed with money.
BOB CRATCHIT: Cratchit is Scrooge’s downtrodden and overworked employee. He is a timid man, and though
treated harshly by his boss, Cratchit remains a humble and dedicated employee. He is the father of a family
poor in wealth but rich in love, and cares dearly for his crippled son, Tiny Tim. Cratchit is a symbol of the
Victorian poor, good-hearted and hard-working, but unable to climb out of the stifling conditions of poverty.
GHOST OF CHRISTMAS PAST: The first spirit to visit Scrooge is a curiously childlike apparition with a glowing head.
He takes scrooge on a tour of Christmases in his past.
GHOST OF CHRISTMAS PRESENT: The second spirit to visit Scrooge is a majestic giant, clad in a green robe. His
lifespan is restricted to Christmas Day. He escorts Scrooge on a tour of his contemporaries’ Holiday
celebrations.
THE GHOST OF CHRISTMAS YET TO COME: The third and final spirit to visit Scrooge is a silent phantom clad in a
hooded black robe. This solemn specter represents death, but also the possibility that the future is not predetermined but open to the free will of humans.
TINY TIM: Bob Cratchit’s young son, crippled from birth, represents the overwhelming goodness of the Christmas
spirit.
FEZZIWIG: The jolly, selfless merchant with whom the young Scrooge apprenticed. Fezziwig was renowned for his
wonderful Christmas parties.
BELLE: A beautiful woman who Scrooge loved deeply when he was a young man. Belle broke off their engagement
after Scrooge became consumed with greed and the lust for wealth.
FAN: Scrooge’s older sister. In Scrooge’s vision of Christmas past, he remembers Fan picking him up from school
and walking him home.
[Did you know… Charles Dickens had a number of different nicknames for himself, including “The Sparkler of
Albion”, “Revolver” and “The Inimitable.” He also gave his children nicknames including “Chickenstalker” “Plorn” and
“Skittles.”]
4
Important Terms
Apparition: Ghost, phantom, specter, a haunting fear of
future trouble.
Apprentice: Apprenticeship was a system of training
young people in a skill or trade. Apprentices were
usually about ten to fifteen years of age and would
live in the master craftsman’s household for the
seven years required to be accepted into the
profession. Although most apprentices were boys
learning all kinds of trades, girls were occasionally
apprenticed to dressmakers or milliners (hat makers).
English Currency: Before decimalization in 1971, there
was a bewildering set of money notes and coins.
The British Pound Sterling (or quid) was about the
largest unit, and a considerable amount in the time of
A Christmas Carol.
Camden Town: The unfashionable, market area in the
northern part of old London where Bob Cratchit and
his family live. This is also where Charles Dickens
lived as a boy while working to support his parents
and siblings.
Here’s a quick look at the currency of that time:
Amount
£10
£5
21 shillings
20 shillings
10 shillings
5 shillings
2 ½ shillings
2 shillings
12 pence
6 pence
4 pence
3 pence
2 pence
1 pence
½ pence
¼ pence
1/8 pence
Caterwauling: To make a shrill, discordant sound like a
cat in heat.
Counting House: Scrooge ran a financial office where
accounts of trade and lending were kept.
Debtor’s Prison: Until 1869 in Britain, unpaid debts
resulted in a term in prison. Since prisons were
private enterprises, conditions varied from appalling
squalor with prisoners of all types (often along with
their families) crowded into large common cells, to
those where the prisoners were allowed to leave
during the day to earn their keep and eventually pay
off their debt.
Coin/Bill
10 pound note
5 pound note
guinea
sovereign
half-sovereign
crown
half crown
florin
shilling
sixpence
groat
threepence
twopence
penny
halfpence
farthing
half farthing
Gruel: a thin, soupy form of porridge made of boiled
ground grain such as millet, oats or barley, or even
acorns or peas.
Poor Law: A system of poor relief in which paupers were
either forced into workhouses or given to overseers
who hired them out as cheap labor.
Union Workhouses: Poor people who could not afford to
live unassisted were required to reside in the charityrun workhouses where conditions were harsh and
work demeaning, so as to encourage the able-bodied
to help themselves.
5
Our Production
The Cast
Frannie Braxton ………………………Maggie Carney*
(Solicitor 1, Mrs. Dilbur, Ghost of
Christmas Past, Mrs. Cratchit)
Freddie Filmore ………….…Jonathan Dunn-Rankin°
(Announcer, Narrator, Guest,
Business Man 2)
Virginia Carlton ………………….Melissa Fernandes°
(Ghost of Christmas Past, Fan, Belle,
Martha Cratchit, Tiny Tim)
Libby Arden……………………………….Melinda Gilb*°
(Solicitor 2, Boy, Ghost of Christmas
Past, Young Scrooge, Belinda
Cratchit, Peter Cratchit, Laundress,
Turkey Boy)
Victor Crane……………………………David McBean*°
(Marley, Ghost of Christmas Present,
Older Scrooge, Business Man 3,
Undertaker, Fellow)
Eddie Barnett……………………………Patrick McBride
(Cratchit, Fezziwig, Business Man 1,
Old Joe)
Lionel Broderick………...…………Tom Stephenson°
(Ebenezer Scrooge)
“Nephew!” returned the uncle sternly, “keep Christmas in
your own way, and let me keep it in mine. Much good
may it do you! Much good it has ever done you!”
“There are many things from which I might have derived
good, by which I have not profited, I dare say,” returned
the nephew. “Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I
have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come
round, as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable,
pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long
calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one
consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of
people below them as if they really were fellowpassengers to the grave, and not another race of
creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle,
though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my
pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me
good; and I say, God bless it!”
Happy holidays, every one.
Sean Murray, Artistic Director
The Musicians
Foley Artist…………….……………….Brian Mackey°
Keyboard…………………………....Sean LaPerruque
The Artistic Team
Director/Set Designer………….…………Sean Murray
Composer……………………………..Billy Thompson°
Music Director……………………….Sean LaPerruque
Stage Manager………….………..Chandra Anthenill°*
Lighting Designer………..………….……... Craig Wolf
Sound Designer………….……….……Kevin Anthenill
Properties Designer……………..…Angelica Ynfante°
Wig & Makeup Designer……...….…...Peter Herman°
Costume Designer….……….…….….Shirley Pierson°
Dramaturg……………………….….……Taylor Wycoff
Assistant Lighting Designer………......Conor Mulligan
Production Manager……………..….…..Jenn Stauffer
Technical Director………………....…Rogelio Rosales
Master Electrician……………….….. Areta MacKelvie
Audio Mixer…………………….……Elizabeth Robson
Change Artist………………Jessica Harriman-Baxter°
Wardrobe Maintenance….…..……....Jacinda Fischer
*Member of Actors Equity Association, °Cygnet Resident Artist
The cast of Cygnet’s premier production of It’s a
Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play in 2006.
6
About the Author, Charles Dickens
from PBS Masterpiece
The most popular storyteller of his time, a zealous social reformer, the
esteemed leader of the English literary scene and a wholehearted friend
to the poor, Charles Dickens was an unrestrained satirist who spared no
one. His writings defined the complications, ironies, diversions and
cruelties of the new urban life brought by the industrial revolution.
Charles John Huffam Dickens was born in 1812, the second of eight
children. Dickens lived into the golden era of Pax Britannica (a roughly
100-year period of relative peace in Europe), dying in 1870 when Queen
Victoria still had another 31 years to reign. Dickens lived his life at high
speed, working constantly and accomplishing an astonishing amount in
his 58 years. According to one published source, he mentioned some
13,143 distinct characters (real and fictional) in his vast body of work. The
father of ten children, Dickens was driven, obsessed, and haunted by the
prospect of failure and poverty.
Dickens's own childhood was often difficult, and would later be alluded to in his work. At age 12, Dickens began
work at Warrens Blacking Warehouse, pasting labels onto bottles of shoe polish. He worked long hours and
suffered in miserable conditions. The meager income young Dickens earned was not enough to keep his father out
of debtor's prison, where the family patriarch served several months before the courts released him.
Young Dickens was later sent back to school at Wellington House Academy in London. Three years later at age 15,
with his father again in financial straits, Dickens ended his formal education for good and took a job as a legal clerk.
This position led to court reporting, journalism, and eventually fiction writing. Dickens was a celebrated author by
the age of 24. Many of the incidents, scenes, and personalities of Dickens' poignant boyhood are depicted in David
Copperfield (1849-1850), his most autobiographical novel. Little Dorrit (1855-1857) also draws on his early years. In
that book, Amy Dorrit cares for her father in debtor's prison with a mixture of innocence and fatalism that must have
been manifest in the young Dickens.
Unhappy childhood incidents can be haunting over a lifetime, but Dickens seems to have laid the demons largely to
rest through his writing, a therapy he adopted for other aspects of his life. For example, in middle age he
reconnected with Maria Beadnell, his first love, only to be disillusioned by how she'd changed. He referenced
Beadnell with a mixture of satire and charm in the character Flora Finching in Little Dorrit, who bears the same lostlove connection to the novel's hero, Arthur Clennam.
More cryptically, Dickens may have used fiction to work out anxieties and difficulties in his secret relationship with
the young actress, Ellen Ternan, who appears to have been his mistress during the last dozen years of his life, after
his separation from his wife in 1858. Some critics believe that the heroines of Dickens' later novels explore different
sides of Ternan's character: the selfless and beautiful Lucie Manette in A Tale of Two Cities (1859), the
emasculating Estella in Great Expectations (1860-1861), and the mercenary Bella Wilfer in Our Mutual Friend
(1864-1865).
Dickens's spent his last days at his home, Gad's Hill. After working a full day, Dickens had a stroke on June 8,
1870, and died the next day. Some friends linked his death to public readings Dickens had given of the last violent
scene between Nancy and Bill Sikes in Oliver Twist. Dickens was buried at Westminster Abbey.
7
Other Notable Works
Charles Dickens published over a dozen major novels, a large number of short stories (including a
number of Christmas-themed stories, one of which is A Christmas Carol), a handful of plays, and
several non-fictional books. If you enjoyed A Christmas Carol, here are a few other books by
Dickens you should consider:
“Oliver Twist”- The story of the orphan Oliver, who runs away from the
workhouse only to be taken in by a den of thieves, shocked readers when
it was first published. Dickens’s tale of childhood innocence beset by evil
depicts the dark criminal underworld of a London peopled by vivid and
memorable characters- the arch-villain Fagin, the artful Dodger, the
menacing Bill Sikes and the prostitute Nancy. It serves as an early
example of the social novel which calls the public’s attention to various
contemporary evils: the Poor Law that stated that poor people should work
in workhouses/poorhouses, child labor, and the recruitment of children as
criminals. Combining elements of Gothic Romance, the Newgate Novel
and popular melodrama, in Oliver Twist Dickens created an entirely new
kind of fiction, scathing in its indictment of a cruel society, and pervaded
by an unforgettable sense of threat and mystery.
“Great Expectations”- Having been adapted for state and screen over 250 times, Great Expectations is regarded
as one of Dickens’ greatest and most popular novels. It follows the story of the orphan Pip in quest for maturity,
starting from childhood and ending with his eventual adulthood. All along the way Pip tries hard to be the
gentleman he believes he is. Throughout his young life, Pip is mentored by a number of people: Magwitch, an
escaped convict, Herbert Pocket who educates him to be a gentleman, and the eccentric, elderly Miss Havisham
whose ward Pip falls in love with.
“David Copperfield”- This largely autobiographical novel tells the story of a young man’s adventures on his
journey from an unhappy and impoverished childhood to the discovery of his vocation as a successful novelist. His
experiences shape his character and therefore the choices he is forced to make. Among the gloriously vivid
characters he encounters are his tyrannical stepfather, Mr. Murdstone; his formidable aunt, Betsey Trotwood; the
eternally humble yet treacherous Uriah Heep; frivolous enchanting Dora; and the magnificently impecunious
Micawber, one of literature’s great comic creations. This classic coming-of-age tale explores 19th century social
conditions and their affect on one person, David Copperfield.
“The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby”- When Nicholas Nickleby is left penniless after his father’s
death, he appeals to his wealthy uncle to help him find work and to protect his mother and sister. His Uncle Ralph
who thinks Nicholas will never amount to anything, proves both hard-hearted and unscrupulous, and Nicholas finds
himself forced to make his own way in the world. His adventures gave Dickens the opportunity to portray an
extraordinary gallery of rogues and eccentrics. Like many of Dickens’s novels, Nicholas Nickleby is characterized
by his outrage at cruelty and social injustice, but it is also a flamboyantly exuberant work, revealing his comic
genius at its most unerring.
8
A Hankering After Ghosts: Charles Dickens and the Supernatural
In early 2012, to mark the bicentenary of Charles Dickens’s birth, the British Library presented a
stimulating exhibition that explored the many ways in which Dickens used supernatural phenomena
in his works, while placing them in the context of scientific, technological and philosophical debates
of his time. This article by Thomas Marks, written for The Telegraph on November 30, 2011 details
the exhibition as well as Dickens’ fascination with the supernatural.
Dickens was a precocious ghost. Five days after his death in 1870, his spirit appeared at a séance in America. It
returned frequently over the decades that followed, usually to propose an ending for his unfinished novel, The
Mystery of Edwin Drood. Indeed, if recent evidence is anything to go by, the novelist continues to haunt our
imaginations: witness the array of books and TV adaptations, including a "completed" Drood, currently lining up to
mark the novelist’s bicentenary next February. How apt, then, that the British Library’s contribution to those
celebrations is a small, thoughtful exhibition, A Hankering after Ghosts, on Dickens’s ambivalent dealings with the
supernatural world.
Dickens gave short shrift to the paranormal beliefs that seduced many of his contemporaries. He preferred to
ascribe apparitions and other uncanny phenomena to psychological or physiological causes. In "Well Authenticated
Rappings", a satirical skit he wrote for Household Words in 1858, a voice in the narrator’s head emanates from a
spirit more alcoholic than ethereal: the throbbing visitation turns out to be a Boxing Day hangover.
But the books and other printed material on display here deftly demonstrate how Dickens stimulated Victorian
interest in the supernatural even as he sought rational explanations for it. His public readings brought his characters
to life so vividly that he could seem a literary animist: one commentator described the "contagion of hysteria" that
the "Sikes and Nancy" routine provoked.
Then of course there are the Christmas ghost stories: the range of editions in this exhibition testifies to their lasting
popularity. You get a strong sense of how much Dickens did to domesticate the genre, shifting its setting from old
Gothic piles to the very Victorian firesides where it would also be read. It’s no coincidence that Joseph Marley’s
ghost materializes from a door-knocker in A Christmas Carol. There’s a household delicacy to these manifestations,
most evident in their careful illustrations by Cruickshank, "Phiz", and John Leech.
Charles Dickens was acutely aware that scientific explanations for mysterious phenomena often failed to dissipate
their terror. The technological advances of the period generated their own modern ghosts: cheap periodicals, well
represented here, were ideally suited to the brief thrill of a ghost story. As Dickens showed in "The Signalman", the
railway seemed a haunted place no sooner than the tracks had been laid.
Besides, the new discipline of psychology was fast discovering that specters in the mind could be far more
frightening than old-fashioned ghosts. It’s nice to see part of this display dedicated to Dickens’s experiments with
mesmerism, a pseudo-science that clearly influenced how the novelist conceived of character and the mental
interactions between his fictional creations.
Among the highlights of the exhibition is an 1853 letter from Dickens to his wife, Catherine, which sees him, almost
nine years after the event, making excuses for getting too cozy with one of his mesmeric patients. "The intense
pursuit of any idea that takes complete possession of me", he writes, "is one of the qualities that makes me
different". However much he remained a skeptic, the supernatural was well on its way to taking "complete
possession" of his writing.
9
Dickensian London
London is as much a character in Charles Dickens’ novels as Ebenezer Scrooge or Tiny Tim. To
Dickens, London was a living, breathing entity for which he had an enduring fascination.
Because Charles Dickens wrote with such detail, from 1836 to his death in 1870, about the people and locations in
and around London, giving us intimate knowledge of the society of the period, this time is often referred to as
“Dickensian England.” It corresponds to some degree with the Victorian Era, the period from 1837 to 1901 in which
Queen Victoria reigned over the United Kingdom. Her reign was a long period of prosperity and relative peace for
the British people, as profits gained from the overseas British Empire and industrial improvements encouraged the
development of an educated middle class.
The City’s Growth - London in Dickens time was the largest,
most spectacular city in the world. While Britain was experiencing
the Industrial Revolution, its capital was both gaining the benefits
and suffering the consequences. The population of London
increased by a factor of four and one half between 1800 and 1880
reaching 4.5 million people. Unskilled rural people flocking in to
take up industrial jobs were joined by poor Irish trying to escape
the devastating potato famine. The fashionable middle class
areas like Regent and Oxford streets were growing in the west,
while in the east, new docks were being built as London became
the centre of world trade. The Thames River was clogged with
ships from all over the world and London had more shipyards
than anywhere else on the globe.
The Streets - The price of the population explosion in London
was unbelievable squalor and filth as the city’s infrastructure was
overwhelmed. Rich and poor mingled together in the crowded
streets. Street sweepers attempted to keep the streets clean of
manure, the result of thousands of horse-drawn vehicles.
Hackney cabs used to carry one or two people were gradually
phased out and replaced by omnibuses which carried several
dozen passengers. Still, a traffic count in Cheapside showed a
thousand vehicles an hour passed through the narrow streets in
the area during the day. The city’s thousands of chimneys
belched coal smoke, resulting in soot settling everywhere and
making the air unbreathable. In may parts of the city raw sewage
flowed along gutters emptying into the Thames. Livestock was
driven through the streets to slaughter houses while street
vendors hawking their wares added to the racket. Pick-pockets,
prostitutes, drunks, beggars, and vagrants of every description
added to the confusion. At night the major streets were feebly lit
by gas lamps. Side streets and lanes were rarely lit at all and
torch bearers were hired to guide people out at night.
10
Sanitation and Disease - Living conditions were so unhealthy
that the rapid increase in populations, despite the enormously
high death rate, was sustained only by a more rapid influx of
immigrants from other parts of Britain. The death rate in the city
in the mid 1800s was twice the birth rate. The average life span
of an Englishman, during the previous century, was 29 years,
and in London the average was considerably lower. Personal
cleanliness was often not a priority, nor was clean laundry. In
unventilated, crowded rooms the smell of unwashed bodies
would be stifling. Until the second half of the 19th century
London residents, who didn’t own a well, were still drinking
water from the very same parts of the Thames River that the
open sewers flowed into. Deadly cholera outbreaks, as a result of contaminated drinking water, were common.
The child mortality rate was extremely high. In 1839 it was estimated that nearly half of all funerals in London were
for children under the age of ten.
The Law - London’s first police force, was created by Sir
Robert Peel - hence the name Bobbies - in 1829, with
headquarters in what would become known as Scotland
Yard. The old London “watch” system, which depended
on individual neighborhoods hiring men to patrol for
crime, and which had been in effect since Elizabethan
times, was eventually abolished. However, law and order
rarely extended into the back streets and slums where
violence and crime was a way of life. Dickens, in his
novels, tried to bring about a desire to reform the Poor
Law which sent the needy to prisons (like his father) or
workhouses, and which he felt kept the poor downtrodden
with no hope of bettering themselves.
Did you know?
Until the very end of
Dickens’ life in the later
half of the 19th century,
only one child in every
three had the opportunity
to attend school. Likewise,
it has been estimated that
during that time in London
more
than
100,000
children of the poor never
attended
a
“Ragged
School.”
Education and Children- In response to the fact that poor families could not
afford to send children to schools, charitable and religious societies set up a
system of “Ragged Schools”. These provided free education, the rudiments of
literacy and numeracy, with a generous amount of religious instruction. Dickens
disapproved of introducing religious doctrine at the expense of a practical
education, which would help the pupil become a self-sufficient member of
society. Despite the availability of these schools, most poor children remained
uneducated due to the demand for child labor and the apathy of parents, terribly
poor and uneducated themselves. Children as young as five years of age were
often sent to work begging or sweeping chimneys. Due to their small size,
children were desirable for work in mines and on certain factory jobs where tiny
hands were needed. The cycle of poverty continued as poor children, suffering
with rickets and lung disease from working long hours in polluted factories and
mines, had little chance of surviving to become healthy, let alone wealthy,
adults.
-from The National Arts Centre English Theatre Company’s A Christmas Carol Study Guide
11
An Introduction to the Industrial Revolution
By Eleanor Davis
Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is set against the backdrop of the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial
Revolution was a period when much of society moved from working on the land as farmers to working in
manufacturing and commerce in factories. It marked a major turning point, wherein almost every aspect of daily life
was influenced by industrialization.
The move towards factory labor began in Britain, and spread throughout the rest of Europe and North America,
lasting form the middle of the 18th century to the early 1900’s. There were two main phases of the revolution: the
first was founded on iron, steam, and coal; the second was founded on steel, electricity, and oil. Throughout both
these phases, cities grew very quickly and modern sciences were developed. New inventions, ideas, and methods
led to more efficient means of production.
During this move from the farm to manufacturing, workers found increased opportunities for unskilled employment
in numerous new mills and factories, but these jobs often included long hours and low pay, leading to very poor
working environments where dangerous and unsanitary conditions were common. Manufacturers even began hiring
children in large numbers and forcing them to work for up to 12 hours a day. While workers slaved for long hours
and little pay, the owners of the factories made huge profits, causing the gap between the rich and the poor to
increase exponentially.
Many individuals spoke out against the conditions of the working class and the effects of the Industrial Revolution,
most famous among them being Karl Marx. According to Marx, the industrialization of society formed two different
groups: the bourgeoisie (business owners) and the proletariat (working class). Marx asserted that the defining
characteristic of the Industrial Revolution was a shift in the ownership of the means of production, and this led to an
unfair imbalance between the two groups. Prior to the industrial revolution, a man could own his own farm and work
for his own livelihood, following it, a very few rich men owned the factories, the means of production, and the
majority of men had to work for those at the top. The bourgeoisie was becoming absurdly wealthy from the
proletariat’s labor, and the proletariat was not able to reap the benefits of their hard work. Nor were they able, he
argued, to feel any sense of pride or ownership over the products that they made, because the factory system was
set up so that they would perform the same menial tasks again and again in quick succession for many hours and
never see a finished product. He felt that the capitalist economy created by the industrial revolution was not
beneficial to all of society.
In the 19th century, London was the largest and richest city in the world, yet it was struggling to cope with large
numbers of desperately poor people. The conditions of the Industrial Revolution had caused the population to
skyrocket, and in the first 80 years of the 19th century alone, London increased from a million to more than 4.5
million people. The city became divided geographically between the very rich and the very poor as factories moved
in and the rich moved out of the dirty manufacturing areas. The West End was populated by the aristocracy, while
the bulk of the middle and lower classes lived down both sides of the Thames river from the Tower of London in
what came to be known as the East End. Approximately one third of London’s population lived in very unsanitary
and neglected areas called slums. The city was rife with pollution and filth, from horse manure to sewage. Crime
was rampant, water was polluted (many citizens drank water from the same part of the Thames where sewage was
dumped), drainage was inadequate, and diseases and epidemics spread like wildfire. Housing was cramped, with
entire families crammed into one room apartments. This was the London about which Charles Dickens was writing
when he spoke of Oliver Twist, the young orphan boy who grows up on the streets of London, and of the rampant
poverty and horrible conditions of the poor population in A Christmas Carol.
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What’s Wrong With Tiny Tim?
A Christmas Carol has transcended the boundaries of time since it was written in 1843 with its
message of goodwill to all mankind. But as we move further into the 21st Century, for some fans of
the Charles Dickens classic, it still leaves one question unanswered. What exactly was wrong with
Bob Cratchit’s youngest son, Tiny Tim?
The Symptoms
Thanks to the Ghost of Christmas Present, we know that Tiny Tim would soon die. We know that Tiny Tim used a
crutch, was very small, and very sick. We also know that Bob Cratchit carried his son periodically, possibly a
signal of muscle fatigue. Financially, we know that Scrooge didn't pay Bob Cratchit enough money. His meager
salary was not enough to buy good food and medicine for Tiny Tim, plus the Cratchit house was very small.
Historically, we know that Tiny Tim was growing up in London in the mid-1800s. But, as all three ghosts, along
with Scrooge's deceased partner, Jacob Marley, help Scrooge turn from a miser to a kind and generous man,
fans of A Christmas Carol are also led to believe that the kind pay raise that Scrooge gave Bob Cratchit helped to
save Tiny Tim. Bob would be able to afford good food and medicine.
Multiple diagnoses have been proposed over the years, and according to Daniel J. Glunk, M.D., president-elect
of the Pennsylvania Medical Society and a practicing internist from Williamsport, Pa., all the theories have a
certain degree of merit in making this literary diagnosis.
Kidney Disease
Rickets
One of the earlier theories first proposed and
documented by Dr. Donald Lewis, an assistant
professor of pediatrics and neurology at the Medical
College of Hampton Roads, is that Tiny Tim suffered
from renal tubular acidosis (RTA), a kidney disease
that makes blood too acidic.
Another theory circling in the medical community
is that Tiny Tim suffered from a severe vitamin D
deficiency, commonly referred to as Rickets..
Rickets was a widespread problem in locations
with heavy smog and industry in the late 1800s
and early 1900s. Since sunlight is a major source
of Vitamin D, smog could play a role in the
deficiency, as well as the familiar gloomy weather
prevalent in London.
RTA occurs when the kidneys fail to excrete acids
into the urine, causing the acid to build up in the
blood. The result can be growth retardation, kidney
stones, bone disease and progressive renal failure—
symptoms that seem to match some of Tiny Tim's.
Some signs of rickets include soft bones,
muscular weakness, osteoporosis, and joint pain.
Without vitamin D, the body can't absorb calcium,
and thus has difficulty building and maintaining
strong bones. This could be why Tiny Tim
needed a crutch.
"Tiny Tim is small, has malformed limbs and periods
of weakness," Glunk said. "These all can be the result
of RTA. Plus the fact that Tiny Tim's condition is fatal
if left untreated, but reversible if proper medicine is
used, helps to guide medical sleuths to RTA. While
19th century doctors wouldn't have been able to test
for the disease or even put a name on it, they did
know the symptoms and how to treat them.”
Frequent doses of alkaline substances would have
been given to such patients, which would neutralize
the acid in the blood.
"Knowing London's environmental conditions at
that time and knowing Tiny Tim used a crutch, it's
reasonable to consider this disease, despite the
fact that vitamin D wasn't discovered until the
early 20th century," Glunk said. "At the time, they
could have unknowingly treated this condition
through better foods that Scrooge helped to buy."
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The Golden Age of Radio
from PBS History Detectives
For the radio, the 1930s was a golden age. At the start of
the decade 12 million American households owned a
radio, and by 1939 this total had exploded to more than
28 million.
But why was this ‘talking telegram’ so popular?
As technology improved radios became smaller and
cheaper. They became the central piece of furniture in
the average family’s living room, with parents and
children alike, crowding around the set to hear the latest
installment of their favorite show.
Radio may have had such mass appeal because it was an excellent way of uniting communities of people, if only
virtually.
It provided a great source of entertainment with much loved comedians such as Jack Benny and Fred Allen making
their names on the wireless.
It marked the advent of the soap opera, a running story that people could return to, with characters they could
sympathize with and love. The series ‘Our Gal Sunday’ - about a small town girl finding love with a wealthy
Englishman - had the young women of the country glued to their sets.
Radio programs provided a source of inspiration, with heroes like the Lone Ranger and The Shadow getting
embroiled in deadly capers. But they also promoted old-fashioned American family values and gave people a model
to live by. On Wednesday nights at 8pm when the public tuned in to ‘One Man’s Family’ they were greeted with the
opening: ‘Dedicated to the mothers and fathers of the younger generation and to their bewildering offspring.’
News broadcasts also influenced the way the public experienced current affairs. When the Hindenburg airship
exploded in 1937, reporter Herb Morrison was on the scene, recording the events to be broadcast the following day.
But above all the radio provided a way to communicate like never before. Franklin Roosevelt’s ‘fireside chats’
helped the population feel closer to their president than ever.
By the end of the decade radio had exacted quite an influence on the American media. Advertisers capitalized on
radio’s popularity and the idea of the ‘sponsor’ was born. Radio also helped establish the national broadcasting
networks such as NBC and CBS, still present to this day.
After the 1930s the popularity of radio began to decline at the hands of newer, more visual technologies. But the
influence of the ‘golden age of radio’ on the American way of life will never be forgotten.
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Foley Sound Effects
In a play, not a single word is arbitrary. The director and actors in a production attribute a value
and a reason to every action and every utterance. Sound design works the same way. The
silences—as well as the dog barks and musical underscoring—are determined by specific
aesthetic decisions. Meaning and purpose are attached to everything you do as a sound designer.
What is "Foley"? Foley is the reproduction of everyday sound effects which are added in post-production to
enhance the quality of audio for films, television, video, video games and radio. These reproduced sounds include
anything from footsteps, clothes rustling, crockery clinking, or paper folding, to doors opening and slamming,
punches hitting, glass breaking, etc. etc.
How is Foley done? Foley is usually performed by Foley artists. Ideally they stand on a Foley stage (an area with
a variety of possible surfaces and props) in a Foley studio (a specialized sound studio). The Foley artists can clearly
hear the audio feed of the voice actors performing in their same radio show. Or in the case of film, they can clearly
see a screen which displays the footage they are to add sound effects to, and they perform their sound effects while
watching this screen for timing. The actions they perform can include walking, running, jostling each other, rubbing
their clothing, handling props, and breaking objects, all while closely observing the screen to ensure their sound
effects are appropriate to the vision.
Why is Foley important? Without Foley, a production sounds empty and hollow. Whether it be a radio show, a
staged play, or a film, the actors seem to be talking in a vacuum. Our production needs more than just the dialogue
for the scene to truly come alive. We need to hear the little sounds of clothes, furniture, etc - but we need to control
those sound effects so they don't obscure any of the dialogue.
So why is it called Foley? The technique is named after Jack Foley, who established the basic modern
techniques still used today. Like most terms that are named in honor of a person, it is customary to spell Foley with
a capital "F".
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Theatre Etiquette
When we visit the theatre we are attending a live performance- with actors that are working right in
front of us. This is an exciting experience for you and the actor. However, in order to have the
best performance for both the audience and the actors, there are some do’s and don’ts that need
to be followed. And remember that we follow these rules because the better an audience you can
be the better the actors can be.
1. Don’t allow anything that creates noise to go off during the performance—cell phones,
watches, etc.
2. Don’t take pictures or video recordings during the performance. All of the work is
copyrighted by the designers and you could face serious penalties.
3. Don’t eat or drink in the theatre.
4. Don’t stick gum on the bottom of the seat.
5. Don’t place things on the stage or walk on the stage.
6. Don’t put your feet up on the back of the seat in front of you.
7. Don’t leave your seat during the performance unless it is an emergency. If you do need to
leave for an emergency, leave as quietly as possible—and know that you might not be able
to get back in once you have left.
8. Do clap—let the actors know you are enjoying yourself!
9. Do enjoy the show and have fun watching the actors!
10. Do tell other people about your experience and be sure to ask questions and discuss what
you experienced after the show!
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Recommended Resources
Books and Articles:
 Sound and Music for the Theatre: The Art and Technique of Design by Deena Kaye and James
Lebrecht
 The Foley Grail: The Art of Performing Sound for Film, Games, and Animation by Vanessa
Theme Ament
 “What Was Wrong With Tiny Tim?” by Dr. Donald Lewis
December 1992 issue of American Journal of Diseases of Children
 “Spirits of the Age: Ghost Stories and the Victorian Psyche” by Jen Cadwallader
https://cdr.lib.unc.edu/indexablecontent?id=uuid:c9e99b75-a2d1-40a0-9cddcc10001d9af9&ds=DATA_FILE
Websites and Organizations:
 BBC Primary History- Famous People, Charles Dickens
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/famouspeople/charles_dickens/
 PBS History Detectives
http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/
 Sound Ideas- Sound Effects, Royalty Free Music & Production Elements
http://www.sound-ideas.com/
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