Literature Unit A Christmas Carol

By Mercy Salvacion

​Students can:
explain what life was like in Victorian England.
understand some of the specific issues contemporary to A Christmas Carol.
take effective notes.

By Mercy Salvacion

By Mercy Salvacion

By Mercy Salvacion

By Mercy Salvacion

By Mercy Salvacion

By Mercy Salvacion

​In Victorian England, the majority of people were poor and many were destitute. The average life expectancy at this time was 29. A minority were wealthy enough to live in decent houses, have regular meals and pay for a doctor when they were sick. The wealthy lived side by side with those who were living in poverty.

By Mercy Salvacion

•Large Victorian homes were filled with beautiful furniture and ornate decoration. Victorian styles included floral wallpaper patterns, thick curtains, detailed rugs and elaborate ornamental décor. They also featured polished wooden floors, beautifully carved furniture and elaborately framed paintings.

•Upper class homes might have large grounds or a garden.

•These homes were often lucky enough to have flushing toilets, inside bathrooms and running water.

•Wealthy households could even have gas lighting!

By Mercy Salvacion

•Unlike wealthier families, poorer families lived in much smaller houses.

•As many people were moving to towns and cities for work, rows of
back-to-back terraced houses were built for the poor, with many people living closely together.

•Inside these houses, the conditions would have been much more basic without elaborate decoration.

•These houses didn’t have gardens; sometimes, they would have
small yards.

•In these yards, there would also be an outdoor toilet which would be shared with the neighbours.

By Mercy Salvacion

By Mercy Salvacion

​In the Victorian era, London was a crowded city. Thousands of poor people lived in slums and homeless children slept on the streets. Diseases were common and often deadly, especially for children. In the 1830s, nearly half of London funerals were for children who had died before their tenth birthday.

By Mercy Salvacion

By Mercy Salvacion