A Christmas Carol Essay example -- English Literature

A Christmas Carol Lots of people take great pleasure in listening or telling ghost stories. People enjoy this because it gives them a chance to tell people maybe some of their own experiences, stories or their ideas. Some of these may be very scary and some may only be mildly scary. It is also a good way of socialising as you are talking to people and sharing experiences that people may find extremely interesting, resulting in them thinking you are very intellectual, as telling stories can be more in depth than just having a conversation. The usual setting for a ghost story is an image of darkness and fear, which is intended to bring across the image of fear on the reader and involve them in the story. In the actual ghost stories the image of a ghost is usually something that is scary, dead and wants to bring you harm in any way possible. They usually only appear in the dark as a story tends to be more fearful if the atmosphere and appearance of the story is dark, secluded and dirty. Although as you get older the whole image of a ghost changes it tends to become a more secluded, unknown creature or maybe a memory of a person and sometimes may not be scary, it can be friendly or somebody you may be able to make contact with. Some people actually believe in ghosts, which is maybe why ghost stories sometimes do so well in the world. Now for the actual story, a Christmas carol. The story takes place in London, pre 1914. Charles Dickens is very good at creating a ghostly image by using the power of adjectives and contrasting the light and dark and bright and dull images. An example of this is â€Å"cold, bleak, biting weather, it is the use of these words and techniques that give the reader the sense of... ...eating a very successful ghost story that is effective, scary and interesting for all audiences. Dickens does very well in the way he contrasts all of the ghosts within the story, there are a number of different personalities within the ghosts, he changes from spooky to jolly and then fearful, this is in done by creating stages and builds up to the finale of the ghost of still to come is extremely spooky and intimidating. He has set the atmosphere by describing the setting of the rooms and surroundings and contrasting them with the ghost and mood or essence. I think the best ghost in the story is the last ghost as the story is after all meant to be a ghost story and is meant to be scary; the ghost really does set a scary mood. Overall the story a Christmas carol sets a very spooky mood that draws in the audience in and makes them want to carry on reading.