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Charles DickensA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
The theme of mothers and fathers runs through the story. The loss of Scrooge’s mother and the rejection of his father—who was judgmental, controlling, and powerful—deeply influenced Scrooge, laying the foundation for his own obsession with money and control.
Bob and Fred are fathers of a different kind. Bob has six children, and Fred is about to become a father for the first time. Like the Christian God (“the Father”), these indulgent fathers offer Scrooge unconditional sympathy and forgiveness. It is the mothers—Mrs. Cratchit, Fred’s wife, and Belle—who define appropriate social behavior and withhold approval until the unacceptable behavior changes (a twist on the ideal wife/mother in Victorian culture, who bettered those around her through the purity and selflessness of her mere presence). The novel depicts all three women as good and desirable, but they are also implacable in their demand for moral behavior; Belle actually breaks her engagement with Scrooge when he falls from her moral standard. It is up to Scrooge to meet the mother’s moral standards before the father forgives him.
By rejecting Belle, the archetypal mother, Scrooge also denies himself the opportunity to be a father—symbolically, the opportunity to grow up and be a man.
By Charles Dickens
A Tale of Two Cities
A Tale of Two Cities
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Barnaby Rudge
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Bleak House
Bleak House
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David Copperfield
David Copperfield
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Dombey and Son
Dombey and Son
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Great Expectations
Great Expectations
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Hard Times
Hard Times
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Little Dorrit
Little Dorrit
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Martin Chuzzlewit
Martin Chuzzlewit
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Nicholas Nickleby
Nicholas Nickleby
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Oliver Twist
Oliver Twist
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Our Mutual Friend
Our Mutual Friend
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Pickwick Papers
Pickwick Papers
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The Mystery of Edwin Drood
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
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The Old Curiosity Shop
The Old Curiosity Shop
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The Signal-Man
The Signal-Man
Charles Dickens