This week we focused more on the image and text relationship in The Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. What I found interesting was reading my classmate’s annotation on the text and how they interpreted it from their point of view. I was especially intrigued by the historical contexts that one must be aware of (the Victorian period in this case) in order to fully understand and appreciate this story. For example, prior to this week’s class, I had no idea what the “Poor Laws” were, and therefore, did not get the reference when it was used by the character Scrooge. However, now that I know what it refers to, I understand how Scrooge’s comment on such laws as if they were truly helping the poor further illustrate his ignorance on poverty which was symbolized at the end of stave 2 where one of the children that come clawing out of the ghost of Christmas past is called “ignorance”.

Something else I found interesting was John Leech’s way of asserting his dominance over the text. This was noticed by me when Dr. Kooistra mentioned how the bright candle in the first image, is connected to the root of the word “illustration” which used to mean “illumination”. Therefore, with the candle being so dominant in the image, I thought it was Leech’s way of putting forth his own authority over the story, in order to emphasise how much his illustrations add to the meaning of the story.