Charles Dickens : Can you help me?

Hello everyone,
For my third piece of coursework for my English GCSE I am studying A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. We haven't really initiated the study yet (unless watching one of the many film adaptations counts). Naturally, the in-school study will be painfully basic and so I was wondering if anyone would like to fill me in on any of the follwing:
>Literary techniques in the Novella
-lists
-puns
-similes/metaphors/personification etc.
>Social Commentry
>Narrative
>Characters
I would also like to cross reference styles of writing from his other works too. Unfortunately I willnot have enough time to read his whole body of work before the essay deadline. So please, fill me in on anything general about Charles Dickens.
I would appreciate your help alot, Thankyou.
N.B. I have not been handed an essay question as of yet but I don't think it's of any importance here. Although I would like to congratulate my English teachers for their... efficiency... pfft

Now now LW.. just wait till Alevel where they tell you you can make your own question up then pull faces at it when you decide to write about how the authours portrays the heroines struggle and distress in Color purple and Pamela

But arent the GCSE essays due early march? anyway not to make you madder I seem to rember there were some pretty good puns in the christmas carol ( one isnt it actually called the cricket on the hearth or something?)

Haha I can hardly wait. I wouldnt normally be so irritated, however... for my last piece of coursework, an essay on Romeo and Juliet, I had just one week to complete it and she decided to give me the essay question AFTER I had finished the 11,500 word essay...
Why should Britain tremble...