A Christmas Carol Flashcards
What does Scrooge’s name have connotations to?
- Ebenezer means ‘stone of help’ in Hebrew - he has potential to help others but isn’t using it
- antihero with a unpleasant sounding name (b/d sounds and ooge sound)
What is Scrooge used as a symbol for?
- parallels with historical figures
- overpopulation = Thomas Malthus - more people = more likely they will live in poverty and suggested decreasing birth rates or increasing death rate
- Jemmy Wood and John Elwes - well known misers
- sort of self parody = unhappy childhood represents Dicken’s own childhood - (negative Scrooge may be what Dickens could have become)
What quotation shows that Scrooge is strange and uncaring?
- even Scrooge was not so dreadfully cut up by the funeral
- he was an excellent man of business / solemnised it with n undoubted bargain (undoubted = clearly cheap and unadorned = ceremony performed cause it had to be)
- money > people = strange and uncaring and inhumane
How does Scrooge behave towards his employee in Stave1?
- ‘poor excuse for picking a man’s pocket every 25th December!’ = prioritises money over his well being
What shows Scrooge only cares about money?
- ‘Scrooge never painted out Old Marley’s name’ = cheap and doesn’t care
What simile is used to describe Scrooge in Stave 1?
- ‘secret and self contained and solitary as an oyster’
- Triadic structure and he’s not lonely as he enjoys being lonely
- Sibilance makes it sound haunting and eerie
- simile = oyster is dark and ugly but beyond the tough outer shell there may be a Pearl (potential is within Scrooge)
- he’s misanthropic (likes being lonely)
What 2 quotes show Scrooge’ support of the Malthusian theory and the Poor Law?
‘If they would rather die… they has better do it and decrease the surplus population’ = lack of sympathy
- surplus = negative connotations (sees people as numbers)
- stabs at Malthusian theory
‘are there no prisons? And union workhouses?’ - uncaring and supporter of the poor law (Dickens opposed it)
What quotation shows Scrooge as a miser?
‘Darkness is cheap and Scrooge liked it.’
- shows him as a miser
- Marley on his doorknob, rather than light a candle and calm down his nerves, he would rather walk through darkness
What shows Scrooge is starting to change at the end of Stave 1?
- ‘Bah! Humbug!’ = nonsense = dismissive of Fred (arrogant?)
- he tried to say ‘Humbug!’ But stopped at the last syllable - tried = his attitude are beginning to change and his arrogance is waning = glimpse of transformation as he can’t dismiss Marley
What quote shows Scrooge’s childhood loneliness?
‘A solitary child, neglected by his friends is left there still’
‘ a lonely boy was reading near a feeble fire’
- here young Scrooge is really lonely and maybe reads fiction to distract himself from lonely
- he is emotionally starved and pitiful
What shows Scrooge as excited in Stave 2?
‘In a most extraordinary voice bw laughing and crying’
‘His heightened and excited face would have been surprise to his business friends in the city indeed’
- excited and happy - passionate and revitalised by his past
- ‘his heart and soul were in the scene’ when w Fezziwig
What shows Scrooge’s being more generous in stave 2?
‘Nothing, there was a boy singing a Christmas carol at my door last night. I should like to have given him something that’s all’
- initiated transformation but hard to move on from miserly ways
- ‘no I would like to be able to say a word or two to my clerk just now. That’s all!’ - staring to change but miserly ways are deep rooted and good times trigger his change
What shows Scrooge becoming greedy?
‘ what idol has displaced you’ he rejoined. ‘ a golden one’ = Belle and Scrooge
- asks his fiancé the question = unaware of how much he hurt Belle as gold replaces her
- ‘where the shadow of the growing tree shall fall’ = greed is a tree that’s growing over him so blocking what he can see and what little he sees is in darkness
What shows Scrooge as distressed by his past?
‘Your lip is trembling’ said the ghost. ‘And what is upon your cheek?’ And Scrooge mutters with an unusual catching in his voice, that it was a pimple’
- crying ?
What shows Scrooge hurt by his past with Belle?
‘ show me no more!’ And ‘remove me!’- imperative = distressed
- ‘though Scrooge pressed it down with all his force he could not hide the light’ = he’s trying to suppress the light that is his past so he can diminish it = in denial so he tries to ignore it altogether but he can’t suppress it no matter how much he tries
When did Marley die?
- for 7 years on Christmas Eve = connection between Christmas and the supernatural
Was was Charles Dickens social status like?
- born into middle class family
- then father went to debters prison and he had to find job in unpleasant conditions
- father left and then he resumed education and did law, then writing
- so sympathetic towards poor
What real life inspirations were there for Dickens?
- Francis/Fran -his talented sister that he saw less of cause she was in the royal academy of music
- Tiny Tim- Fran’s child who was sick
- Scrooge - 2 famous misers = John Elwes and Jemmy Wood
- Thomas Malthus = Dickens opposed it by negative character supporting it
What shows us Scrooge hasn’t changed completely in Stave 3?
‘ A tremendous family to provide for!’
- Scrooge’s transformation is half incomplete
- provide = shows family is financially driven as large family is a cost rather than support and love
What shows us that Scrooge is unaware about the conditions of the poor?
- after 2nd Ghost sprinkles ‘Christmas cheer’ onto poor people’s for, Scrooge says ‘why to a poor one most?’
- ignorance
- unaware of why life is difficult for the poor and why they need it more than the rich
- he doesn’t understand the poor
How is Scrooge affected by the Ghost of Christmas present’s word about the decreasing the ‘surplus population’?
‘Hung his head’ and ‘overcome with penitence and grief’
- penitence = sorrow and regret for what you have done
- ashamed about his unsympathetic self
What 2 quotes show Scrooge is changing in Stave 3?
- ‘tell me if Tiny Tim will live’
- ‘have they no refuge or resource?’ (About ignorance and want) - wants to support the poor rather than punish them = his sympathy applies to all poor people
What shows us Scrooge has no value to god?
- ‘you are more worthless and less fit to live than millions like this poor man’s child’
- Scrooge is not thought of highly
- ‘Scrooge was the ogre of the family’ (Mrs C)= stupid and immense evil
- Fred calls him a ‘comical old fellow’ = a joke? - Scrooge’s now viewed positively
What quote in Stave 3 shows that Scrooge enjoys human company?
‘ they all played and so did Scrooge’
- embracing human interaction and having fun
- opening up his oyster shell after so long
- is capable of enjoying himself = less 3D
- but this only happens after he’s showing sympathy towards poor so is Dickens saying that sympathies towards others = happiness
What shows us Scrooge is afraid of the Ghost of Christmas yet to come?
- ‘Scrooge feared the silent shape so much his legs trembled beneath him’ - trembled = overwhelmed so can’t help his body displaying it
- ‘I fear you more than any Spectre I have ever seen’ - most
- frequently questions ghost - anxiety
How is Scrooge presented as unloved?
- ‘ likely to be a very cheap funeral’ … ‘I don’t know of anybody to go to it’ = Marley’s was cheap due to Scrooge but his was cheap as no one came
- ‘I don’t mind going If a lunch is provided ‘ = conjunction if = transactional care not genuine
- ‘old scratch’ called by a person = name for devil and 2nd person acknowledge is and then say ‘cold isn’t it’ = his death trivial and unimportant matter
What shows Scrooge is affected by the thieves in Stave 4?
‘Scrooge listened to this dialogue in horror’
- he had this same attitude before but then changes so shows him as changed
What shows us that Scrooge is naive in Stave 4?
- ‘the case of this unhappy man might be my own’ = modal verb might shows that it could be his own = aware his life is following the trajectory but naive as he doesn’t think of it as him = lesson not warning
- ‘the house is yonder’ ‘why do you point away from it’ = hadn’t clocked on still as the ghost points to a graveyard
What shows that Scrooge wants to change in Act 4?
- ‘I will honour Christmas in my heart’
- anaphora of I will = total certainty
- wants people to care about him
- ‘are there the shadows of things of will be or are they shadows of things that May be only’ = shows that he wants to change
What shows that Scrooge is happy at the start of Stave 5?
‘ I will live in the Past, present and the future’
‘ I say it on my knees, old Jacob; on my knees!’ - ! = happy
- overjoyed as he recognises he has an opportunity
‘As light as a feather, as happy as an angel and I am as merry as a school boy’ = connotations of joy and extreme examples of qualities
What action shows Scrooge as transformed?
‘ the prize turkey… go and buy it… come back with the man and I’ll give u a shilling. Come back with him in less than 5 minutes, and I’ll give u half a crown?’
- generous - ‘prize’ = the best food he can and he is offering to pay &repetition of ‘I’ll give u’ shows he’s willing to part with his money
What shows us Scrooge has become more generous with his money in Stave 5?
‘ a great many back payments are included in it, I assure you’
- offers to donate to charity = vast sum
- contrasts with the charity representatives in Stave 1
What shows Scrooge as act of giving is equal to having fun in Stave 5?
‘The chuckle,, and the chuckle…and the chuckle… and the chuckle.. by the chuckle… and chuckled till he cried’
- 6 times in one line
- how Scrooge feels about the boy when he delivered the turkey
- easy going, light hearted and pleased with life
What shows Scrooge enjoys Fred’s party in Stave 5?
- ‘wonderful party, wonderful games, wonderful animists, won-dear-ful happiness’ at Fred’s party
- opposite to ‘bah humbug’
What shows Srooge’s relationship improvising after the Spirits visit?
- ‘ Now I’ll tell you what my friend’ = to Bob (tries to prank him = lighthearted) and my friend = fondness and change shows he’s more caring, and friendly
- ‘he was at home in 5 minutes’ = how comfortable Scrooge is at Freds and is opening up to him
- opposite to him being ‘cold’ and ‘as solitary as an oyster’
What quote at the end of Stave 5 shows Scrooge’s major transformation?
- ‘Scrooge was better than his word, he did it all and infinitely more and to tiny Tim he was a second father’ - Infinitely = incredibly generous and caring and kind - miserliness is inverted
- ‘He became as good as friend, as good a master, and as good a man as the good old city knew’ = his transformation is complete and permanent
What shows Scrooge kept to his promise in Stave 5?
‘ it was always said that he knew how to keep Christmas well’
Who is Jacob Marley?
- Scrooge’s dead business partner and warns Scrooge about the spirits and what happens in the rest of the story
- symbol of a generic Victorian Everyman capitalist and a glimpse into Scrooge’s potential future
What shows that Marley wasn’t loved?
‘Scrooge was his sole friend and his sole mourner’
- sole = unloved
‘Even Scrooge was not to dreadfully cut up’
What shows that Marley is notoriously unkind?
‘Scrooge had often heard it said that Marley has no bowels but he had never believed it until now’
- bowels = deep feelings such as sympathy
- so merciless
What shows that Marley is eternally punished in hell?
‘There was something very awful, too, in the spectres being provided with an internal atmosphere of its own’
- infernal = hell and is eternally punished
What showed that Marley has committed a lot of sins in his life?
‘The chain he drew was clasped about his middle’
‘Chain was long and wound about him’ - long = lots of sins, wound = unable to get out
‘Made of cash boxes, keys, padlocks, deeds and heavy
- ‘I wear the chain I forged in life’ and ‘own free will’ = he is admitted to be greedy and should be punished
What shows Marley is regretful?
‘Mankind was my business’
- Marley is regretful and is ‘ringing his hands’ = uneasy and discomfort
- ‘the dealings of my trade were but a drop of water’ = emotions are more Important
- ‘why did I walk through crowds of fellow beings with my eyes turned down?’ = questions his behaviour
What is the ghost of Christmas past?
- a vehicle for delivering Scrooge’s back story
- a symbol of light (purity and goodness and wisdom) and a metaphor for human potential
- similarity with Jesus Christ (son?) = child that is a timeless entity and shows moralistic lessons
What were the contradictions in the Ghost of Christmas past ?
‘The arms re long and muscular’
‘Leg and feet most delicately formed’ = contrasting details in Spirit’ appearance
What shows the ghost of past is omniscient?
‘The ghost stopped at a certain warehouse door’
- a= many warehouses but spirit takes him to an important place = omniscient = supernatural qualities
-
What shows the ghost of past as teacher like?
- ‘ A small matter to make these silly folks so full of gratitude’ = moralistic, didactic
- ‘ghost pinioned him’ = forced him to listen and restrained him and shows Scrooge as defenceless
