A Christmas Carol Quotations Flashcards
Simile
Hard exterior.
Soft interior.
Explains how Scrooge is isolated and acts tougher than he is.
“Solitary as an oyster”
Asyndetic list of gerunds.
Describes Scrooge as a horrible man.
Suggests constant aggression.
In the first stave.
“Squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner!”
Scrooge suggests what should happen to useless, poorer, homeless people at christmas.
“Decrease the surplus population”
Metaphor.
Abandoned houses.
Shouldn’t exist.
Almost like they are really there.
“Houses opposite were mere phantoms”
Metaphor. Explains how Scrooge is miserable. Cheerless. He never changes. Nobody wants him around.
“His own low temperature”
Scrooge is in a bad mood everywhere he goes.
Weather, seasons and holidays don’t affect him.
“External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge”
Scrooge only cares for money.
He doesn’t want to/like change.
Very driven character.
Doesn’t have much respect for Marley.
“but he answered to both names. It was all the same to him”
Contrastive pair. Anaphora. Hes always the same. Nothing can change his mind set. Always miserable and cold.
“No warmth could warm, no wintry weather could chill him”
Sarcasm.
Juxtaposition.
Believes celebrating Christmas is insane.
Reference to an insane asylum.
“Fifteen shillings a-week, and a wife and family, talking about a merry Christmas. Ill retire to Bedlam”
Metaphor.
Does not like to share money.
“But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone”
Scrooge doesn’t want homeless people on his streets.
“Are there no prisons?”
Emotive language.
Tries to make Scrooge feel empathetic.
“Many would rather die”
Scrooge brings in a negative tone to his conversation with the charity men.
Replies to their pleasantness with rudeness.
“Mr Marley has been dead these seven years”
Narrative voice uses dramatic irony.
Charity men expect Scrooge to be just as generous a Marley was.
“It certainly was; for they had been two kindred spirits”
Theme of poverty and working class is explored throughout the novel. Links to later in the novel when the poor family, the Cratchets, are proved to not be idle as they want to work and be men of business.
“I can’t afford to make idle people merry”