belle

Question 1

characterisation of belle

Answer 1

-young woman to whom scrooge was once engaged
-her character is used to show the effects of scrooge’s fixation with money
-dickens makes it clear that scrooge was not always like this
-this gives the reader hope, as it reveals that scrooge was not always this way and so can hopefully return back to his former self
-it emphasises that ‘gain’ altered scrooge’s personality
-ties closely into the ghost of xmas present’s warning that Scrooge should “beware” of ‘want’

her name:
-isabella
-the baby name Isobelle of latin origin means God is my oath
-oaths are taken in court when someone promised to tell the truth, this shows that belle’s word can be trusted

Question 2

‘tears, which sparkled in the light’ [stave 2]

Answer 2

metaphor: ‘sparkled in the light’
↳ symbolises goodness & innocence
↳ suggests that when scrooge left belle, he lost her light, she acted as a sort of moral compass for him

Question 3

‘another idol has displaced me…a golden one’ [stave 2]

Answer 3

idol
↳ rather than adoring his wife, scrooge adores money even up to point of idolisation
↳ suggests that scrooge thinks of wealth not only as of material importance, but as of spiritual importance as well

biblical reference: ‘idol’
↳ refers to the commandment ‘do not worship false idols’, shows how scrooge goes against christianity through his actions of greed

Question 4

‘the master passion, gain, engrosses you’ [stave 2]

Answer 4

personification
↳ shows how scrooge is controlled by greed and want as though he were a slave to it
↳ elle perhaps views wealth as the third person in their relationship, the thing competing with her for scrooge’s attention
↳ shows how important money is to scrooge in that he views it as a person to whom he is close (this is particularly interesting given scrooge’s habit of isolation throughout life)

verb: engrosses:
↳ absorbs all the attention of
↳ scrooge is clearly mistreated belle by not paying attention to her

Question 5

‘our contract is an old one’

Answer 5

double entendre
↳ could refer to the marriage vows
↳ could suggest that it’s less of an engagement with both of their consent, and more of an agreement between both of their parents, Ii was common in the Victorian era that the father of a woman would decide who his daughter marries for profit
↳ belle is wearing a “mourning-dress”, meaning that her father has just passed, and so he is unable to stop belle from terminating the settlement
↳ belle is also in tears, meaning that she might have wanted this relationship with scrooge to last, but his obvious avarice has drove her into her final decision

Question 6

themes expressed through belle

Answer 6

family:
-when scrooge sees her with her children he wonders what it would have been like to have children who “might have called him father”
-this causes his sight to grow “very dim indeed”, suggesting that he has started to cry
-this is a significant display of emotion as it highlights how deeply Scrooge is affected by regret