Christmas Carol

Question 1

Author

Answer 1

Charles Dickens 1812-1870 ​

“Hace a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts.”

Question 2

About Charles Dickens ​

Answer 2

Born in England in 1812​

Died in 1870 in England​

Mainly lived in and around London​

One of the most famous writers of Victorian England​

Wrote: A Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist, and Great Expectations​

Dickens married Catherine (Kate) Thomas Hogarth in 1836​

Charles and Kate had 10 children together:

Question 3

His children

Answer 3

Charles​

Mary​

Kate​

Walter​

Francis​

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Alfred​

Sydney​

Henry​

Dora​

Edward

Question 4

More About Charles Dickens

Answer 4

What was Dickens like:​

Lively sense of humor​

Vivid imagination​

Tremendous amount of energy and enthusiasm​

Dickens was known for being caring and empathetic throughout his life.​

For example: In 1865, he was on a train that crashed. His carriage was not badly damaged, so he tended to the injured and dying. This particular event had a lasting impression on his life.

Question 5

Inspiration for the story

Answer 5

This story was written in 1843 and contains several ideas that were important to Dickens such as:​

Morality​

Celebration of human kindness​

Relationships between social injustice and poverty​

This story is set in London during the Victorian Era (1837-1901) and addresses issues caused by the First Industrial Revolution (1750-1850)​

Movement from rural areas into cities causing overcrowding and disease​

Long work hours and poor wages​

Child labor​

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Dickens raised awareness of the problem of poverty in industrialized cities through his writings.​

He also participated in philanthropy through public readings for charity and involvement in organizations that helped the poor​

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Question 6

Structure

Answer 6

The book is structured into “Staves” like parts of a song, as the name A Christmas Carol implies. Like verses of a song, each stave stands alone and has its own mood, but they come together with a unifying message.​

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While rich in message, the book is intentionally simplistic in order to get its message across–the characters are often one-dimensional. This was meant to be easily understood by all who read it. ​

1834 New Poor Law​

Second Report of the Children’s Employment commission​

Pamphlet: “An Appeal to the People of England on Behalf of the Poor Man’s Child”​

Question 7

Ebenezer Scrooge

Answer 7

Ebenezer Scrooge is the main character of A Christmas Carol- the story is about his transformation​

He is a money lender​

He is cold, uncaring, and self-isolating, as seen through his actions, his personality, and the description of his physical person and home​

He represents the danger of a societal philosophy that disregards caring for humanity​

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Question 8

Ebenezer Scrooge

Answer 8

”Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret and self contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shriveled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A frosty rime was on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the dog-days; and didn’t thaw it one degree at Christmas.”

Question 9

Bob Cratchit

Answer 9

Bob Cratchit is Scrooge’s clerk as well as a husband and father​

He is intentionally caricaturized as a good man in every way​

He functions as the answer to society’s notion that the poor’s vices were at fault for their poverty​

Instead, Cratchit is a loyal, hard-working, loving, religious family man- a picture of good citizenry.​

Dickens uses Bob and his family to give a human face to ”the poor” and force his audience to feel warmth and empathy toward them instead of blame​

Question 10

Bob Cratchit

Answer 10

” … and in came little Bob, the father, with at least three feet of comforter exclusive of the fringe, hanging down before him; and his threadbare clothes darned up and brushed, to look seasonable; and Tiny Tim upon his shoulder. ”​

Question 11

Fred

Answer 11

Fred is Scrooge’s nephew- the only son of his sister, and his only family member. ​

Fred’s character description- warm and ruddy- is in direct opposition to Ebenezer’s- cold and flint-like ​

Fred is generous, cheerful, and welcoming, and represents Ebenezer’s choice to be isolated from family, as well as the distinction between goodness and monetary profit​

Question 12

Fred

Answer 12

”’There are many things from which I might have derived good by, by which I have not profited, I dare say!’ returned the nephew. ’Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come around apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that- as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God blessit!’”​

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Question 13

Jacob Marley

Answer 13

Jacob Marley is Scrooge’s deceased business partner​

Marley, like Scrooge, was a greedy miser, willfully ignorant of the needs of his fellow man ​

He ironically forged his own burdensome chain of heavy money-related items to carry with him in death for eternity, watching mankind suffer and unable to help as he should have in life ​

His warning gives the reader reason to care about Scrooge’s fate, and sets in motion the transformation of Scrooge​

Question 14

Jacob Marley

Answer 14

”’Oh! Captive, bound and double-ironed…Not to know that any Christian spirit working kindly in its little sphere, whatever it may be, will find its mortal life too short for its vast means of usefulness. Not to know that no space of regret can make amends for one life’s opportunity misused! Yet such was I! Oh! Such was I!’ ​

’But you were always a good man of business, Jacob,’ faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to himself. ​

‘Business!’ cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. ‘Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!’”​

Question 15

The Ghost of Christmas Past

Answer 15

The Ghost of Christmas Past is an interesting combination of gentleness and strength, old age and youth.​

It resembles a candle with an extinguisher for a cap, representing Scrooge’s repressed memories​

These memories give us compassion for Scrooge​

Although he forcibly extinguishes the Ghost, the light from revisiting his repressed memories doesn’t completely go out- it enables him to begin his transformation, making him more willing to listen to the lessons of the other ghosts

Question 16

The Ghost of Christmas Past

Answer 16

” It was a strange figure—like a child: yet not so like a child as like an old man, viewed through some supernatural medium, which gave him the appearance of having receded from the view, and being diminished to a child’s proportions. Its hair, which hung about its neck and down its back, was white as if with age; and yet the face had not a wrinkle in it, and the tenderest bloom was on the skin. The arms were very long and muscular; the hands the same, as if its hold were of uncommon strength. Its legs and feet, most delicately formed, were, like those upper members, bare. It wore a tunic of the purest white; and round its waist was bound a lustrous belt, the sheen of which was beautiful. It held a branch of fresh green holly in its hand; and, in singular contradiction of that wintry emblem, had its dress trimmed with summer flowers. But the strangest thing about it was, that from the crown of its head there sprung a bright clear jet of light, by which all this was visible; and which was doubtless the occasion of its using, in its duller moments, a great extinguisher for a cap, which it now held under its arm.”

Question 17

The Ghost of Christmas Present

Answer 17

The Ghost of Christmas Present is often described as a “hail fellow well met”- a large, jolly man who spreads cheer- in his case even literally through the sprinkling of his torch. ​

He also is much harder on Scrooge than the first ghost, using pressing questions and Scrooge’s own words to show him his guilt​

Question 18

The Ghost of Christmas Present

Answer 18

”’If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, none other of my race,’ returned the Ghost, ‘will find him here. What then? If he be like to die, he had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.’ ​

Scrooge hung his head to hear his own words quoted by the Spirit, and was overcome with penitence and grief. ​

‘Man,’ said the Ghost, ‘if man you be in heart, not adamant, forbear that wicked cant until you have discovered What the surplus is, and Where it is. Will you decide what men shall live, what men shall die? It may be, that in the sight of heaven, you are more worthless and less fit to live than millions like this poor man’s child. Oh God! To hear the Insect on the leaf pronouncing on the too much life among his hungry brothers in the dust!’ Scrooge bent before the Ghost’s rebuke, and trembling cast his eyes upon the ground.”​

Question 19

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come

Answer 19

The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come is a much more horrific figure, who is mostly referred to as “the Phantom” ​

He is even more cold and unfeeling toward Scrooge than Scrooge is toward humanity at the beginning of the story​

The images of the future he displays if Scrooge does not change are also cold and terrible

Question 20

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come

Answer 20

” The Phantom slowly, gravely, silently, approached. When it came near him, Scrooge bent down upon his knee; for in the very air through which this Spirit moved it seemed to scatter gloom and mystery. ​

It was shrouded in a deep black garment, which concealed its head, its face, its form, and left nothing of it visible save one outstretched hand. But for this it would have been difficult to detach its figure from the night, and separate it from the darkness by which it was surrounded. ​

He felt that it was tall and stately when it came beside him, and that its mysterious presence filled him with a solemn dread. He knew no more, for the Spirit neither spoke nor moved.”​

Question 21

Fan Scrooge

Answer 21

Fan was Ebenezer’s beloved little sister ​

Everything we see about her character is full of childish glee and warmth toward her older brother ​

Ebenezer has nothing but love and admiration for her ​

Fan serves to show us that there was a time when Scrooge cared for his family, and has the capacity to do so again- he is redeemable​

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Question 22

fan scrooge

Answer 22

”’…We’re to be together all the Christmas long, and have the merriest time in all the world.’ ​

‘You are quite a woman, little Fan!’ exclaimed the boy. ​

She clapped her hands and laughed, and tried to touch his head; but being too little, laughed again, and stood on tiptoe to embrace him… ​

‘Always a delicate creature, whom a breath might have withered,’ said the Ghost. ‘But she had a large heart!’ ​

‘So she had,’ cried Scrooge, ‘You’re right. I will not gainsay it, Spirit. God forbitr!’​

Question 23

ezzwig

Answer 23

Fezziwig is Scrooge’s old employer who he sees in one of his memories ​

He is a warm, jolly man, and makes it his business to ensure his employees and warehouse are also warm and jolly​

He represents a compassionate capitalist-the answer to the argument that you can’t be successful and caring at the same time ​

He also represents Scrooge’s choice to be an uncaring businessman​

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Question 24

ezzwig

Answer 24

”’A small matter,’ said the Ghost, ‘to make these silly folks so full of gratitude.’ ​

‘Small!’ echoed Scrooge. ​

The Spirit signed to him to listen to the two apprentices, who were pouring out their hearts in praise of Fezziwig: and when he had done so, said, ‘Why! Is it not? He has spent but a few pounds of your mortal money: three or four perhaps. Is that so much that he deserves this praise?’ ‘It isn’t that,’ said Scrooge, heated by the remark, and speaking unconsciously like his former, not his latter, self. ‘It isn’t that, Spirit. He has the power to render us happy or unhappy; to make our service light or burdensome; a pleasure or a toil. Say that his power lies in words or looks; in things so slight and insignificant that it is impossible to add or count ‘em up: what then? The happiness he gives, is quite as great as if it cost a fortune.’”​

Question 25

tiny tim

Answer 25

Tiny Tim represents the innocent children who helplessly suffer as a result of society’s indifference toward the poor​

Tim is characterized by total innocence, selflessness, and Christian virtue, despite his crippling disease​

Unlike Scrooge, Tiny Tim has nothing- he is helpless, weak, and costly to his family- yet ironically he loves to spread cheer, is beloved by those around him, and is the most powerful factor in Scrooge’s transformation

Question 26

tiny tim

Answer 26

”’And how did little Tim behave?’ asked Mrs. Cratchit… ​

‘As good as gold,’ Bob said, ‘and better. Somehow he gets thoughtful, sitting by himself so much, and thinks the strangest things you ever heard. He told me, coming home, that he hoped the people saw him in the church, because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to remember upon Christmas Day, who made lame beggars walk, and blind men see.’​