Christmas past Flashcards
Dickens exploration of youth
-Victorian literature often focused on the angelic presentation of the youth
-Dickens incorpates this trope a lot of his work. He uses the ghost to explore how all people even misanthropic individuals have this angelic untainted youth that is deeply repressed
-uses the ghost as a vehicle to carry the message that the repression of a myriad of emotions is detrimental and how all individuals regardless of class need to recognise that everybody has this innocent child within them that needs nurturing-nobody should be neglected
“wore a tunic of the purest white”
-despite the ghosts uncanny presentation the ghost is depicted as having an ethereal quality as it wore quote
-‘purest white’ creates a celestial image if heaven and purity from sins. As the ghost wears a tunic of this colour, it is suggestive that his aim is to resurface S’s repressed memories and emotions in order to purify him from his previous sins
-this would allow S at a chance of redemption to later whether heaven
“Contradiction of that wintry emblem had its dress trimmed with summery flowers”
-antithesis to scrooge as it was a quote
-this winter emblem could be metaphorical for S as the winery conceit used in stage 1 highlighted his inner cold miser
-ghost wears summer flowers connoting beauty and growth, it reinforces how the ghost is there to ignite the spiritual growth and awakening of S- eradicating his wintry unapproachable persona
Aiding his redemption
-as the ghosts light is emblematic of hope, as Scrooge ‘could not hide the light’ it foreshadows how S can’t escape his redemption, the ghost will help aid S to his moral and spiritual awakening and he cannot hide from this
-the ghost of Christmas past exchanges the most dialogue out of the 3 ghosts. As he is showing S his childhood he is almost ‘gently speaking and guiding S inner repressed childhood emotions and trauma: S’s troubles psyche is fully explored within his past
“One arm, now with one leg, now with twenty legs, now a pair of legs”
-ghost can also be seen to be supernatural incarnations of Scrooge this when gjost has quote it’s metamorphosis and transmogrification could be symbolic of how S’# transmogrification is imminent
