Christmas past Flashcards
like a child as
like an old man
symbolizing the cyclical and multifaceted nature of memory and the past’s influence on the present.
The juxtaposing comparisons drawn to describe the ghost as both “like a child” and “like an old man” could reflect one’s past is often distant and old, yet also new as new memories are made and old memories continue to remain and can be rediscovered.
“The figure itself fluctuated in its distinctness: being now a thing with one arm, now with one leg,
The Ephemeral warping and changing of the ghost’s body parts emphasized through the listing could reflect the great variety and amount of memories in Scrooge’s (and anyone’s) past, or could reflect the fluctuating, unreliable nature of memories and how details can be forgotten or could become warped and changed.
The juxtaposition between the simile of the grasp being “gentle as a woman’s hand” and yet it being “not to be resisted” emphasises how, although the past is gone and seems far away, the past and memories have a strong influence and impact on the present that is “not to be resisted” and cannot be escaped.
The grasp, though gentle as a woman’s hand, was not to be resisted”
