Redemption Flashcards
Main idea about redemption:
1) Dickens uses the weather (pathetic fallacy) to express how Scrooge feels.
2) Scrooge is miserly/parsimonious and misanthropic in the beginning mirroring the attitudes of upper class business men in Victorian society.
3) Scrooge is then visited by the ghosts and wants to learn and profit by it. What finally changes his attitudes is him discovering his poor legacy and death - somewhat selfish.
4) Scrooge is then philanthropic and altruistic. He helps the lower class and becomes a good Christian.
‘Hard and sharp as flint from which…
no steel had ever struck out generous fire’
‘squeezing, wrenching, grasping…
scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner’
‘secret, self-contained and…
solitary as an oyster’
‘A frosty rime was on his head…
he carried his own low temperature always about with him’
‘To edge his way along the crowded paths of life…
warning all human sympathy to keep its distance’
‘the ancient tower of a church became invisible…
winking their eyes before the blaze in rapture’
“Tonight if you have aught to teach me…
let me profit by it”
“I will honour Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all the year…
I will live in the Past, Present and Future. The spirits of all three shall strive within me.”
“Oh, tell me I may…
sponge away the writing on this stone”
“I am as light as a feather…
I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a school-boy”
“I’m quite a _____!”
baby
Significance of the window:
The window at first is closed as he distances himself from society but once he is reborn it is wide open and he sticks his head out of it.
Motif of fire:
When he is miserly the fire is weak but once he redeems himself and gives back to society the fire is grand.
‘No fog, no mist;…
clear, bright, jovial… golden sunlight’
