Scrooge

Question 1

‘As solitary as an oyster’ (Chapter 1)

Answer 1

• Helps to introduce Scrooge as the protagonist, satirical stereotype, exaggerated caricature, archetypal villain
• Acts as a warning to Victorian businessmen
• Reinforces his enjoyment of being alone, it is a choice
• ‘Oyster’ hard to get through, doesn’t show emotion or let people get close to him
• Doesn’t move, lack of change
• Represents possible goodness inside him, foreshadows the end (oyster opens to reveal Pearl)
• Reader has sympathy, this is important so they are actually invested in his change
• Links to Scrooge’s past, ‘solitary child’
• Sibilance, represents his sly and cold personality

Question 2

‘If they would rather die they had better do it and decrease the surplus population’ (Chapter 1)

Answer 2

• ‘They’ - dehumanises the poor, creates a divide between them and people like Scrooge
• Shows the mistaken belief that poverty is a choice and caused by laziness
• Ignorance
• Malthusesque - antithesis of Dickens
• ‘Surplus’ - again dehumanises the poor, disposable, views then as a statistic, shows the unempathetic nature of Victorian businessmen
• Contemporary readers may secretly agree with Scrooge at this point however later in the novella the present ghost references this line when talking ab Tiny Tim, Scrooge immediately feels regret and this is designed to make the readers also question their previous views

Question 3

‘I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a schoolboy’ (S5)

Answer 3

• Denouement of the novella
• List of similes and cliches
• This contrasts the heavy laden vocab used in stave 1 to the more simplistic choices now, linguistic change shows more light hearted free Scrooge
• ‘Light’ - suggests he’s been weighed down by his obsession with money, now he has freedom, contrasts the concept of the drain ‘heavy coil’
• ‘Feather’ - freedom of birds
• ‘Angel’ - symbolises Christian morality, by living true Christian value he has found happiness, remind readers of the true Christian values, maybe links to sabitarianism
• ‘Schoolboy’ - slight irony as Scrooge wasn’t actually happy when he was a schoolboy so this shows how people are able to change, wants to relearn and start again
• Christian beliefs in redemption, contrasts the negative similes in act 1
• Anaphora of ‘I am’ - redefining himself
• Less of a 1 dimensional character

Question 4

‘And to Tiny Tim, who did not die, he was a second father’ (Chapter 5)

Answer 4

• At first we see Scrooge rejecting family (Fred and Belle)
• Shows the reader they have a social responsibility to become ‘fathers’ to the poor
• Dickens saw families as communities and social groups connected by shared humanity not just bloodline
• His new responsibility contrasts chapter 1 (decrease surplus pop)
• Mutually beneficial relationship as Scrooge shows regrets of not having children

Question 5

‘His name casts a shadow’ (S3)

‘The shadows of things that would have been, may be dispelled’

Question 6

Page 28

Question 7

‘Hard and sharp as flint’ (S1)

Answer 7

• Part of dickens exposition
• Provides a hint of change due to the potential ‘spark’
• Unnatural
• Inability to create a spark, not making a change or fulfilling his role in society