Scrooge Stave 1

Question 1

Represents:

Answer 1

All the values that are opposed to the idea of Christmas
– greed
– selfishness
– lack of goodwill
Capacity for love inside everyone
The uncharitable capitalists that lived in London during Dickens’ time

Question 2

Repetition of ‘he’

Answer 2

Initially, the repetitive use of the pronoun “he“ accentuates his isolation, only when he is spoken to do we discover his name.

Question 3

‘Squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner’

Answer 3

• Dickens’ asyndetic listing creates an almost hyperbolic affect, the grim and violent verbs seem to intensify Scrooges coldness they create a screeching sound which adds to this impression of horror and misery.
  – Use of mechanical language seems to do humanise him he has no emotions, he is merely a ‘money’ machine.
• Written aa the same time of the industrial revolution

Question 4

‘Secret’ ‘self-contained’

Answer 4

Sibilance is sinister, adding to the Gothic tone of the novella and Scrooge’s own character.

Question 5

‘Solitary as an oyster’

Answer 5

Simile- describes Scrooge’s isolation but also Oysters were very common in the Thames, but sometimes pearls grow inside oysters, suggesting that there is a potential for something else inside Scrooge.

Question 6

‘Lips blue’ ‘frosty’ ‘low temperature’ ‘iced’

Answer 6

• Scrooge is the epitome of something truly cold hearted.
• ‘lips blue’ association with death- perhaps the death of kindness within Scrooge. The cold within him permeates every part of his existence.

Question 7

Repetition of ‘no’

Answer 7

Anaphora of no implies that there is an absence of something within Scrooge, hint at his capacity for reform.

Question 8

‘External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge’

Answer 8

Numerous weather metaphors serve to dehumanise Scrooge, yet again. Here weather has no effect on him

Question 9

‘Nobody ever stopped him in the street’

Answer 9

Here we feel our first inkling of sympathy for Scrooge and his dreary and isolated being.

Question 10

‘Cold, bleak, biting weather’

Answer 10

• Incessant use of pathetic fallacy throughout reflects Scrooge’s cold persona.
• Plosive sound created by the ‘b’ also adds aggression to Scrooge’s character.

Question 11

‘Palpable brown air’

Answer 11

• ‘brown’ impression of dirt/filth industrial revolution.

- Scrooge is perhaps blindsided by ‘brown air’- representative of his callous and unfair beliefs.

Question 12

‘Dingy clouds come dropping down obscuring everything’

Answer 12

• ‘drooping’ connotes misery
• ‘dingy’ looming, mundane and monotonous
• ‘obscuring’ you cant tell what is happening
• metaphor seems to sum up Scrooge’s being wholly.

Question 13

‘What reason you have to be merry?’

Answer 13

Scrooge questions happiness/Christmas’ existence.

Question 14

‘Extinguished the last frail spark forever’

Answer 14

Dickens seems to rule out the idea that any warmth/ love can penetrate Scrooge’s misery coldness.

Question 15

‘Cold as he was, was warmer than Scrooge’

Answer 15

Dickens plays with both the metaphorical and physical nature of warmth and compassion, using heat to suggest Scrooge’s misery in contrast to Bon Cratchit’s literal coldness, Scrooge’s metaphorical lack of warmth is the means to the pain of others.

Question 16

‘Are there no prisons?’

‘Decrease the surplus population’

Answer 16

Scrooge displays an extremely flippant attitude to the working classes, voicing the ideology of Thomas Malthus.

Dickens hated Malthus, he expresses this anti-Malthusian Sentiment, Scrooge being a proponent for it and underpinning Scrooge’s facetious and flippant character.

Question 17

‘Fog and darkness thickened’

Answer 17

• The fog seems to be a symbol for the fog that swathes Scrooge’s mind, over stave 1 the fog gets thicker which not only sets a gothic tone but also foreshadows the worsening of attitudes and destitution in London.
• Fog also hints at Scrooge’s change, dog had the potential to clear even if it is once thick and impenetrable.

Question 18

‘God bless you merry gentleman’

Answer 18

• The carol singer seems to not only echo the final line of the novel but also foreshadows Scrooge’s change.

Question 19

‘Very low fire indeed’

Answer 19

• Diminutive amount of fire may refer to the amount of care he gives the outside world and the little warmth and compassion that Scrooge possesses.

Question 20

‘There is more gravy than grave about you’

‘Disturbed the very marrow in his bones’

Answer 20

• Even in this situation, Scrooge makes a pun, he finds humour in the flaws of others.
• On the surface, Scrooge seems undisturbed but beneath he is terrified, perhaps this suggests that although he is outwardly cold, inside there is a potential for something else.