Scrooge VOCAB

Question 1

Cupidity

Answer 1

noun
avarice; greed; strong desire to possess something
“Displaced” is a noun selected by Dickens to reveal the extent of Scrooge’s cupidity; he desires wealth so strongly that he has prioritised it above his engagement to Belle.

Question 2

Avaricious

Answer 2

adjective
showing extreme greed for wealth or material possesions
Dickens establishes Scrooge’s avaricious nature in Stave 2 where Belle says, “Another idol has displaced me”.

Question 3

Miser

Answer 3

noun
a person who hoards wealth and spends as little money as possible
Scrooge is presented as a cold-hearted miser: “I cannot afford to make idle people merry”.

Question 4

Miserly

Answer 4

adjective
reluctant to give or spend; not generous
When Scrooge refuses to give to the Charity Men, the reader sees his miserly disposition.

Question 5

Rapacious

Answer 5

adjective
inordinately greedy; predatory
In his and Belle’s Stave 2 dialogue, Scrooge’s rapacious disposition is exhibited: “Another idol has displaced me” and “a golden one”.

Question 6

Covetous

Answer 6

adjective
inordinately or wrongly desirous of wealth or possessions
Scrooge is made aware of Marley’s covetous life to initiate his journey to either salvation or damnation, in accordance with the Medieval Morality Tale basis Dickens used.

inordinately means excessively

Question 7

Unsympathetic

Answer 7

adjective
expressing no feelings of pity or sorrow at someone else’s misfortune
When asked if he would donate to the destitute on Christmas Eve, Scrooge replies “Are there no prisons?”; this rhetorical question epitomises his brutally unsympathetic Stave 1 attitude and possibly alludes to Dickens own experience of his father being sent to a debtor’s prison.

Question 8

Apathetic

Answer 8

adjective
showing or feeling no interest, enthusiasm, or concern
Scrooge is apathetic about the plight of the poor.

Question 9

Isolated

Answer 9

adjective
alone
A purposely isolated person - “I wish to be left alone” - Scrooge possibly is avoiding pain like his father may have exposed him to in childhood.

Question 10

Misanthropic

Answer 10

adjective
showing a hatred, dislike, or distrust of humankind
Scrooge’s misanthropic attitudes are evidenced in his dismissal of visitors on Christmas Eve.

Question 11

Parsimony

Answer 11

noun
extreme unwillingness to spend money or use resources
Scrooge’s parsimony is revealed in his response to the Charity Men: “I cannot afford to make idle people merry”.

Question 12

Misanthrope

Answer 12

noun
a person who dislikes humankind and avoids human society
Scrooge, a misanthrope, establishes his frigid character in Stave 1 with his dismissal of visitors on Christmas Eve.

Question 13

Insatiable

Answer 13

adjective
incapable of being satisfied or appeased
Dickens uses Scrooge to demonstrate greed’s ulitmately insatiable thirst for more, personifying the salvation a person must chose for themselves so that they are not consumed by the then emerging capitalist society.

Question 14

Frigid

Answer 14

adjective
extremely cold
His hostility manifests physically: “the cold within him froze his old features” ; therefore, as Dickens follows, people can know his frigid nature without even having to have an interaction: “no beggars implored him to bestow a trifle”.

Question 15

Impenetrability

Answer 15

noun
state of being impossible to pass through, enter or understand
Dickens’ opening description of him establishes his apparent, initial impenetrability in “no warmth could warm, not wintry weather chill him”.