Stave 2 Flashcards
“The curtains of his bed were drawn aside, I tell you, by a hand”
This sentece is coloquial and gossip like which gives the sense of a disembodied (voice with no fixed location)narrator. This likes to a typical ghost story.
“Your welfare!” - The Ghost of Christmas Past
It is a reflection of Scrooge’s dialect - cold and buisness like . This comes as a shock to him as he feels above it and questions his worth just as Bob would on a daily basis.
“It put out it’s strong hand as it spoke and clasped him gently by the arm” - Narrator
The contrast between the “strong hand” and “gently” is used by Dickens to show the authority of the ghost used for good to care for Scrooge.
“Rise! And walk with me!” - The Ghost of Christmas Past
Dickens uses imperatives to command Scrooge and to express the ghost’s authority.
“The panels shrunk, the windows cracked; fragments of plaster fell out of the ceiling….” - Narrator
When he is alone at the school, Scrooge walks despairingly and the room reflects his mood - negative imagery used to describe Scrooge’s Christmas.
“….have the merriest time in all the world.
Dickens presents spending time with family as a happy event by using positive language, repetition and exclamation marks to indicate Fan’s enthusiastic tone. He uses Fan’s visit to contrast to the misery of isolation with the happiness of family life.
“….fuel was heaped upon the fire; and the warehouse was as snug, and warm and dry, and bright a ball-room as you would desire to see upon a winter’s night.” - Narrator
The Fezziwigs are portrayed as the perfect happy family, larger than life, jolly and musical. By connecting them to the sensations of warmth, color and music, Dickens makes them synonymous with Christmas itself, meaning that they also represent the values of goodness and generosity that Scrooge has lost. This is a complete contrast to the description of his school at Christmas to show how Scrooge has experienced both types of Christmas and only remembered one of them.
“A golden one” - Belle
The reader sees another side of Scrooge. The old miser seemed dedicated to a life of loneliness, but as a young man, Scrooge was deeply loved. This is the first sign of his personality changing and his love of money driving goodness away. This links back to Stave 1 when Scrooge got angry when Fred mentioned his wife and how Scrooge seemed to disagree with the idea of marriage altogether. This view is from his buried regrets about his fiancée and the happiness they could have enjoyed.
“….he seized the extinguisher cap, and by a sudden action pressed it down upon it’s head” - Narrator
Scrooge’s reaction to his past mistakes with regards to Belle is to shut it out and try to extinguish the ghost’s light. This light has shown him the truth and it disturbs him – he prefers his old darkness to this painful light.
