the fezziwig’s

Question 1

characterisation of fezziwig

Answer 1

-as an employer, fezziwig directly contrasts scrooge, seen most notably through his behaviour on xmas eve
-fezziwig tells his apprentices that there will be “no more work to-night” as it is christmas eve while scrooge complains to bob claiming that he has to pay wage for no work.
-this contrast highlights just how cruel Scrooge was as an employer, causing him to come to this realisation and change the way he acted with bob
-it could be argued that including fezziwig as a foil to scrooge plays a role in his transformation as it catalyses feelings of regret and a desire to change

Question 2

‘organ of benevolence’ [stave 2]

Answer 2

(mr fezziwig)

metaphor/synecdoche:
↳ refers to brain, he laughed from his toes to his brain
↳ organs are vital for life, suggesting that people like fezziwig who embody xmas spirt & goodness are fundamental to society
↳ suggests a reliance on sharing and kindness to support life, shows how kindness results in a great quality of life
↳ his brain controls him, his brain is full of benevolence, showing how his benevolence controls his every action
↳ the effect of the synecdoche is that all people’s brains at the core are organs of benevolence and everyone in society should be more inclined to kindness

Question 3

‘in came a fiddler… in came the three fezziwigs…in came the housemaid…some boldly…some awkwardly’
[stave 2]

Answer 3

repetition & asyndetic listing: ‘in came the’
↳ emphasises the theme of generosity
↳ fezziwig wasn’t concerned with social status, dickens did this to show his readers that class didn’t matter when celebrating and that it shouldn’t divide us
↳ dickens wanted to show how christmas is supposed to be celebrated, with the happiness and jolliness
↳ the mix of classes shows that it shouldn’t matter what background you come from, because at christmas everyone is like family
↳ by including the long list of people attending, dickens is giving them all individual importance supporting the idea of equality which he was trying to advocate

Question 4

‘one vast substantial smile’ [stave 2]

Answer 4

(mrs fezziwig)

lexical field of massiveness/metaphor:
↳ substantial relates to something being large and filling, showing how dickens believes that goodness and christmas spirit can spiritually fill someone and make them feel whole, he is therefore alluding to the fact that philanthropy makes society a better place

juxtaposition: ‘one’ vs ‘substantial’
↳ the fact that one smile can be of great importance shows how much of an impact equality and philanthropy can have in dickens opinion and directly communicates the main message of the book, the middle upper class and above who read this would’ve hopefully reflected on their behaviour

Question 5

‘a positive light appeared to issue from fezziwig’s calves’ [stave 2]

Answer 5

metaphor:
↳ the fact that light seems to radiate from fezziwig seems almost hyperbolic and makes it seem as though his goodness comes out as an aura (relates to fred)

biblical reference: ‘positive light’
↳ jesus is the light of the world and brings salvation, this makes it seem as though fezziwig, and by extension those who spread goodness are saviours like the messiah, jesus was said to wash away the sins of the world and bring the world to a state of peace, dickens compares the effect of philanthropy to this state of harmony