The Ghosts

Question 1

All Ghost of Christmas Past Quotes

Answer 1

• “It was a strange figure - like a child : yet not so like a child as like an old man” (Stave 2 - Supernatural)
• “Wore a tunic of the purest white” (Stave 2 - Religion)
• “Bright clear jet of light” (Stave 2 - Regret/Redemption)

Question 2

“It was a strange figure - like a child : yet not so like a child as like an old man” (Stave 2 - Supernatural)

Answer 2

• Ghost presented as paradoxical and conflicting, not conforming to the physical ideas of the human world. The juaxtaposition of it being like a “child” and simultaneously like an “old man” is metaphorical for Scrooge. He is physically like an “old man” as he is branded an “old sinner” yet is vulnerable and isolated akin to how he was as a child

Question 3

“Wore a tunic of the purest white” (Stave 2 - Religion)

Answer 3

• “Purest white” creates a celestial image of heaven and purity from sin
• Suggestive his aim is to resurface Scrooge’s repressed memories and emotions to purify him from previous sins allowing a chance of redemption to enter heaven

Question 4

“Bright clear jet of light” (Stave 2 - Regret/Redemption)

Answer 4

• “Light” creates an image of hope and brightness,symbolising the ghost’s function is to brihgten up Scrooge’s life with his moral awakening
• Ghost tries to show hopeful and joyous life he could live if he embarks on a pathway of redemption

Question 5

All Ghost Of Christmas Present Quotes

Answer 5

• “If he be like to die,he better do it, and decrease the surplus population” (Stave 3 - Selfishness/Social Injustice)
• “The boy is ignorance. The girl is want” (Stave 3 Selfishness/Social Injustice)
• “Kind,generous,hearty nature” - (Stave 3 - Religion)

Question 6

“If he be like to die,he better do it, and decrease the surplus population” (Stave 3 - Selfishness/Social Injustice)

Answer 6

• Ghost emulates Scrooge’s Malthusian views allowing the reader to reflect on his words and the detrimental impact they have caused

Question 7

“The boy is ignorance. The girl is want” (Stave 3 Selfishness/Social Injustice)

Answer 7

• Allegorical characters to highlight the unjustified abuse on innocent children as a result of poverty
• Uses the ghost of christmas present as his mouthpiece to criticise the socio-economic poverty that pervaded Victorian society

Question 8

“Kind,generous,hearty nature” (Stave 3 - Religion)

Answer 8

• Triplet could have biblical allusions to the holy trinity
• Allusion how the ghost is there to bring Scrooge back to his moral foundations

Question 9

All Of Ghost Yet To Come Quotes

Answer 9

• “I fear you more than any spectre I have seen” (Stave 4 - Regret/Redemption)
• “Slowly,gravely,silently approached” (Stave 4 - Supernatural)
• “Overrun by grass and weeds” (Stave 4 - Selfishness/Materialism)

Question 10

“I fear you more than any spectre I have seen” (Stave 4 - Regret/Redemption)

Answer 10

• Scrooge’s honesty, due to his dropping of his miserable unphased façade, highlights how he is learning to no longer repress emotions and be emotionally vulnerable and open

Question 11

“Slowly,gravely,silently approached” (Stave 4 - Supernatural)

Answer 11

• Triple of ominous adverb shows menacing ambience filled with dread
• Exacerbated through the archetypcal presentation of a menacing ghost - a faceless figure there to haunt Scrooge

Question 12

“Overrun by grass and weeds” (Stave 4 - Selfishness/Materialism)

Answer 12

• Consequences of selfishness and compounded by showing Scrooge the irreversibility and permanence of wasting time living a life full of misery
• Scrooge’s sardonic life has lead him being neglected in his after life