(1) the ghost of christmas past

• Keyword:

  • Paradoxical (youth and old age, conflicting depiction)
• Key phrase:

  • Amalgamation of youth and old age (simultaneously looking like a mix of things)
• Keyword:

  • Childhood (resembles a child and old man)
• Keyword:

  • Compassion (sympathetic pity and concern for the suffering or misfortune of others)
• Keyword:

  • Etheral (heavenly)
• Keyword:

  • Pure (white, purity, heaven, innocence)
• Key phrase:

  • Symbol of hope
• Context: The mixture of youth and age was a fascination within the Victorian era.

  • Their emphasis on the youth of children caused a parallel interest to those in their older age.
• Victorian literature often focused on the angelic representation of the youth.

  • Dickens incorporates this trope in a lot of his work.

  He uses the ghost to explore how all people, even misanthropic individuals, have this angelic untainted youth that is deeply repressed.
• Dickens uses the ghost as a vehicle to carry the message that the repression of a myriad (a lot/a range) of emotions is detrimental (causes harm).

  • Also how individuals, regardless of class, need to recognise that everybody has this innocent child within them that needs nurturing - nobody should be neglected.
• Despite the ghost's uncanny (eerie) representation, the ghost is depicted as having an ethereal (heavenly) quality as it "wore a tunic of the purest white".
• The ghost of Xmas past "wore a tunic of the purest white".

  • "purest white" creates a celestial ( relating to heaven) image of heaven and purity from sin.

  As the ghost wears a "tunic" of this colour, it is suggestive that his aim is to resurface Scrooge's repressed memories and emotions in order to purify him from his previous sins.

  • This would allow Scrooge a chance of redemption to later enter heaven.
• The ghost is presented as the anthesis to Scrooge as it was a "contradiction of that wintry emblem, had its dress trimmed with summer flowers".

  • The "wintry emblem" could be metaphorical for Scrooge as the wintry conceit (extended metaphor) used in Stave 1 highlighted his inner cold miser.
• The ghost is presented as the anthesis to Scrooge as it was a "contradiction of that wintry emblem, had it's dress trimmed with summer flowers".

  • As the ghost wears "summer flowers", connotating beauty and growth, it reinforces how the ghost is here to ignite the spiritual growth and awakening of Scrooge - eradicating his "wintry" unapproachable persona.
• There is a motif of light throughout the novella, most clearly presented through the Ghost of Christmas Past.

  • The ghost has a "bright clear jet of light" that emerges from it.
• The ghost has a "bright clear jet of light" that emerges from it.

  • Light creates an image of hope and brightness, this symbolises how the ghost's function is to brighten up Scrooge's life with moral awakening.
• The Ghost of Christmas Past's function is to show Scrooge how hopeful and joyous a life he could lead if he embarks on a pathway of redemption.

  • From the start, it alludes that he could be a model citizen from the start with "solitary as an oyster" - oysters contain pearls.
• As the ghost's light is emblematic (symbolic) of hope, as Scrooge "could not hide the light" it foreshadows how Scrooge cannot escape his redemption.

  • The ghost will help aid Scrooge to his moral and spiritual awakening and he cannot "hide" from this.
• The ghost is presented as being paradoxical and conflicting, not conforming to physical ideas of the human world:

  • "It was a strange figure - like a child: yet not so like a child as like an old man"
• "It was a strange figure - like a child: yet not so like a child as like an old man"

  • The juxtaposition of it being "like a child" and simultaneously "like an old man" is metaphorical for Scrooge.

  He appears physically alike to an "old man", as he is branded an "old sinner", yet he is vulnerable and isolated akin to how he was as a "child".
• Dickens shows that youth and age are inextricably (closely) linked.

  • The elderly and the young are alike; in older age, people appear more like their younger more vulnerable selves.
• The ghost symbolises childhood and draws a parallel to how childhood memories directly impacts adulthood.

  • As the ghost appears both alike to a "child" and an "old man", it reinforces that childhood directly shapes adulthood.
• By showing Scrooge his childhood, the ghost aims to catalyse a regression in Scrooge so he can regress into his former compassionate self.

  • Regression has negative connotations, however, in Scrooge's case, regression is positive as his former self was more desirable than his present.
• The Ghost of Christmas Past exchanges the most dialogue out of the 3 ghosts.

  • As he is showing Scrooge's childhood, he is almost "gently" speaking and guiding Scrooge's inner repressed childhood emotions and traumas.

  Scrooge's troubled psyche (soul, mind, spirit) is fully explored in his past.
• The ghosts can be seen to be physical reflections of Scrooge's anxieties - the ghost of the past physically representing his childhood reflect this was a fear of Scrooge's.
• The ghosts can be seen to be supernatural incarnations (embodies a quality) of Scrooge.

  • Thus, when the ghost has "one arm, now with one leg, now with twenty legs, now a pair of legs" its metamorphosis (physical transformation) and transmogrification (change in a surprising manner) could be symbolic of how Scrooge's surprising change is imminent.