Stave 1

• Scrooge is a parsimonious (stingy) man who refuses to celebrate christmas, or anything positive in life.
• We see his interactions with Fred (his nephew) to which he shows his miserly traits. Fred is the antithesis (opposite) to Scrooge as he is positive and jovail.
• Scrooge dismisses two gentlemen collecting money for charity because he believes the poor should be put in prisons and workhouses instead (place where the poor work in exchange for food and a place to stay - exploitative conditions).
• Scrooge returns home to where he is visited by the first ghost - Marley (ex business partner).
• Marley is draped in chains, symbolising that eternal punishment, and tries to warn Scrooge that if he continues on this greedy and selfish trajectory he will end up the same as Marley.
• Scrooge is terrified and petrified, he puts seeing Marley down to a "disorder of the stomach" e.g food poisoning. Marley tells him 3 other ghosts will come and visit him.