Chapter 1

• 'Hard and sharp as flint'-

  • Scrooge is very cold
  • A danger to people
• 'Oh! But he was a tight- fisted band at the grindstone Scrooge'-

  • He is a very hard worker
  • Doesn't spend his money
  • The only thing he is interested in
  • Dickens is emphasising it- wants the reader to know
• 'External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge'-

  • He doesn't care about anything even if people try to help him, he doesn't change.
  • He is emotionless
• Children and adults don't ask him the time and directions because:

  • They are scared of him
  • They know they won't get an answer
  • They know he will be unpleasant
• 'No eye is better than an evil eye master!'-

  • Referring to their owner
  • The dogs are protecting owner from 'evil' (Scrooge)
  • May be trying to say that Scrooge is the devil
• Scrooge liked 'to edge his way along the crowded paths of life, waring all human sympathy to keep his distance' as:

  • He is uncaring
  • He avoids everyone and hopes that they will avoid him too.
• The reader may think:

  • He is the only unhappy person
  • He only cares about money
  • He is selfish and self-absorbed
  • It is difficult to like him
  • Hope that he might change
  • Contrast between the other people and him
• 'But what did Scrooge care? It was the only thing he liked.'-

  • Doesn't care about anything but money.