A Christmas Carol

• Scrooge

  • 'as solitary as an oyster' enclosed but may open up to something more beautiful
  • 'every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on their lips should be boiled with his own pudding and buried with a stake of holly through his heart' Scrooge has some of the funniest lines in the play to ensure we sympathise with him
  • 'I learnt a lesson which is working now. To-night if you have aught to teach me, let me profit by it' Scrooge ties his development and therefore all things good with profit- money
  • 'Scrooge was better than his word'
• The Cratchits

  • 'I wish I had him here Id give him a peace of my mind to feast upon, and I hope had have a good apetite for it' Mrs Cratchit dislike Scrooge because of the treatment of her husband testament to her love. 'Christmas' Mrs Cratchit stops her rant when Bob reminds her of the occasion- contemporary roles
  • Bob declares Scrooge the 'founder of the feast' despite his measly conditions- Christian forgiveness
  • 'Scrooge had a very small fire but the clerks was so very much smaller' the comparative of smaller portrays that Scrooge believes he is more deserving
  • 'dressed out but poorly in a twice turned gown, but brave in ribbons' Mrs Cratchit makes an attempt to mark Christmas day, whereas Scrooge has an empty and desolate room
• The Cratchit Children

  • Peter Cratchit is on the verge of manhood symbolised by his 'monstrous' shirt that is to big for him, the shirt he is wearing is second hand 'Bob's private property conferred upon his son' symbolising him to share the same fate as his Dad
  • 'Belinda Cratchit, second of her daughters, also brave in ribbons' the reflection between mother and daughter and the fact we are first addressed to Belinda with domestic chores shows a shared fate
  • 'because he was a cripple and it may be pleasant to them to remember upon Christmas day who made lame beggars walk and blind men see' Jesus did not ignore the disabled (Tiny Tim)
  • The future Belinda and Martha are referred to as 'daughters... engaged in sewing' and are not given an identity
• Marley

  • 'you will be haunted by three spirits' Marley's premonition has dramatic function as it makes the structure easier to understand later
  • 'doomed to wander through the world' Dickins uses biblical allusions to purgatory. The alliteration of 'w' slows down the sentence like his eternal wandering
  • Scrooge being Marley's 'sole mourner' replicates as solitary as an oyster however their is no pearl of redemption for Marley
  • 'perfectly convinced that Hamlets father died before the play' King Hamlet's political decisions may be attributed to his death, Marley's politics (Malthusian economics) may be attributed to his eternal torment
• Fred


  • 'A merry Christmas uncle, God save you!' 'Bah!' 'Humbug!' the set of exclamation marks shows Fred and Scrooge to be two sets of strongly opposing ideals
  • 'He had heated himself in rapid walking' 'all in a glow' Fred is warm in contrast to Scrooge's 'he carried his own low temperature always about with him'
  • 'kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant' the asyndetic listing places earnest on the words which all have positive Christian connotations
  • Fred persists to invite Scrooge 'don't be angry uncle. Come! Dine with us tomorrow' which mirrors Fran picking Scrooge up from school showing he had the opportunity for positive relationships
  • When the future Tiny Time dies Fred offers to be 'of service' helping Bob rather than exploiting him
  • 'I mean to give him the same chance every year, whether he likes it or not, for I pity him' Christian forgiveness
• The three ghosts

  • 'you are one of those whose passions made this cap' Scrooge intends on extinguishing the light and therefore the knowledge
  • 'he seized the cap and by a sudden action pressed it down upon his head' Even following Scrooge's extinguish the light remains suggesting he cannot ignore the teachings of the ghost
  • 'a jolly giant, glorious to see: who bore a glowing torch, in shape not unlike plenty's horn' having the motif of the cornucopia suggests that the indulgent in Christmas is permissible
  • 'It was shrouded in a black garment which concealed its head, its face, its form' the ambiguity of the ghost reflects the ambiguity of Scrooge's future/ looks like grim reaper
  • 'The phantom slowly, gravely, silently approached' the reference to a phantom suggests his present feels different to the other ghosts, the listing and adverbs give ominous slow pace
• Ignorance and want

  • By revealing ignorance and want with the ghost of Christmas present Dickins is solidifying that these flaws exist in the present
  • 'wretched, abject, frightful, hideous, miserable' contrasts from the prior festivities in Fred's house and the tour around 'many homes.. always with a happy ending' to shock the reader
  • 'yellow, meagre, ragged, scowling, wolfish' 'yellow' refers to the disease of jaundice which can be caused by prolonged malnutrition 'wolfish' refers to an animal and 'ragged' refers to ragged schools