Stave 1

• About Scrooge: “As solitary as an oyster.”

  • Alone and surrounded by an aura of darkness (e.g. dark ocean)
  • A hard shell that is difficult to pry open
  • Although oysters have pearls, representing the good in him.
• “External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge.”
• “If they would rather die,” said Scrooge, “they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”

  • Malthusian economics - believed there was too many people for the words resources
  • Reveals Scrooge's apathy, and he would rather the poor die than be a financial burden
• “Darkness is cheap, and Scrooge liked it.” 
• Marley’s Ghost: “Mankind was my business.” 

  • Shows how the rich exploit the poor
• Marley’s Ghost: “I am here to-night to warn you, that you have yet a chance and hope of escaping my fate.”   
• He was as hard and sharp as flint.
• I don't make merry myself at Christmas and I can't afford to make idle people merry.
• “Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?”

  • Scrooge displays an uncaring attitude to the poor as appears to be a miser who refuses to be charitable
  • Reveals his ignorance and inability to distinguish lower classes and criminals
  • Dickens shows Scrooges Malthusian ideas of how to solve poverty are deeply flawed
• "What right have you to be dismal? You're rich enough." / “What reason have you to be merry? You’re poor enough.”
• If that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death.
• I wear the chain I forged in life.
• Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner!
• He carried his own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the dog-days; and didn’t thaw it one degree at Christmas.
• '“A merry Christmas, uncle! God save you!” cried a cheerful voice'

  • Opposite of Scrooge
  • Warm and welcoming
  • Fred always juxtaposes Scrooge in the beginning
• "his face was ruddy and handsome; his eyes sparkled, and his breath smoked again."

  • Description of Fred shows him to juxtapose scrooge
  • Perhaps the Christmas spirit is reflected by the sparkle in his eyes and that is why he is so happy
• “every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart."

  • Dickens illustrates Scrooge’s contempt and aversion towards Christmas
  • Dickens has Scrooge use the imagery of Christmas, but subverts it to something grotesque.
  • This contrasts with Scrooge’s character embracing Christmas at the end of the novella
  • His violent and hyperbolic language here contrasts to his language at the end which demonstrates his transformation as a character.
• “the clerk’s fire was so much smaller that it looked like one coal”

  • the feeble fire represents Scrooge’s cold attitude towards his clerk
  • perhaps a wider metaphor for how little the poor have in life
  • Reflects the trauma Scrooge experienced as a child when he was sat by the 'feeble fire'
• "A dismal little cell" and "the clerk put on his white comforter, and tried to warm himself at the candle"

  • The plight of the poor is highlighted through Bob's character and the exploitative behaviour he suffers from scrooge
  • Suggests a gloomy confinement from which he cannot escape, could be viewed as a wider symbol of his poverty
  • He like many real impoverished people depend on businessmen
  • Somewhat humorous and ironic that the clerk is trying to warm himself at a candle
• “Scrooge was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole assign, his sole residuary legatee, his sole friend, and sole mourner”

  • Dickens states they were partners for “many years” but the relationship that is presented is one merely associated with business, rather than an affectionate friendship
  • It is revealed that Scrooge answerer Both his and Marley’s name which illustrates their shallow relationship