GCSE

• Characters


  • Scrooge
  • Marley
  • Fred
  • Ghost of Christmas Past
  • Ghost of Christmas Present
  • Tiny Tim
• Scrooge


  Focused on wealth and keeping all his money to himself, often described as a miser
• Marley


  His ghost appears to Scrooge wrapped by chains and boxes which represent how his greed and selfishness have weighed him down in the afterlife
• Fred


  Always cheerful and excited about Christmas and the happiness it brings
• Ghost of Christmas Present

  Shows Scrooge the Cratchit family at home and Tiny Tim who has a crutch and is physically weak
• A Christmas Carol


  Dickens used the genre of a ghost story and the ideas of looking across time to excite and scare his readers but also to teach them that their actions can impact on lots of people's lives
• Themes


  • Transformation
  • Poverty
• Activity


  Think of three adjectives for each of the eight characters listed and write down why you think this adjective applies to this character
• Scrooge


  Rude, pessimistic, set in his ways
• Question


  Explore how Dickens presents Scrooge in this extract. Give examples from the extract to support your views.
• Activity

  1. Read the extract

  2. Write 9 words or phrases which sum up the extract

  3. Underline or copy out 3 things from the extract

  4. Analyse why the 3 words describing Scrooge are important and what Dickens is trying to say about Scrooge by using them
• Scrooge's character


  Can be talked about in relation to another character, such as Fred, or how it might be linked to key themes in the play, such as greed or poverty
• The key is to use evidence from the text to support and highlight all the points being made
• Dickens: 'Presents Scrooge as a rude and stubborn man'
• Dickens' use of language

  • Exclamations such as "humbug" and "out with Merry Christmas" show how Scrooge is stubborn and refuses to listen to his nephew's ideas
• Dickens' use of violent imagery

  • Shows Scrooge's weakness, describing how he believes people who say "Merry Christmas" should be "boiled" or "buried"
• Scrooge's violent and iterative verbs

  Could show how he is not prepared to change his views, even for members of his own family
• The student has used several short embedded quotations such as "boiled" and "buried"
• The student has analyzed the language, such as the use of questions, to show how stubborn and argumentative Scrooge is
• The student has a clear focus on the question, using subject terminology and integrating it throughout
• The student has developed the points made in the last part of the paragraph, analyzing the language and what Dickens may have intended with its use