A Christmas Carol

• Ebenezer Scrooge


  The main character of the novella, a cold and miserly old man who owns a London counting house and hates Christmas
• Bob Cratchit


  Scrooge's clerk, a kind and mild-mannered man who is very poor and has a large family to provide for
• Mrs Cratchit


  Bob Cratchit's wife, a kind and loving woman with little patience for Ebenezer Scrooge
• Peter Cratchit


  Bob Cratchit's oldest son
• Martha and Belinda Cratchit


  Two of Bob Cratchit's daughters
• Tiny Tim


  Bob Cratchit's youngest son, who is crippled from birth
• Fred


  Scrooge's nephew, a genial man who loves Christmas
• Jacob Marley


  Scrooge's former business partner, who appears as a ghost to warn Scrooge
• Ghost of Christmas Past


  The first spirit to visit Scrooge, taking him on a tour of his past Christmases
• Ghost of Christmas Present


  The second spirit to visit Scrooge, showing him the Christmas celebrations of those closest to him
• Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come


  The third and final spirit to visit Scrooge, showing him images of future Christmases and his own solitary death
• Key themes


  • Generosity
  • Compassion
  • Christmas spirit
  • Redemption and free will
  • Social injustice
  • The supernatural
• Structure


  The novella is split into five 'staves' (chapters), with each stave having a clear purpose
• Narrator


  The narrator has a casual, talkative tone and controls the mood of the novella, becoming more serious as the tale progresses
• Language


  • Dickens uses personification, figurative language, symbolism, and imagery to bring the setting and themes to life
  • The mood shifts from festive and jolly to dark and serious to reflect the social responsibility Dickens is trying to convey
• Key quotes


  • "a solitary as an oyster"
  • "if they would rather die... they'd better do it and decrease the surplus population"
  • "darkness is cheap and Scrooge liked it"
  • "mankind was my business"
  • "I am as happy as an angel"
  • "I am as merry as a schoolboy"
• A Christmas Carol was written in 1843 during a time of great change in early Victorian Britain, with the Industrial Revolution and a widening gap between the rich and poor
• "A merry Christmas to everybody! God save you!"
• "He was very slow in coming to the office that morning."
• "Scrooge had become as lean and yellow as an old parchment."
• "I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a schoolboy"
• "A small matter but to Scrooge very terrible"
• "The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice."
• "It was cold, bleak, biting weather..."
• "There were more than usual lights about the shop windows, and these were all so brilliantly lighted up that Scrooge might have thought himself in a confectioner's."
• "The cold within him froze his old features..."
• "It is required of every man," the Ghost returned, "that he shall know himself before he can be improved."
• "It was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well if any man alive possessed the knowledge."
• "No space of regret can make amends for one life's opportunity misused."
• "It is required of every man that he shall be the architect of his own fortune"
• "There are some upon this earth of yours who lay claim to know us, and who do their deeds of passion, pride, ill-will, hatred, envy, bigotry, and selfishness in our name, who are as strange to us and all our works as we are to them."
• "The cold within him froze his old features"
• "There are some upon this earth of yours who lay claim to knowledge and wisdom. They will show you two sides to every question."
• "If they would rather die, they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population"
• "He had no further intercourse with Spirits, but lived upon the Total Abstinence Principle, ever afterwards"
• "...the snow came pouring down upon the streets, piling up into drifts and powdering the roof-tops like icing sugar."
• "He took his melancholy dinner in his usual melancholy tavern; and having read all the newspapers, and being too heavy-hearted to devise any new misery for himself or other people, went home early to bed."
• "His lip is trembling with suppressed tears, and he looks around on the company whom he has been scolding."
• "...a solitary child, wrapped in rags, huddled on the doorstep..."
• "Scrooge signed the contract, and did it gladly"