Scrooge

• Are there no prisons

  The union workhouses?


  Scrooge wants to contain poor not help them. Dehumanises them.

  Are there no prisons is later quoted by ghost of Christmas present in stave 3. This is a dramatic echo to force Scrooge to reflect on his own capitalistic views.

  This rekindles his own consciousness.
• The treadmill and the poor law are in full vigour


  Treadmill- people forced to walk to generate power

  Poor law 1834- workhouses, deliberately poor conditions
• Decrease the surplus population


  Plosives- harsh belief

  Echoing Malthus views

  Dickens wants to go against these views

  Staves- meant to be sung. Low literacy rate
• Kindrid spirits


  Marley is human embodiment of capitilasm and is in purgatroy.

  Marley has a "pig tail" capilitalist or dirty- sins

  Shows capitalism = bad christian
• "tight fisted hand at the grindstone"

  • Biblical passage "nor shut thine hand from your poor brother"
  • Dickens shames reader for not following bible. This succesflly makes the reader want to change and quickly.
• Solitary as an oyster


  Foreshadows change. Pearl= potential for kindness, beauty

  Misanthropic and isolated
• Hard and sharp as flint


  Hidden potential- fire

  Potential to give warmth- foreshadows change
• No wind that blew was bitterer than he


  Pathetic fallacy throughout the novella mirrors his inner transformation.

  Fig mirrors the blindness of the victorian reader. Shows obliviousness towards the suffering of poor due to capitalistic ways
• No fog no mist clear


  Pathertic fallacey contrasts stave 1 "no wind that blew was bitterer than he"

  Fog has cleared. Metaphorically so has the readers blindness to the actions of capitalism and the suffering of the poor
• Quite a baby


  Reborn

  Contrasts "solitary as an oyster"

  Contrasts "covetous old sinner" - cycle of rebirth old to young

  Scrooge has undergone a profound transformation
• Glowing with his good intentions


  Light=heaven, christianity

  He's finally a good christian as he's helping the poor
• i will honour christmas in my heart


  After prolepsis and analepsis with the ghosts he's enlightened

  He's had an anagnorisis- epiphany
• No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another 


  Dickens wanted to urge Victorian readers to change and help the poor
• Scrooge had the "most illustrious laugh"


  Through use of the motif of sound scrooge is in direct parallel to Fred. Before he was in juxtaposition by Fred who is the human embodiment of Christmas cheer and familial warmth. Fred served as an antithesis to Scrooge.
• i am light as a feather i am as happy as an angel


  illustrate Scrooge's transformation from avarice to benevolence, conveying the universal message that everyone is capable of redemption
• Your lip is trembling
• Half thawed half frozen