English Lit - A Christmas Carol

Created by

Grace M

Cards (19)

‘Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire’
Stave 1
Describes Scrooge as we meet him at the start of the novella 
-Technique: Simile, Adjectives ‘hard’ ‘sharp’ are juxtaposed with ‘generous’
Analysis + Links: Scrooge has the potential for ‘generous fire’ (hints at his later redemption) but now is stony. ‘Sharp’ suggests the pain he may cause others and ‘hard’ suggests his lack of humanity. Links with ‘solitary as an oyster’ - pearl within but shut up in a shell.
‘I wear the chain I forged in life...I girded it of my own free will.’
Stave 1
Marley's Ghost is talking about his life and its consequences in death 
-Technique: Simple language, Personal pronouns and Verb choices ‘forged’ and ‘girded’
-Analysis + Links: Personal pronouns suggest Marley taking personal responsibility. ‘Forged’ and ‘girded’ sound like painful and hellish processes. The noun ‘chain’ suggests being imprisoned by his own choices. Marley’s Ghost is a cautionary tale for Scrooge.
‘To edge his way along the crowded paths of life, warning all human sympathy to keep its distance’
Stave 1
The narrator is describing Scrooge 
-Technique: Metaphor to describe Scrooge’s attitude to society.
-Analysis + Links: Noun phrase ‘crowded paths of life’ looks forward to the final Stave where Scrooge ‘patted the children on the head and questioned beggars’ as he moved through the streets. Links to theme of isolation.
‘If they would rather die, they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population’
Stave 1
Scrooge is speaking to the Charity Collectors as he refuses to give to the poor 
-Technique: Allusion to Malthusian ideas. Euphemism ‘surplus population’ shows uncaring attitude
-Analysis + Links: Here Scrooge reflects the ideas of the Victorian economist Thomas Malthus that the solution to poverty was a reduction in the population. Scrooge’s change is marked by the fact that he is shocked when the Ghost repeats this back to him in Stave 3.
‘My spirit never roved beyond the narrow limits of our money-changing hole.’
Stave 1
Marley's Ghost is talking to Scrooge 
-Technique: Metaphor and Adjective ‘narrow’
-Analysis + Links: Shows that attitudes in life have consequences in death. Links to the theme of isolation / society. ‘Money-changing hole’ suggests a dark place of hiding. ‘narrow’ suggests an attitude of disinterest in society.
‘Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business.'
Stave 1
Marley's Ghost is talking to Scrooge
-Technique: Repetition of ‘business’ and Declarative sentences
-Analysis + Links: Marley turns the idea of ‘business’ (money making) on its head and now knows he should have focused on people and charity. His passionate tone is didactic as he tries to warn Scrooge and Dickens tries to teach his Victorian reader.
‘Girded round its middle was an antique scabbard; but no sword was in it; the ancient sheath was eaten up with rust.'
Stave 3
Describes Ghost of Christmas Present 
-Technique: Symbol of the empty scabbard and Personification in ‘eaten up with rust’
-Analysis + Links: The lack of a sword suggests the Ghost is peace-loving - Christmas as a positive time of peace. ‘Eaten up with rust’ reminds us of Scrooge and his decay from being alone for so long.
‘This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want.'
Stave 3
The Ghost of Christmas Present introduces the two monstrous children who live under his robe. 
-Technique: personification and symbol
-Analysis + Links: Society’s problems (according to Dickens’ beliefs) are personified and symbolised in two children, stressing the need to take care of them. Ignorance links to a willful ignoring of the poor as well as a lack of education. Want links to the evils of poverty.
‘Would you so soon put out...the light I give?'
Stave 2
The Ghost of Christmas Past is speaking to Scrooge 
-Technique: Rhetorical question and Metaphor
-Analysis + Links: The light given by the Ghost is memory - Scrooge tries to extinguish it because it is too painful for him but he must be ‘educated’ by his past and learn to feel sorrow for his former self before he can feel sorrow for others. Memory ‘enlightens’ the present.
‘No,no...Oh no, kind Spirit! Say he will be spared.'
Stave 3
Scrooge is talking to the Ghost of Christmas Present, hoping that Tiny Tim will live 
-Technique: Repetition of ‘no’, Noun phrase ‘kind Spirit’, Imperative ‘Say’ and Verb ‘spared’
-Analysis + Links: The repetition of ‘no’ and Scrooge’s imperative language suggests Scrooge’s desperation to prevent Tim’s death. He appeals to the ‘kind Spirit’ suggesting he knows the Spirit is doing him good. The verb ‘spared’ has religious connotations and implies Scrooge is beginning to understand redemption.
“Another idol has displaced me."
Stave 2
Belle is talking to Scrooge - she has been displaced bt his greed, money 
-Technique: Metaphor linked to objects of worship. Noun ‘idol’ and Verb ‘displaced’
-Analysis + Links: Belle recognises that Scrooge used to worship her but now worships money. Links to the theme of greed. A religious Victorian audience would see moral sin in worshipping money.
‘ “Are there no prisons?” said the spirit'
Stave 3
The Ghost of Christmas Present echoes Scrooge's question from Stave 1 back to him 
-Technique: Rhetorical question, Echo of Scrooge’s words
-Analysis + Links: By showing us Scrooge’s horror at hearing his own words quoted back to him, Dickens points to how Scrooge is changing. The change has been caused by being shown real people in poverty rather than shutting his eyes to it.
‘a solemn Phantom, draped and hooded'
Stave 4
Describes the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come 
-Technique: Adjectives ‘solemn’, ‘draped’ and ‘hooded’
-Analysis + Links: This figure is eerie, silent and menacing. Scrooge fears the future because of what he saw of Marley’s Ghost in Stave 1 - he is on the same path. Dickens is being didactic here - the future has something to teach Scrooge and his reader.
‘unwatched, unwept, uncared for, was the body of this man’
Stave 4
Describes the body of Scrooge in his future death, shown to him by the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. 
-Technique: Tri-colon and Negative prefix ‘un’
-Analysis: Victorian beliefs about death - someone should accompany the body until burial. Repetition of the negative prefix ‘un’ in this tri-colon of adjectives describes the results of Scrooge warning all ‘human sympathy to keep its distance’. Dickens juxtaposes this death with Tiny Tim’s death.
‘My little, little child!’
Stave 4
Bob Cratchit is mourning the death of his son Tiny Tim, shown to Scrooge as the future by the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. 
-Technique: Exclamation, Personal possessive pronoun ‘my’, Repetition of ‘little’ and Pathos (feeling of pity)
-Analysis + Links: There is passion and emotion in Bob’s exclamation on the death of his son. The repetition of ‘little’ stresses how vulnerable Tim was as a result of poverty. Remember Dickens wanted to deliver a ‘sledge hammer blow on behalf of the poor man’s child’. Compare to Scrooge’s death.
‘I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future’
Stave 5, Scrooge is talking about his new attitude to Christmas 
-Technique: Anaphora ‘I will’, Declarative sentences, Proper nouns ‘Past, Present and Future’ (the Ghosts)
-Analysis+Links: anaphora stresses Scrooge’s determination to change, after been given a second chance. Christmas as a redemptive force (‘keeping’ Christmas means remaining generous and learning lessons). The past, present and future have things to teach Scrooge, (a Victorian audience)
"I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a schoolboy.”
Stave 5
Scrooge is speaking about how he feels on discovering he is still alive. 
-Technique: Tricolon of similes
-Analysis + Links: Compare to ‘hard and sharp as flint’ and ‘solitary as an oyster’ at the beginning. Imagery of childhood (Dickens suggests childhood can teach us a lot) and religious imagery. Scrooge’s joy in his redemption is stressed in these similes.
‘he....patted the children on the head, and questioned beggars’
Stave 5, This describes Scrooge’s actions as he walks through the streets of London in the final Stave. 
-Technique: Verbs ‘patted’ and ‘questioned’ suggest physical and verbal engagement with people. ‘Patted’ is fatherly.
-Analysis + Links: theme of isolation/society. He is now engaging in society and this is why he is redeemed. He is no longer ‘edging’ along the ‘crowded paths of life’ as he was in Stave 1. The reference to beggars and children suggests that engagement with children and those who are poor.
'And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One!'
The narrator's final words of the novella
-Technique: Exclamation, Inclusive pronoun ‘us’.The inclusive phrase ‘Every one’ reminds us to not forget the poor.
-Analysis + Links: Tiny Tim gets the last word ,is he the most powerful character in delivering Dickens’ ‘sledge hammer blow on behalf of the poor man’s child’. Ends with a religious blessing and a cheerful tone, reflecting Dickens’ wish to ‘haunt his readers pleasantly’ and teach them by entertaining them.