christmas carol

• Scrooge: '"I don't make merry myself at Christmas and I can't afford to make idle people merry"'
• Scrooge's view on Christmas

  He sees a direct correlation between material expense and happiness, adjective 'idle' shows his capitalist leanings: if they haven't the money to afford it themselves, then they must be lazy. The idea that poverty breeds poverty has never occurred to him
• Scrooge: '"decrease the surplus population"'
• Scrooge's view on the poor

  Ruthless reference to Thomas Malthus who believed at some point the population would be too big and there would be a 'surplus' population, some of audience would have quietly agreed
• Scrooge: '"I should like to be able to say a word or two to my clerk just now"'
• Scrooge's regret and redemption

  'able' at the time he speaks he is remembering his past and so he isn't able to change any of the things he is seeing, he will be - able to speak to Bob next time he sees him. reminds us of the difference between the things we are able to change, and the things we are not
• Dickens believed ignorance was worse because it lead to want, Dickens is criticising society
• Poverty- workhouses were introduced for those who could not afford to pay tax, deliberately harsh conditions, separated families, Dickens depicts the poverty cycle, child labour was common (Cratchit family), Scrooge symbolises the capitalist system which Dickens believed denied other of wealth, influenced by Dickens's childhood
• Family and relationships- important aspect of Victorian society, often large families, break from stressful work, compassionate marriage was increasing (marrying for love not money or power)
• Death and loss- recurring theme, high rates of infant mortality (tiny tim), images of death to signify the consequences of the unfair capitalist system, Dickens juxtaposes two contrasting images of death, Scrooge's death and Tiny Tim's death
• Transformation and redemption- modern association with Christmas, religious links
• Solitary as an oyster: 'isolation, Scrooge, family (keeps himself hidden but inside is vulnerable, able to make a pearl out of sand- Scrooge is able to change)'
• He was as hard and sharp as flint: 'Scrooge, isolation (similie- hard so stubborn, rigid, incapable of change, sharp so dangerous if you get close but also intelligent, flint cold and tough rock or used to make hunting weapons, scrooge can be dangerous)'
• Jacob Marley: ''I wear the chain I forged in life''
• Chain

  Metaphor for regret
• I (Jacob Marley)

  It was his fault, no one forced him
• Forged

  Suggests intentionally crafted, he worked hard to form his chains
• • ‘Tiny Tim is as "good as gold - and better’Tiny Tim, Bob Cratchit, family, (simile) (shows value of humans over money, he’s better than gold because he is a good person)
• • ‘I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a schoolboy’Scrooge, redemption (simile, rule of three- shows change in every aspect of life) (each simile references a specific part of the book, light reference to the chain he feels that he is no longer wearing, he is no longer the "covetous old sinner" that he was in Stave One and is now an angel of happiness (correlation between good and happiness), playfulness of youth
• • ‘It was cold, bleak, biting weather’isolation, Jacob Marley, Scrooge (pathetic fallacy) (shows Scrooge’s emotions and approach to life and other people)
• • ‘Gold sunlight, heavenly sky’redemption, happiness (pathetic fallacy) (Scrooge is happier which is reflected in the weather, the world is brighter in scrooge’s eyes)
• • ‘This boy is ignorance. This girl is want’social injustice (metaphor to represent Victorian society) (represents the attitudes of the rich to the poor in Victorian society)
• • ‘Most of all beware the boy’ (Dickens believed ignorance was worse because it lead to want, Dickens is criticising society)
• • ‘Like a child, yet.. Like an old man’Ghost of Christmas Past (oxymoron/similie) (links to supernatural, the ghost is both young and old)
• • ‘Another idol has replaced me… a golden one’Belle, greed, Scrooge (religious references) (Scrooge valued money more than people)