christmas carol

• Scrooge: '"Bah humbug!"'
• Humbug


  (in Scrooge's time) a trick or deception
• Scrooge: '"I don't make merry myself at Christmas and I can't afford to make idle people merry."'
• Idle people


  People who don't have money to afford to be merry at Christmas
• Scrooge: '"Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?"'
• Workhouses and prisons were horrendous places to be, and a prison sentence could see you deported to Australia forever
• Scrooge pays for the prisons and workhouses out of his taxes, so he feels the poor aren't his problem beyond that
• Scrooge: '"What right have you to be dismal? You're rich enough." / "What reason have you to be merry? You're poor enough."'
• Scrooge's perception


  Happiness is directly linked to wealth
• Scrooge: '"The poor should die if they want to, as it would 'decrease the surplus population'."'
• This references an essay by Thomas Malthus arguing that there would be too many people for society to support
• Jacob Marley: '"If that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death."'
• Marley's chain


  He forged it himself in life, no one forced him
• Scrooge: '"Scrooge wept to see his poor forgotten self as he had used to be."'
• Scrooge's fear


  Being poor and forgotten
• Scrooge: '"The happiness he gives is quite as great as if it had cost a fortune"'
• Scrooge's realisation


  Financial cost does not directly correlate with pleasure
• Scrooge: '"I should like to be able to say a word or two to my clerk just now"'
• Scrooge's reflection


  He wishes he could speak to Bob Cratchit, and perhaps do something similar to Fezziwig's party for him
• Belle: '"You fear the world too much," she answered gently.'
• Belle's view


  Scrooge fears the world too much, turning him into a monster
• Belle: '"I have seen your nobler aspirations fall off one by one, until the master passion, Gain, engrosses you."'
• Revelation about Scrooge


  He wasn't always bad, he used to have noble aspirations
• Bob Cratchit: '"Tiny Tim is as good as gold - and better"'
• Comparison


  The value of a good person like Tiny Tim is more important than gold
• Mrs Cratchit's attitude


  Despite her poverty, she tries to make the best of what she has
• "as good as gold - and better": 'One of the best lines in the book to show that people are more important than profit. Tiny Tim is as "good as gold" - a phrase that's now become a idiom for describing a nice child. But here, the language is definitely loaded with references to Scrooge's understanding of gold - real gold. Bob's saying that the happiness Tim brings, the real value of people like Tim, is even more important than gold - he's better than gold, because he's a good person.'
• "I'll give you Mr Scrooge, the Founder of the Feast!": 'In one of the classic moments of compassion from the book, Bob insists on toasting his miserly boss. On one level this shows that Bob cares for Scrooge, despite him being a skinflint. But the quote also reminds us of something else: Bob does work for Scrooge; Bob's job only exists because Scrooge has built the business, and although Bob isn't wealthy he's much better off than a lot of the Victorian poor. He has a house, and even a goose for Christmas. It's true that Scrooge isn't kind or charitable, but there is a powerful school of thought which argues that people like Scrooge create jobs and create wealth for others, and, in this respect, without him the Cratchits wouldn't have enjoyed any food for Christmas dinner.'
• "This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom.": 'This quote from the Ghost of Christmas Present comes as he reveals the two children who have come to him, appealing for his help. With the names of the two children, Dickens highlights what he feels are the two biggest ills in society - Ignorance of the problem, and the fact that so many children were in Need of even the most basic neccessities. But here, the spirit doesn't just say that the children are poor and need help, he turns their presence into an almost apocalyptic warning. The writing on the boy's brow is a clear reference to the Biblical Revelations when a number of characters have things written on their bodies. Also the strange syntax in the phrase "I see written that which is Doom" echoes the writing of Revelations in the King James Bible. Regardless of that though, Dickens is definitely saying that unless Ignorance is erased - unless people wake up to, and understand what is happening around them - then humanity will be doomed.'
• "Have they no refuge or resource?": 'Here, Scrooge questions where the poor children can go to for help. He recognises that they are young and incapable of defending themselves and for the first time he realises that prisons and workhouses might not be the solutions they present themselves as. I can't help but wonder whether, if Scrooge's change really was as significant as the book makes it out to be, he didn't spend most of the new year in Parliament making the kind of legislative changes that would have really made a difference to the poor. In fact, an interesting sequal to the book might even see Scrooge bankrole Fred's move into Parliament, as he suggested back in Stave 1.'
• "I mean to give him the same chance every year, for I pity him.": 'Here, Fred embodies Dickens's belief that families should always be there for each other. Fred insists that he will give Scrooge the same "chance" - the change of redemption - every year. Scrooge can rant and rave all he likes, but Fred will be there, with open arms, offering him the chance to save himself. Also, however, crucially, Fred says he'll do this because he feels "pity" for Scrooge. This is quite wild when you think about it. Fred is actually feeling sorry for the richest, most selfish person in the book; a man so selfish his name has come to mean horrible and selfish. But Dickens wanted to make something very clear: he didn't believe that people like Scrooge were evil, he believed that they were just misguided or reacting badly to being hurt. This brings up a really important question for us all: do bad people behave badly because they're 'evil' or because they're damaged? This question is so important for anyone who wants to actually fix the problems in society, rather than just sitting there complaining about them. Do people who behave badly need to be punished or supported?'
• "Lead on! Time is precious to me.": 'When the first ghost arrives, Scrooge has his bed curtains pulled aside for him. For the second ghost, Scrooge pulls them aside himself. Now, withh the third ghost, Scrooge demands that the ghost take him on his journey. "Lead on!" he says, using a simple imperative. But, most importantly, he recognises that time is precious. He's realised the most important thing: there is no amount of money you can lose that you can't get back, but once time has gone it is gone forever. Scrooge's value system has changed and with that his entire personality has been made anew - born again, you could say.'
• "It's likely to be a very cheap funeral": 'The two bankers are discussing the death of someone during the opening of Stave 4, and although we know it's Scrooge, Scrooge himself refuses to see the fact. Here, they mention that it is likely to be a very "cheap" funeral, obviously a dig at the fact that despite Scrooge's wealth no-one feels the need to remember him with anything lavish. It's interesting to link this back to the fact that Stave One tells us that Scrooge actually likes darkness "because it is cheap." Scrooge likes cheap things, because they're cheap. I think there's also something telling in the fact that Scrooge didn't organise his own funeral - he could have spent his entire fortune on it if he wanted (he had no-one else to leave it to, after all) but he didn't. Arguably, this is because he never really faced up to the fact that he would die, and that this is why he didn't celebate his life more passionately, but also - arguably - Scrooge just doesn't like that kind of stuff. There is a case for saying that the Scrooge we met at the beginning of the book would have wanted a cheap funeral, and in fact I can imagine that even the newly reborn Scrooge from Stave Five would have been happier donating his money to a charity rather than spending it on an expensive coffin for him to rot in. But that's just the kinda guy I think Scrooge was...'
• "It was a happier house for this man's death": 'This line comes from the end of the book, where two people who were indebted to Scrooge reluctantly celebrate his passing away. The "house" is often used as a symbol in A Christmas Carol. Scrooge's house played hide and seek when it was little and at the beginning of the book it's been lost (a little like Scrooge.) Fred's house is the home of their Christmas, and his inviting Scrooge to join him is a symbol of him inviting Scrooge into his home, into the bosom of his family. The Cratchits come together at Christmas at their house, etc... In many ways, the house represents the family. Here, the house, and the people inside it, are happier for Scrooge's death.'
• "I hope to live to be a better man from what I was.": 'Scrooge hasn't chagned yet, but he's taken the most important first step: he hopes to be a better man. This humility is not something we would have seen from Scrooge in Stave One, who was set in his ways and incapable of showing anything like insecurity. The old Scrooge wouldn't have tried anything he didn't already know he was good at, this one can have "hopes" because hopes are, by definition, things you think might not happen, but might happen. Until we can accept that we might fail at something, we can't achieve anything new and we don't have the right to hope or dream of anything. At this point Scrooge may be hoping to become a better man than he once was, but he's already showing himself to be a braver one.'
• Upon the stone of the neglected grave… EBENEZER SCROOGE: 'Scrooge sees his own neglected grave and the horrific reality of who he has become finally hits home. Though it's never really explored in any depth, Scrooge strikes me as the kind of person who really thinks he's got life mastered, while everyone else has missed the point of it. I can almost imagine that somwhere in his head he imagines that one day the rest of the world will all say - Ohhhhh, Scrooge was right all along! But the truth that he wasn't right. He was wrong. And the fact that he was born and died and no-one remembered him was, for Dickens, proof of the fact. This quote is also crucial as it links so directly to when Scrooge first sees himself in the school room, where he was a "neglected" child. Scrooge was raised as a neglected child, and, as a result, he neglects the world; and as a result of that he becomes a neglected man and his grave is, in turn, neglected. In this version of his life, Scrooge never broke the pattern of behaviour. However, if he can leave behind his past, break the cycle and stop ignoring the world then there is every chance he can avoid becoming that which he most fears.'
• "I will honour Christmas in my heart, and keep it all the year.": 'Scrooge has decided to keep Christmas all year... but I don't think he means he'll be draping holly and ivy over his door during July, because for Scrooge - and for the book in general - Christmas is not a moment in the calendar, it's a set of Christian ideals: kindness, forgiveness, compassion, charity and joy. These are the things that Scrooge will honour, respect and venerate. And good for him!'
• "I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a schoolboy.": 'There are three consecutive similes here, and each one relates to something specific in the book: his being light is a clear reference to the chain he feels that he is no longer wearing. Also, he is no longer the "covetous old sinner" that he was in Stave One and is now an angel of happiness (this one is interesting as it draws a clear correlation between being happy and being good. Dickens felt that if you were good you wouldn't be happier, and the simile here highlights that.) And he is merry as a school boy. This is a little more challenging as Scrooge clearly wasn't always happy when he was at school! Really, though, this image is more about the joy that Dickens saw in the playfulness of youth, really this is like Scrooge saying he has become young again, which leads on to...'
• "I'm quite a baby. Never mind. I'd rather be a baby.": 'This is the quintessential (which means perfect) image of Scrooge as having been born again. In many ways the book is really a coming of age story, told backwards. Scrooge starts as an embittered old man, and becomes filled with the wonder of youth by the end. He unlearns what he's learnt during his life and as he becomes more innocent as he becomes saved. It harks back to that line when he breaks up with Belle and claims that he's "grown wiser" as he grew more selfish, but now - at the end - he has decided that he'd rather not have that kind of wisdom, and he'd rather be a baby. He'd be happier like that.'
• "To Tiny Tim, who did not die, he was a second father.": 'Scrooge starts the book without much of a family - he rejects Fred (and possibly Belle before him,) because he was so painfully'