a christmas carol quotations

• 'Oh, but he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone'-description of Scrooge


  he is stern and cold so can't be easily manipulated
• 'A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching covetous old sinner!'- description of Scrooge


  asyndetic listing, holding on to all the money he can get: let's go of other important things like family and relationships for it.
• 'He was solitary as an oyster'


  He's made a shell to protect himself being hurt again. The pearl inside is soft and vulnerable like Scrooge is deep down.
• 'External heat had little influence on Scrooge.'


  This is true literally and figuratively, anyone being kind or rude to him has no effect on him emotionally.
• 'Decrease the surplus population.'


  This references Thomas Malthus, very harsh on the poor saying they should just die BUT some readers at the time might have agreed with his extreme idea.
• 'I wear the chains I forged in life... I made it link by link and yard by yard.'-Jacob Marley


  No-one forced him to be who he was, he did it to himself. Marley is physically trapped by the things he allowed to take over his life and he regrets it saying Scrooge is going to be worse off.
• The reason for Jacob Marley appearing. 


  This acts as the catalyst or starting point of Scrooge questioning who he is now, who he will be when he's dead and if he can CHANGE.
• 'Scrooge wept to see his poor forgotten self as he had used to be.'


  He rarely ever celebrated Christmas with his family as he went to a boarding school. First time Scrooge shows emotion= pathos is made for him a little bit by the reader. Scrooge fears poverty and forgottenness which he was when he was younger.
• 'The happiness he gives is quite as great as if it had cost a fortune'


  Joy isn't bought with money, a slight hint that he can afford to make both himself and other people merry at Christmas. He is talking about Fezziwig's party.
• 'You fear the world too much,' she answered gently. -Belle 


  Scrooge's terror of poverty is turning him into a monster, and she advices him against it. She says this with good grace and patiently, almost like a patient parent talking to a wayward child.
• 'Another idol has replaced me... a golden one.'


  Belle is saying she isn't Scrooge's no. 1 priority anymore, it's money- and a lot of it. This is the reason she ends the relationship/ engagement.
• 'I have seen your nobler aspirations, fall off one by one.' 


  Scrooge from the beginning, didn't aspire to anything worthy of respect. This is an important revelation for the reader as it shows them Scrooge wasn't always bad and he can change his ways.
• 'Good' as 'gold'- and 'better'


  This shows people are more important than profit. This line has become an idiom. Tiny Tim is more valuable than gold.
• 'Dressed out but poorly in a twice-turned gown, but brave in ribbons.'- Mrs. Cratchit.


  This is a demonstration of how poor she is. The dress is fraying and falling apart but the ribbons are added to distract from that. She is shrinking into poverty but is still proud to be who she is.
• 'I'll give you Mr. Scrooge, the founder of the feast!'


  This is a moment of compassion; Bob might care a little bit for Scrooge, but he only has food on the table and a roof over their heads because Scrooge pays Bob a miserable wage. Without Scrooge the Cratchits would probably be on the streets.
• 'This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both but most of all beware the boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom.'


  Dicken's highlights what he thinks the two biggest ills in society are. Their presence is almost an apocalyptic warning. Unless Ignorance is erased society is doomed.
• 'Have they no refuge or resource.' 


  Scrooge recognises young people are incapable of defending themselves and realises prisons and workhouses might not be an option. This links back to Stave 1 'are there no prisons?' 'Are there no workhouses?'
• 'I mean to give him the same chance, every year, for I pity him.'-Fred


  Fred gives Scrooge a 'chance' of redeeming himself every year. Fred feels sorry for the richest, most selfish man in the book. Dickens want people to understand that people aren't evil, they are generally misguided or damaged by society. So do they need to punished or supported.
• 'Lead on! Time is precious to me.'


  Ghost 1=ghost pulls curtain aside. Ghost 2=Scrooge pulls the curtains aside. Ghost 3= Scrooge demands them to take him on a journey. Scrooge's value system has changed and with that his entire personality has been made anew.
• 'I hope I live to be a better man from what I was.'


  Scrooge hasn't changed yet but he wants to which is very important. He's already shown to be a braver man than he was in Stave 1 as well as show more compassion to people.
• 'Upon the stone of the neglected grave... EBENEZER SCROOGE.'


  The horrid reality of who he is finally hits home. Scrooge thought he had life mastered but he was wrong. This links to Stave 2 where he was a 'neglected' child, at the start and end of his life he was neglected. However, he realises then if he can break the cycle this won't be his unfortunate ending.
• 'It's likely to be a very cheap funeral.'-bankers


  No one wants to celebrate his life in a lavish way. But Scrooge likes cheap things as stated in Stave 1='Darkness was cheap, and Scrooge liked it.'. Scrooge has never thought about his death until this stave.
• 'It was a happier house for this man's death.'-people in debt to Scrooge


  They celebrate his death because they are no longer in debt. The house represents the family. People are happy to hear about Scrooges death.
• 'I will honour Christmas in my heart and keep it all they year.'


  He will keep the ideals of Christmas such as: kindness, forgiveness, compassion, charity and joy all year round, not just in December.
• 'I am as light as a feather. I am as happy as an angel. I am as merry as a schoolboy.'


  These three consecutive similes each relate to something in the novella. Light=the chains he is no longer wearing. Angel=he's no longer a 'covetous old sinner'. His school years weren't great but no whe knows the playfulness of youth.
• 'I'm quite a baby. Never mind, I'd rather be a baby.'


  A quintessential image of Scrooge being born again. A coming of age story told backwards= he doesn't want to be wise, old and miserable; he wants to be a happy, energetic baby.
• 'To Tiny Tim, who didn't die, he was a second father.'


  Scrooge starts the story without much family (rejects Fred) because he was rejected by his father. At the end, he reconnects with Fred and makes his own family. Scrooge is ready to take responsibility of someone. Dickens thought families were all connected through our shared humanity. Tiny Tim could represent poverty and Scrooge taking him under his wing is symbolic that we should all help the people in poverty.
• 'And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless us, everyone!'


  The final line of the novella. Dickens emphasises 'everyone' to show that everyone poor or rich deserves luck and happiness. Even Scrooge when he wasn't a changed man. The message of Dicken's book is that even Scrooge deserves God's blessings, and if he gets them, it might just do him, and everyone else a whole world of good.