Summary GRADE NINE FULL NOTES: A Christmas Carol (key quotes with analysis)
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Course
English
Institution
GCSE
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A CHRISTMAS CAROL; moments/quotes by theme
Generosity, want + abundance, supernaturality, social justice, Christmas traditions, redemption
Stave 1
Introduction to Scrooge and his attitudes towards Christmas.
“Scrooge was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole assign, his sole residuary
legatee, his sole friend and sole mourner”
- Scrooge is all Marley had, which implies that Marley was all Scrooge had, but not even
Scrooge was so “dreadfully cut up by the sad event”
- Repetition of “sole”
“He answered to both names. It was all the same to him.”
- Use of two simple sentences emphasises his lack of care. The use of the personal
pronoun at the beginning of the first sentence and the end of the second sentence,
further highlights his disregard for even his own name.
- Reflects how Scrooge and Marley’s life differ by very little, foreshadowing that Scrooge’s
life will mimic Marley’s, if he doesn’t change his miserly ways.
“Squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner”
- Asyndetic list: emphasises Scrooge’s lack of generosity and how he is “squeezing” and
“wrenching” people for every last penny, without a thought of how it will affect others.
- “sinner”: Christian society, highlights Scrooge’s misanthropy.
“secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster”
- Simile used to describe Scrooge
- This simile suggests he is shut up, tightly closed, and will not be prised open except by
force. However, an oyster might contain a pearl, so it also suggests there might be good
buried deep inside him, underneath the hard, brittle shell.
“No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him.”
- Metaphor for Scrooge’s behaviour: shows that no amount of external force will be able
to change his ways, or affect how he views life.
- Alliteration of ‘w’ sounds: weariness and lack of care
“Scrooge had a very small fire, but the clerk’s fire was so very much smaller that it looked
like one coal.”
- Quantifiers: “very small” in comparison to “so very much smaller”, highlights how little
Bob Cratchit had, and how Scrooge idolised an abundance of material possessions so
much that he wouldn’t use more coal to warm himself up, nor would he offer Mr
Cratchit more coal.
““Bah!” said Scrooge. “Humbug!””
- Exclamatory utterance: “Bah!” is an interjection which expresses contempt
- Irony: Scrooge believes Christmas is a “Humbug!”, meaning he believes it deceives
people, which is ironic as the rest of the world, views Scrooge as the “humbug!”.
“What reason have you to be merry? You’re poor enough.”
- Rhetorical question: shows that Scrooge believes happiness is proportional to wealth,
underlining his miserliness.
“buried with a stake of holly through his heart”
- Scrooge's response to “Merry Christmas” is comical, but unpleasant. He cannot accept
the generosity that is offered him and instead turns images of Christmas into images of
violence.
“as a good time; a kind; forgiving; charitable, pleasant time”
- Fred insists that the spirit of Christmas benefits him even though the spirit does not
profit him, a concept which is foreign to Scrooge.
“not another race of creatures”
, A CHRISTMAS CAROL; moments/quotes by theme
Generosity, want + abundance, supernaturality, social justice, Christmas traditions, redemption
- noun 'creatures' reinforces the view that the wealthy see the poor as less human -
Dickens, through the novel, shows the reader that this is not true and therefore the law,
which treats the poor as though they are less human, must be changed.
““Are there no prisons?” … “And the Union workhouses?” demanded Scrooge”
- Dickens uses this line to comment on the unjust views of the middle and upper classes.
(repeated later in novella)
“when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices”
- Dickens criticises social injustice and the features of Victorian society that keep people in
poverty.
“I can’t afford to make idle people merry”
- “idle” shows that Scrooge believes that living in poverty is a choice, and that if these
people were more active and worked harder, they would no longer be in this situation
“decrease the surplus population”
- Shows how Scrooge believed that war, famine, and pestilence were necessary in order
to keep the population down, especially the poor people.
- Later repeated to Scrooge again, during his redemption, to highlight the errors of his
misanthropic ways
“Darkness is cheap, and Scrooge liked it”
- his money does not even bring him any happiness. His house is dark - which reflects the
darkness in his character and adds to the gothic atmosphere of his house. The gothic
was a popular genre in the Victorian age and would have seemed fitting for a ghost story
to Victorian readers.
“I wear the chain I forged in life”
- Marley’s chain symbolises his guilt and the burden of his heavy sins which he must now
carry with him, wherever he goes.
“but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business”
- Money is depicted as a metaphorical 'drop of water', juxtaposed to mankind, which is
shown as a “comprehensive ocean”.
Stave 2
“faltering voice” (scrooge)
- Suggests that Scrooge fears the ghosts, showing the impact they’ve already had on him
“like a child: yet not so like a child as like an old man”
- Imagery: these contradictory statements show the circular nature of the past
“purest white”, “lustrous belt”
- Superlative, “purest”, shows the good intentions and virtuousness of the spirit.
- Lustrous belt: abundance
“sprung a bright clear jet of light”
- “sprung”: verb, shows how energetic and lively the spirit is, in comparison to Scrooge.
- “jet of light” symbolises that he is seeping with purity and hope
“A solitary child, neglected by his friends”
- “solitary”, emphasises Scrooge’s loneliness as a child, and how this neglection has
reflected upon his life now
“a lonely boy was reading near a feeble fire”
- “feeble fire”, voiceless fricatives, evokes a feeling of sympathy upon the readers.
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