Christmas Carol Flashcards
‘A squeezing […]
covetous old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint […] secret and self-contained and solitary as on oyster.’
Stave 1
Redemption
If this can change then anyone can
“Edge his way
along the crowded path of life”
Stave 1
Dickens believes family and friendship is where where happiness lies
“to open up their shut up hearts
more freely, and to think of people below them as fellow passengers to the grave”
Stave 1
This is what Christmas does for scrooge he opens his shut heart and sees his fellow man as equal
“Dismal
little cell beyond, a sort of tank”
Stave 1
At the end scrooge joins this family and stops their struggle
“No prisons[…] and
the union workhouses? The Treadmill and the Poor Law[…]?”
Stave 1
Dickens was appalled by the Poor Laws of 1834
“The chain[…] was made of
cash-boxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers and heavy purses wrought in steel”
Stave 1
Dickens emphasises the need for social responsibility and charity which is why Marley is being punished after death
“Mankind was
my business”
Stave 1
Dickens shows Marley’s realisation that social responsibility should have been his focus
“From the crown of its head
there sprung a bright clear jet of light”
Stave 2
Ghost will shed light on Scrooge’s past to help redeem him
“There was a boy singing a Christmas carol at my door last knight
I should like to have given him something that’s all”
Stave 2
The past is already influencing the present as Scrooge is already undergoing change
“I should like to be able
to say a word to my clerk just now”
Stave 2
More change
“A golden
idol”
Stave 2
Dickens shows Scrooge values profit over family and friendship as he lost love as a result of this
“Thread bare
clothes”
Stave 3
Dickens is using the Cratchits poverty to show how Scrooge exploits them. If Scrooge shows social responsibility the family would thrive
“One small atom of
a bone upon the dish” after the Cratchits are done eating
Stave 3
These small details show how little food they have at Christmas as they eat everything they can
“They were not a handsome family […]
but they were happy, grateful, pleased with each other”
Stave 3
The importance of family and friendship emphasised through this summative description of the Cratchits. They are happier than Scrooge despite their poverty.
“The whole quarter reeked with
crime, with filth and misery”
Stave 4
This is what a lack of social responsibility brings: crime and misery
