Scrooge Quotes

Question 1

A frosty rime was on his head”, “cold within him”

Answer 1

Presents him as cold, hostile and unappealing, an archetypal villain in stave 1, contrast with Fred’s joy and warmth

Question 2

“A ________, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, ________ old sinner!”

Answer 2

Dickens uses asyndetic listing in his description of Scrooge to show the extent of his greed. The relentless verbs refer to him being miserly and selfish, unlikeable character. Unsympathetic narration

Question 3

“Another idol has displaced me” - Bella

Answer 3

“Idol”: Religious metaphor — Belle compares money to a false god. Dickens criticizes how greed replaces human values, like love and connection.

“Displaced me”: Shows Belle’s pain — she’s been pushed aside by Scrooge’s obsession with wealth.

Reflects the theme of lost love and emotional cost of greed.

It’s a turning point in Scrooge’s life: he chooses money over happiness, leading to his future loneliness.

Dickens uses this to warn Victorian readers about the moral dangers of materialism in an industrial society.

Question 4

“They better do it and decrease the surplus population”

Answer 4

Dehumanising language: “Surplus population” treats people as statistics, not lives — Dickens criticises the cold, utilitarian attitudes of the wealthy.

Irony: Scrooge echoes economist Thomas Malthus, who believed overpopulation caused poverty. Dickens rejects this, showing that compassion is the real solution.

Moral blindness: Scrooge shows no empathy — his views are shaped by greed and ignorance.

Foreshadowing: The Ghost of Christmas Present later throws Scrooge’s own words back at him, forcing him to confront the cruelty of his thinking.

Social criticism: Dickens uses this quote to attack the Victorian class divide and lack of support for the poor.

Question 5

I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel

Answer 5

Joyful similes reflect rebirth — completely contrasts his earlier bitterness.

Question 6

I’m quite a baby

Answer 6

Contrasts the covetous sinner line, innocence, connotations of a baby, Dickens alludes to the cycle of rebirth and transformation by ending the novella with the baby line