Stave 3

Question 1

‘stingy, hard, unfeeling man as mr scrooge’

Answer 1

• asyndetic listing shows and overwhelming abundance of negative qualities

Question 2

‘the walls and ceilings were so hung with living green’

Answer 2

• connotations of growth and change
• new life (symbolise that scrooge is changing)

Question 3

‘round its middle was an antique scabbard; but no sword was in it’

Answer 3

• spirit is powerful but not threatening perhaps?

Question 4

‘Scrooge entered timidly and hung his head before the spirit’

Answer 4

• submission towards the spirit
• ashamed of past
• he’s changing and regrets his actions

Question 5

‘dingy mist, half-thawed, half-frozen’

Answer 5

• pathetic fallacy represents how scrooges transformation is not fully completed

Question 6

‘they are mans’

Answer 6

• monosyllabic shows anger and simplicity portrayed by dickens

Question 7

‘tonight if you aught to teach me, let me profit by it’

Answer 7

• profit has taken on a whole new meaning
• alternative view is that the verb profit shows that he has not fully changed
• implication of individual material gain
• still lessons to be learnt

Question 8

‘it was clothed in one simple green robe’

Answer 8

• Father Christmas
• symbolising generosity and joy= festive time of year

Question 9

“If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, the child will die.”

Answer 9

• Dickens saying wealthy need to do more to mitigate childhood poverty
• The shortness of the main clause at the end makes the message more shocking
• The declarative ‘will’ conveys certainty showing how urgent it is that Scrooge change.

Question 10

‘brave in ribbons’

Answer 10

• ‘brave’ suggests that her approach to life is noble and admirable
• will not be surpassed by poverty
• challenges of ideas of poor at the time which suggests they are lazy

Question 11

‘overcome with pentinance and grief’

Answer 11

• he sees the negative impact of his behaviour towards Bob Cratchit.
• profound emotional shift

Question 12

‘it might be a claw for the flesh there is upon it’

Answer 12

• injustice of wealth distribution
• also shows zoomorphism

Question 13

‘most of all beware of this boy for on his brow is see that is written which is doom’

Answer 13

• lack of education causes an eternal cycle of poverty which is inescapable
  without intervention and help of the wealthy

Question 14

‘yellow, meagre, scowling, ragged, wolfish’

Answer 14

• personification of mans ills
• wolfish (zoomorphism) shows how poverty is dehumanising
• turns the children into ‘predators’
• stolen of childish innocence by the rich

Question 15

‘who suffers by his ill whims? Himself always’

Answer 15

• Fred, as Scrooge’s foil, is a kind, forgiving character who is determined to give Scrooge the same chance every year
• Scrooges pain in self-inflicted

Question 16

‘and on its head it wore no other than a crown of holly’

Answer 16

• biblical allusion to christ
• crown of thorns when about to be crucified
• foreshadows that scrooge has to suffer in order to be reborn