What reason have you to be merry? Taken from the following passage of Stave 1 (Marleys Ghost) of A Christmas Carol: Oh! Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. We are currently converting the 3,000+ pages within our WordPress site to make them more mobile friendly. "No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him", Dickens uses "warmth" as a metaphor for goodwill and inversely "cold" as a metaphor for ill will throughout the novella, so here it suggests that no good will or ill will from others in society are able to affect scrooge as he's become totally impervious to and disconnected from interactions with society, "The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shriveled his cheek, stiffened his gait". Oh! Accessed 2 March 2023. Foul weather didnt know where to have him. he walked through his rooms to see that all was right. Download. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! It was not in impenetrable shadow as the other objects in the yard were, but had a dismal light about it, like a bad lobster in a dark cellar. ", "Hard and sharp as a flint.solitary as an oyster. Be here all the earlier next morning. Each adjective is also connected with the hands to show how he holds tightly to everything he has. Scrooge calls those who celebrate Christmas "fools," and tells his nephew there is no reason to be merry. In this way Dickens makes Scrooge's own coming punishment loom extremely large. And we can see that his conscience is beginning to come alive when he notices the judgmental feeling of the ghosts stare. This might seem like a small detail, but regardless of whether or not the reader consciously juxtaposes these similes, they underscore Scrooge's transformation and provide evidence of a true change of heart. The original text plus a side-by-side modern translation of. Privacy | Terms of Service, Endpaper from Journeys Through Bookland, Charles Sylvester, 1922, "Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster". The novel 'A Christmas Carol' narrates the story of a man called Scrooge and how he realises his behaviour to people must change in order to do well in his life as spirits show his past, present and future. Scrooge had often heard it said that Marley had no bowels, but he had never believed it until now. Fred is unrelenting in his attempts to change his uncles way of thinking. In each of the following sentences, underline the correct indefinite pronoun in parentheses. and candles were flaring in the windows of the neighbouring offices, like ruddy smears upon the palpable brown air. Perhaps this is why Dickens chose to compare Marley to a doornaila flattened doornail and a corpse are both fairly useless, with little to no chance of serving a purpose ever again. Privacy Policy, https://bookanalysis.com/charles-dickens/a-christmas-carol/quotes/. "Every idiot who goes about with "Merry Christmas" on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart". This then gives you an idea of what Scrooge looks like. No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting rain less open to entreaty. Living conditions there were unpleasant and the work was tough such as 'picking out' old ropes. Scrooge! Marley is not saying business is inherently bad, but he is saying that it is terrifically small and narrow in comparison to the rest of life, and certainly that business success is not enough to right any wrongs one commits in life. Teacher Editions with classroom activities for all 1699 titles we cover. It was double-locked, as he had locked it with his own hands, and the bolts were undisturbed. Once upon a time -- of all the good days in the year, on Christmas Eve -- old Scrooge sat busy in his counting-house. Latest answer posted December 11, 2020 at 10:52:15 AM. The fact that there are three spirits and that they will arrive at the same time for the next three nights creates a definite, easy structure for Scrooge, and the story, to follow. How could it be otherwise? Scrooge knew he was dead? Scrooge is described as "solitary as an oyster". very low fire indeed; nothing on such a bitter night. I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. Detailed quotes explanations with page numbers for every important quote on the site. Finally, he is not only isolated from others, but he also keeps to himself in his own world, contained within his own shell. They're like having in-class notes for every discussion!, This is absolutely THE best teacher resource I have ever purchased. hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire simile, he is hard and mean secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster sibilance, hissing, sinister, simile suggest he is hard to open up but may have a pearly within, foreshadowing That, and its livid colour, made it horrible; but its horror seemed to be in spite of the face and beyond its control, rather than a part or its own expression. Given that Scrooge is so stingy, sharp, and antisocial, the reader does not have much sympathy for him at this point. I am not the man I was. Through a visit one Christmas Eve by the ghost of Marley and three subsequent spirits, Scrooge is awakened to his meanness and the impact it has on others. a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! I am as giddy as a drunken man. He keeps his office cold, not even heating it at Christmas time. Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. When Scrooge finds himself able to embrace his community, he finds himself forever changed. as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. `And yet, said Scrooge, `you dont think me ill-used, when I pay a days wages for no work., `A poor excuse for picking a mans pocket every twenty-fifth of December!, But I suppose you must have the whole day. To see the dingy cloud come drooping down, obscuring everything, one might have thought that Nature lived hard by, and was brewing on a large scale. Oh, no, no! The finger was still there. In contrast, Scrooges routine is deliberately isolated and miserable. Explain Ignorance and Want, who appear in stave 3 of A Christmas Carol. "My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness. Christmas is a time of family, and despite his scary appearance, we get the feeling that Marley is here to help. through the metaphor "fire", symbolizing goodwill and generosity (the values of the Christmas spirit), Dickens suggests that Scrooge, having "a very small fire" for himself, has little goodwill and generosity to be spent on himself, but, as suggested through Bob's fire being "so much smaller", he has even less goodwill and generosity for those around him. (c) Copyright 2012 - 2022 The Circumlocution Office | All Rights Reserved | Built by The Circumlocution Office using WordPress. Scrooge was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole assign, his sole residuary legatee, his sole friend, and sole mourner. The mention of the poor needing help at Christmas refers to the harsh weather which can be deadly for those in need. Whoever the author.Discover new and exciting books to dive into with our Book Explorer Tool. Teacher Editions with classroom activities for all 1699 titles we cover. Marley's questions and Scrooge's answers about the senses are important. In the first stave, the miser Scrooge is introduced as well as his merry nephew and his poor clerk Bob Cratchit. That night, on the stroke of midnight, Scrooge is visited by the ghost of Marley. Scrooge, as the chief mourner, does not seem to have much sympathy for Old Marley. The fireplace is adorned with tiles that illustrate stories from scripture but over all of these famous figures comes. clause. View further examples of the literary technique of. The use of similes helps an author to strengthen a description, and for the reader it helps to better visualize the scene in their heads. I am sure we shall none of us forget poor Tiny Timshall weor this first parting that there was among us? (Dickens 3), Ebenezer Scrooge obviously has a reputation, and nobody wants to be around him. "I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! The exclamation mark in "Oh!" suggests that even the narrator is overwhelmed by how outrageously unpleasant Scrooge is. My partner is letting her friend sleep in her bed, am I overeacting? LitCharts Teacher Editions. a terrible sensation to which it had been a stranger from infancy, The sound resounded through the house like thunder, but I mean to say you might have got a hearse up that staircase, and taken it broadwise, with the splinter-bar towards the wall and the door towards the balustrades: and done it easy. It is through your support of visiting Book Analysis that we can support charities, such as Teenage Cancer Trust. Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. Despite Scrooge's ill temper Fred generously and authentically invites him over. . Scrooge is an outsider because that is the way he likes it. This is a great quote for highlighting the sort of character that Scrooge was in A Christmas Carol. International Medical University - Consequences for Failing Semester 1, Brownies, books and planning a wedding - your favourite fiancs 2nd blog , Important query please help me if you can, Official University of Bristol 2023 Applicant Thread, Police officer who slept with six co-workers claims she was 'sexually groomed'. His greed is so extreme that he will not even spend the money to allow Cratchit to be warm in the office. Scrooge had a very small fire, but the clerks fire was so very much smaller that it looked like one coal. I am as giddy as a drunken man. Current Year 11 Official Thread (2022-2023)! The simile "hard and sharp as flint" emphasises scrooge's tough, cold exterior, and through the painful, harmful connotations of "sharp", Dickens also highlights scrooge's lack of sociability towards others, suggesting that he's harmful and dangerous to them. Come! eNotes.com will help you with any book or any question. This boy is Ignorance. But he couldnt replenish it. _____Why did the puppy hide when Sebastian appeared? This suggests his ability to hurt others. As Scrooge looked fixedly at this phenomenon, it was a knocker again. Bovey, Lee-James "A Christmas Carol Quotes " Book Analysis, https://bookanalysis.com/charles-dickens/a-christmas-carol/quotes/. Scrooge has already, Would not have made it through AP Literature without the printable PDFs. I was too cowardly to do what I knew to be right, as I had been too cowardly to avoid doing what I knew to be wrong. (interrogative), or exc. Oh! boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. `How it is that I appear before you in a shape that you can see, I may not tell. Down banks and up banks, and over gates, and splashing into dikes, and breaking among coarse rushes: no man cared where he went. Scrooge keeps the fuel in his own room, frightening Cratchit into wearing extra clothing and trying to warm himself by a candle. We dont know what you have done, but we wouldnt have you starved to death for it. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice, He carried his own low temperature always about with him. Appear before you in a Christmas Carol even heating it at Christmas refers to the harsh weather can! Starved to death for it buried with a stake of holly through his rooms see! 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Were undisturbed through the roof. made it through AP Literature without the printable PDFs Scrooge a! Highlighting the sort of character that Scrooge is an outsider because that is the way likes! And we can support charities, such as Teenage Cancer Trust fireplace is adorned with tiles that illustrate stories scripture! Can see that all was right them more mobile friendly to be around him reason be! Sleep in her bed, am I overeacting chief mourner, does not have made it through AP Literature the. Annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness first parting that there was us... X27 ; picking out & # x27 ; hard and sharp as flint analysis ropes he holds tightly to everything he.!
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