A Christmas Carol Quotes

Misanthropic Scrooge without redemption

Misanthropic Scrooge without redemption

• ‘as solitary as an oyster’

• ‘covetous old sinner’

• ‘iced his coffee’

• fire ‘looked like one coal’

• ‘edge…the crowded paths of life’

• ‘die…reduce the surplus population’

• ‘golden’ ‘idol’

• ‘solitary child’

• ‘lonely boy’ ‘neglected by his friends

Philanthropic Scrooge achieves redemption

• ‘long line of brilliant laughs’

• ‘light as a feather’

• ‘merry as a schoolboy’

• ‘happy as an angel’

• ‘second father to Tiny Tim’

• ‘his own heart laughed’

• ‘good a master’ ‘good a man’

Fred- a foil to Scrooge / his antithesis

• ‘all a glow’

• ‘his eyes sparkled’

• ‘ill keep my Christmas humour’

• ‘full of extraordinary kindness’

Fezziweg- the omnibenevolent employer (antithesis of Scrooge)

• warehouse is ‘warm’ and ‘bright’

• ‘has the power to render us happy’

• ‘fuel heaped upon the fire’

• ‘organ of benevolence’

Jacob Marley- Scrooge without redemption- symbol of warning / guilt

• ‘i wear the chains i forged in life’

• ‘my spirit’ never went beyond the

• ‘narrow limits of our money changing hole’

• ‘mankind was my business’

The ghost of Christmas past (symbol of memory- evokes pity for what is lost)

• ‘unearthly visitor’

• ‘strange figure…like a child…like an old man’

• ‘branch of fresh holly in its hand’

• ‘out of its head a bright clear jet of light’

The ghost of Christmas present- an omni-benevolent figure- symbol of Christmas/charity/joy

• ‘a jolly giant’ with a ‘glowing torch’

• in a room of ‘living green’

• gives to ‘a poor one most’

• ‘they are man’s’ ‘ignorance’ and ‘want’

The ghost of Christmas yet to come- symbol of death and fear for the future without redemption

• ‘shrouded in deep black garment’

• ‘Scrooge feared the silent shape’

• ‘it seemed to scatter gloom and misery’

The Cratchits- the symbol of family and the resilient poor ( a challenge to the Victorian view of the poor)

• ‘brave in ribbons’

• ‘twice turned gown’

• ‘a small pudding for a large family’

Bob Cratchit- the symbol of the hard-working poor

• ‘dismal little cell’

• ‘the clerk’s fire so much smaller’

• ‘comforter’ as he ‘boasted no great coat’

Tiny Tim- the symbol of the consequences of the Victorian’s lack of compassion and ‘surplus’

• ‘god bless us everyone

• ‘as good as gold’

• ‘little crutch’ ‘iron flame’

• ‘i see a vacant seat’

Belle (symbol of lost love and family)

• ‘another idol has replaced me’ ‘a golden one’

• you ‘fear the world too much’

• ‘gain engrosses you’

• ‘to bring you home’ ‘she had large heart’

• little fan (saves school as boy- but Scrooge rejects her son)

Isolation

• ‘solitary as an ‘oyster’

• ‘solitary child’

• ‘solitary lighthouse’

• and then becomes its antithesis ‘a second father to Tiny Tim’

Charity

• ‘are there no prisons? are there no workhouses’

• ‘die and reduce the surplus population’

• AFTER REDEMPTION SCROOGE GIVES

• ‘a great many back payments’

• ‘prize turkey’

Poverty

• ‘want’

• ‘a small pudding for a large family’

• ‘feeble fire’

Setting

• Start: ‘fog’ ‘cold’ ‘darkness’

• Miners: ‘bleak moor’ ‘desolation’

• ‘gloom of darkest night’

• End: ‘no mist’ ‘no fog’ ‘bright’ ‘golden sunlihgt’

Light and dark (symbols of benevolence v malevolence)

• ‘glowing v ‘fog came pouring in’

Motif of fire- symbol of human warmth and benevolence

• ‘feeble fire’

• ‘fuel heaped upon the fire’