Scrooge is shown, by Ghost of the Future symbolic of the Grim Reaper other

people’s reaction to his death ranging from couldn’t care to deep relief, his own
body shrouded on the bed, the reaction of people who were employed by
Scrooge and finally his own tombstone. All of these events were shown to
Scrooge using dramatic irony, as Scrooge was unaware throughout the stave,
that the death he was witnessing was his own.
The spirits have so far been quite kind and have guided Scrooge through their
visions firmly but somewhat sympathetically. But this last spirit brings the moral
lesson home. Reminiscent of the Grim Reaper, he shows Scrooge that the
unknown, unseen fate that he is heading for is really something to fear deeply.
The choice Scrooge now has is what kind of death his will be. Will his life amount
to nothing? Will his greed cause the death of Tiny Tim? Will anyone care when he
dies? Adjectives – “deep black” adds to a fearful atmosphere
unknowable as the future itself. Allusion to a burial garment
–“shroud”

Alliteration/ plosive
sounds – “difficult” It was shrouded in a deep black garment, which
“detach” from the night
concealed its head, its face, its
shows that the figure is
indistinguishable from form, and left nothing of it visible save one outstretched
hand. But for this it
the surrounding
darkness, and is as would have been difficult to detach its figure from the
mysterious night,
and and separate it
unknowable as the
future itself. from the darkness by which it was surrounded. He felt
that it was tall and
stately when it came beside him, and that its mysterious
presence filled him
with a solemn dread. He knew no more, for the Spirit
neither spoke nor moved.

Negative constructions – no, neither He answers no

questions, opting instead to communicate nonverbally,
pointing at things to draw Scrooge’s attention to them.

It’s no accident that the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is

described similarly to the Grim Reaper; the final lesson
imparted to Scrooge harkens back to Jacob Marley’s warning
about an eternity of punishment and centres on one’s fear of
death, and the ghost personifies death’s inevitability.

“Ghost of the Future!” he exclaimed, “I fear you more than any spectre I have
seen. But as I know your purpose is to do me good, and as I hope to live to be
another man from what I was, I am prepared to bear you company, and do it
with a thankful heart.
By the time the Ghost of Christmas Future comes to visit Scrooge, he has already
learned his lesson: no good will ever come of his miserly ways, for himself or for
the people around him. Yet, the Ghost refuses to address him, even though
Scrooge entreats him to do so Will you not speak to me?” Unlike the Ghosts of
Christmas Past and Present, who help guide Scrooge to understand aspects of his
past and present to learn his lesson about charity and empathy, the Ghost of
Christmas Future does not speak to Scrooge. Rather, he brings him to the
circumstances surrounding the death of an old man who was despised in life and
disparaged in death. Scrooge must realize for himself that this is his fate if he
does not revise his attitude. By refusing to speak to Scrooge, the Ghost ensures
that this realization is entirely the old man's own, rendering the lesson much
more powerful.

In Stave One we saw how the narrator gave human characteristics to buildings. Here is
another example of personification:

“They scarcely seemed to enter the City, for the City rather
seemed to spring up about them, and encompass them of its own
act.

They left the busy scene, and went into an obscure part of the town, where
Scrooge had never penetrated before, although he recognised its situation, and
its bad repute. (had never penetrated before – ignorance)
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come takes Scrooge to a part of town he has never
been before, _due his ignorance. Scrooge has been basing all of his ideas about
poorer people on his assumptions about where they live and what they do. He
has never even been to this particular part of London before, but he knows it by
its bad reputation.

Scrooge is now taken to the most inhumane and criminal of places, where
the pawnbroker “Old Joe” lived and took in stolen goods and gave a few
coins to the most unfortunate people. Dickens shows how miserable and
grim the living conditions were in those areas, and this could have been
an indication of the experiences that Dickens gained due to his insomniac
nightly walks. He was said to have walked the streets of London at night
gaining an insight into the most horrific situations that men and women
endured due to the overcrowding, poverty and lack of housing in London.
Men, women and children crowded into doorsteps, sleeping with little
comfort or care had a profound effect on him. The area is described again
through the listing/tripling in “reeked with crime, with filth, with misery.”
And this infers that the area is riddled with problems and is not safe.
The scene with the charwoman, the laundress, and the undertaker is upsetting to
Scrooge. Their behaviour and theft of the dead man’s things is horrifying to
Scrooge, but their attitudes reflect his as they were at the beginning of the
story. “Every person has a right to take care of themselves. He always did!”
“If he wanted to keep ’em after he was dead, a wicked old screw,” pursued the
woman, “why wasn’t he natural in his lifetime? If he had been, he’d have had
somebody to look after him when he was struck with Death, instead of lying
gasping out his last there, alone by himself.” (Dialogue)
The Ghost of Christmas Future brings Scrooge to the room where people are
picking apart the possessions of a man who recently died. This enterprising
woman who is taking the deceased man's things argues that if the old man
wanted to keep his things or give them to a person of his choosing, he should
have been kinder (more "natural") in life. Due to his meanness, the reader learns
that this man died entirely alone, "gasping out his last...alone by himself." As
Scrooge soon learns, the man in question is him--and this solitary death is to be
his fate if he does not change his ways. As a wealthy but stingy man, the
townspeople who hear of his death revel in taking from Scrooge the things that
they could never have. Had Scrooge been more generous with his time,
kindness, and wealth, he may have had friends and family surrounding him as he
gasped out his last breath. But due to his miserly ways, he had no one and died
completely alone. As a result, there was no one to protect his estate after his
passing, rendering his possessions completely up for grabs. To those whom
Scrooge spurned in his living days, stealing the dead man's possessions is a kind
of revenge on his stinginess in life--if he wouldn't be generous and donate his
time or money, then they would take what they needed in his death, if only out
of spite. When Scrooge realizes that the man they so despise is himself, he
suddenly sees that this is not how anyone should aspire to end their days.
Scrooge soon learns that empathy and kindness is worth far more than its weight
in gold, and the company and love of others during and after one's life will
always be more important than how much is in one's bank account.

A pale light, rising in the outer air, fell straight upon the bed; and on it, plundered
and bereft, unwatched, unwept, uncared for, was the body of this man.
The use of tripling in “unwatched, unwept, uncared for, was the body of a man.”
Imply that the human in the bed has no one to care for him or mourn for him,
which is true at this point in the novella. Scrooge’s death shows that he has
reaped what he sowed and in death he is alone, like in life. The repetition of
the negative prefix Un emphasises loneliness and neglect.
He recoiled in terror, for the scene had changed, and now he almost touched a
bed: a bare, uncurtained bed: on which, beneath a ragged sheet, there lay a
something covered up, which, though it was dumb, announced itself in awful
language Verb – recoiled
This body is the dead man that the people spoke of as they stole his things.
Entirely stripped of his possessions, the body is left alone on a bare bed with only
a torn sheet to cover it. This image symbolizes what the man has once his
money and items are gone: no one, and nothing. Without any friends or loved
ones to mourn him, the body left behind is nothing more than an empty vessel
devoid even of the mean spirit that used to occupy it. This stark and scary scene
jolts Scrooge. Though the body does not announce itself because it is "dumb," it
does so in "awful language," : silence. Scrooge realizes that this "awful
language" of silence, in which the Ghost itself also converses with him, is all that
he looks forward to for the rest of his days and beyond if he does not learn how
to form, cultivate, and care for human connection.
“Let me see some tenderness connected with a death” Scrooge is horrified that
nobody is sad about his death.

It would have done you good to see how green a place it is. But you’ll see it
often. I promised him that I would walk there on a Sunday. (Religious
significance)
Juxtaposition
There is a huge difference between the body lying alone in the dark house and
the body of Tiny Tim, kissed and adored in the Cratchit house. The Cratchits have
picked a green, fragrant plot for the boy, and have promised to visit him every
Sunday. The child is given religious significance, as a kind of saviour. But the
body of the miserly man is left alone, in a godless place. At the same time,
Cratchit is crushed by Tiny Tim's death, and of course had someone just had
some charity Tiny Tim wouldn't have had to die . Mr. Cratchit shows bravery
and cheerfulness even in the face of grief, but the loss of Tiny Tim leaves
a huge gap in the Cratchit household. Tim was the unlikely leader of the
holiday cheer and without him, the household has a different, solemn
atmosphere. Fitting in with the story’s use of extremes and caricatures to
make its point, it is the purest, kindest, smallest character that suffers
most. The effect of Tiny Tim’s life and loving nature is far reaching. It has
left its mark on everybody. Even those who didn’t really know him have
positive thoughts about him and have been left better off because of him,
even though he offered nothing but his goodness. This shows how the
best things are not affected by money or even death, they outlast us.
The Spirit stood among the graves, and pointed down to One. He advanced
towards it trembling. The Phantom was exactly as it had been, but he dreaded
that he saw new meaning in its solemn shape.
Scrooge crept towards it, trembling …the neglected grave his own name,
EBENEZER SCROOGE.
Adjective – “neglected” showing no one ever visits the grave and everything
that Scrooge worked for in life was pointless and futile as in death he is forgotten
and his wealth meant nothing.
“I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in
the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within
me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach. Oh, tell me I may sponge
away the writing on this stone!”
This is the climax of the story –finally, Scrooge is forced to discard his ignorance
and fully face that the dead man is him. That this story he was seeing was not
symbolic; it was his life, and he must now grapple with the certain understanding
that his greed has led him inexorably to the horrible loneliness that he has
witnessed in this vision of the future, to a death uncared about by anyone. Face
with this vision, with this understanding, Scrooge begins to suddenly and
dramatically repent. Scrooge promises to “Live in the Past, the Present and the
Future” implying that he has taken on board the messages that the ghosts have
provided him with, that he understands the folly of his former ways and that he
is willing to change.
Juxtaposition
The way that the Ghost of the Future has so boldly presented death in
juxtaposing ways, with Tiny Tim mourned and loved and Scrooge forgotten and
unloved, creates an epiphany in Scrooge and makes him realise that he needs to
change.
Throughout the stave death is solemn, final and almost inevitable for Scrooge.
The way death is presented by Dickens shows the reader that we have to
consider the way we treat others in life and we need to be kind, charitable and
good to others around us, or the fate that Scrooge is shown in stave four could
very well be the fate that we deserve.
Stave 5
“I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future!” Scrooge repeated, as he
scrambled out of bed. “The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. Oh Jacob
Marley! Heaven, and the Christmas Time be praised for this! I say it on my
knees, old Jacob, on my knees!”
Scrooge awakens the next day with a firm resolve to change his ways. He thanks
the Ghost of his one and only friend, Jacob Marley, for showing him the
importance of rejecting their mutual miserly ways. Scrooge resolves to embody
all three spirits: the youthful reminiscence of the Ghost of Christmas Past, the
joy, understanding, and generosity of the Ghost of Christmas Present, and the
sombre foresight of the Ghost of Christmas Future. He knows now that it is
important to understand one's own context and perspective, as well as those of
others, to properly conduct oneself with kindness and charity. Scrooge has some
good reasons for acting particularly bitter around Christmas--there are unhappy
memories from his past that make the holiday a sore subject--but he also has
very happy memories that he has now learned to try and evoke, such as old
Fezziwig’s ball. As he has awoken on Christmas Day itself, he now has the chance
to evoke the spirit of Christmas Present, and immediately spread joy and
generosity on the people who deserve and need it.
Symbolism
Scrooge’s awakening from this deep, strange sleep is a moment of
enlightenment, a complete transformation, a bit like a baptism or birth itself.
Scrooge cries like a baby, and is purified like a newly baptized disciple.
He had been sobbing violently in his conflict with the Spirit, and his face was wet
with tears.
Pathetic fallacy
No fog, no mist; clear, bright, jovial, stirring, cold; cold, piping for the blood to
dance to; Golden sunlight; Heavenly sky; sweet fresh air; merry bells. Oh,
glorious! Glorious!

Scrooge now has a clear mind

Though Scrooge spent three nights with the Ghosts he nonetheless wakes up on
Christmas Day, and he is reminded of how wonderful waking up on Christmas
Day was as a child. He turns this knowledge into action, and passes his joy on, to
a poor boy, whose grateful face repays him immediately. Scrooge is so full of
Christmas spirit that he even thanks his door knocker!
Go and buy it, and tell ’em to bring it here, that I may give them the direction
where to take it. Come back with the man, and I’ll give you a shilling. Come back
with him in less than five minutes and I’ll give you half-a-crown!” The boy was
off like a shot.
“I’ll send it to Bob Cratchit’s!” whispered Scrooge, rubbing his hands, and
splitting with a laugh. “He sha’n’t know who sends it. It’s twice the size of Tiny
Tim. Joe Miller never made such a joke as sending it to Bob’s will be!”
“Yes,” said Scrooge. “That is my name, and I fear it may not be pleasant to you.
Allow me to ask your pardon. And will you have the goodness”—here Scrooge
whispered in his ear.
Now, Scrooge has the chance to make amends for all his bad deeds – one by one
he apologizes to the virtuous characters he has met and scorned. This structure
allows Dickens to show Scrooge’s complete transformation from evil to good.
Here is where the true lesson of the story lies. Not only is Scrooge using his new
lease of life to make amends, he is also forgiven by those characters who had
been most personally affected by his cruelty. The transformation of Scrooge’s life
hinges on forgiveness, which is at the heart of Christian doctrine. Scrooge was so
far down the path toward damnation, but all he needs to do is transform himself,
to accept and internalize the spirit of Christmas, and forgiveness will be given.
Now, I'll tell you what, my friend,' said Scrooge, 'I am not going to stand this sort
of thing any longer. And therefore,' he continued, leaping from his stool, and
giving Bob such a dig in the waistcoat that he staggered back into the Tank
again; 'and therefore I am about to raise your salary!'
Scrooge now takes pleasure in being able to shed his old character in front of
Bob. And, just as the other characters throughout the story have laughed and
made jokes, so does Scrooge. Through the years, Bob has been loyal to him and
is finally rewarded. This scene also shows how forgiving and good Bob is.
The day after Christmas, Bob Cratchit arrives late to work. Scrooge pretends that
he is furious at this indiscretion and is about to fire Bob. Instead, he announces
that he is going to give him a raise to his salary. After having learned the true
meaning of empathy and generosity, Scrooge enjoys pranking Bob using his
previously cruel attitude. He is completely aware of how cruel he has been up
until now, and how much people resent him for his meanness. He knows that Bob
needs the money much more than he does, due to the illness of his son Tiny Tim.
Thus, for the first time, Scrooge is delighted at the prospect of giving away his
money to someone who needs it more than he does--the definition of charity and
generosity. Scrooge now derives joy from being kind to his fellow man, and as he
soon learns, being kind to others usually means they will be kind to you. Thanks
to his warning from Marley and the lessons of the Ghosts, Scrooge lives out his
days in happiness and in happy company, embodying Tiny Tim's sentiment of
"God bless us, every one"--and thus Dickens' moral fable ends neatly and
happily.
Scrooge's transformation saves Tiny Tim's life. This the lasting message of the
story, that goodness and its attendant charity can overcome suffering and
poverty and bad will, both spiritually and in life.

Similes
Dickens then uses similes to characterize Scrooge's newfound spirit: “I am
as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a
schoolboy. The similes he uses, such as "light as a feather," are a contrast
to the Scrooge, who the night before was forging a heavy chain for himself
—just like his friend Marley.
Dynamic verbs and alliteration
Scrooge repeated, as he scrambled out of bed. “The Spirits of all Three shall
strive within me.

Here, alliteration helps us to focus on "scramble" and "strive," which are

both active words that emphasize Scrooge's determination to work to
change his life.
Use of exclamatory interjections and phrases
It's a testimony to Dickens's skills as a writer that he is able to sustain this
tone of joy throughout the stave by using positive, high energy words like
"running" and "laughter," joyful dialogue, and many, many exclamation
points to drive home Scrooge's transformation.
"A merry Christmas to everybody! A happy New Year to all the world.
Hallo here! Whoop! Hallo!”
The position of the verb ‘running’ at the beginning of the sentence –
shows his enthusiasm.
• The clear day is a metaphor for his clear mind.
• The adjectives describing the day could be applied to him – ‘No fog, no
mist’.
• The adjectives ‘Golden’ and ‘Heavenly’ show the change in Scrooge
after his supernatural experiences.
 Theme of family
The entrance of Scrooge’s nephew Fred at the beginning of the story introduces
another side to the miser. Scrooge is not unfortunate in the way of relatives – he
has a family awaiting his presence, asking him to dinner, wanting to celebrate
the season with him, yet he refuses. This is one of the important moral moments
in the story that helps predict Scrooge’s coming downfall. It shows how Scrooge
makes choices to prolong his own misery. He chooses to live alone and in
darkness while even poor Cratchit is rich in family. Scrooge’s distaste for Fred’s
happiness is not just annoyance at the sight of merriness and excess, it is also
motivated by bitterness towards marriage based on Scrooge’s own lost love
Belle, who left him long ago. In the story, cold and loneliness are set up in
opposition to the warmth of family. Symbols of coldness such as Scrooge’s empty
hearth, refusal to provide heat for Cratchit, and keeping his own house dark to
save money show Scrooge’s cruelty and lack of connection. But family provides
the antidote to this coldness. When Fred enters, the counting house suddenly
warms up. Further, Cratchit’s warmth, despite his lack of coal, and the
togetherness and energy of his large family, show him to be one of the most
fortunate men in the story. Scrooge does have a kind of family in his partner
Marley, who is described at the beginning of the novella as fulfilling many roles
for Scrooge before his death. The inseparability of their names above the firm’s
entrance shows how close they are—at least in business terms—and though they
are bachelors they share their lives, and the suite of rooms is passed down like a
family legacy from Marley to Scrooge. Ultimately, from Marley’s warning and the
visions provided by the ghosts, Scrooge does learn to appreciate and connect
with Fred and the rest of his family, and to even extend that family to include the
Cratchits.

Theme of greed/generosity and forgiveness

The story’s structure and Scrooge’s character development are engineered so
that as Scrooge becomes aware of his own poverty and learns to forgive and
listen to his buried conscience, he is able to see virtue and goodness in the other
characters and rediscovers his own generosity – he even becomes a symbol of
Christmas in the final stave. Scrooge is remedied in the novella by the Christmas-
conscious characters that surround him, including his own nephew and Bob
Cratchit and his family, who show Scrooge in the Ghost of Christmas Present’s
tour the true meaning of goodness. All of the generous characters in the story
are financially downtrodden but succeed in being good and happy despite their
lot, whereas Scrooge needs to go through a traumatic awakening in order to find
happiness. But the virtue that really ensures Scrooge’s transformation is
forgiveness – it is this key of Christian morality that saves him when the
characters that he has always put down—Fred, Bob Cratchit—welcome him into
their homes when he undergoes his transformation, giving Dickens’ tale the
shape of a true religious redemption
Theme of Christmas and tradition
Theme of social dissatisfaction and the Poor Laws
Starting with this extract, explore how Dickens presents poor
characters in the novel. Write about:
From the foldings of its robe, it brought two children; wretched, abject, frightful,
hideous, miserable. They knelt down at its feet, and clung upon the outside of its
garment.
"Oh, Man, look here! Look, look, down here!" exclaimed the Ghost. They were a
boy and a girl. Yellow, meagre, ragged, scowling, wolfish; but prostrate, too, in
their humility. Where graceful youth should have filled their features out, and
touched them with its freshest tints, a stale and shrivelled hand, like that of age,
had pinched, and twisted them, and pulled them into shreds. Where angels
might have sat enthroned, devils lurked, and glared out menacing. No change,
no degradation, no perversion of humanity, in any grade, through all the
mysteries of wonderful creation, has monsters half so horrible and dread.
Scrooge started back, appalled. Having them shown to him in this way, he tried
to say they were fine children, but the words choked themselves, rather than be
parties to a lie of such enormous magnitude.
"Spirit, are they yours?" Scrooge could say no more.
"They are Man's," said the Spirit, looking down upon them.
"And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This
girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware
this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be
erased”
* How Dickens presents poor characters in this extract.
* How Dickens presents poor characters in the novel as a whole.
Essay: Tako Title Author Keywords
In the novella from questionCarol Dickens presents poor characters in a variety of
A Christmas
ways. He shows the impact of poverty upon members of society in order to show
his readership how and why society must change if it is to avoid suffering and
disaster. He makes this moral point
Overview of points

through figurative language, juxtaposition, diction and imagery. Images of the

poor are represented in the horrific depictions of the children of Ignorance and
Want. However Dickens also depicts how families such as the Cratchits are able
to circumvent their poverty, in order to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas
and the wider value of family and community.

In the extract we see how Dickens uses negatively connotated adjectives

to describe the children Ignorance and Want. The adjective “wretched”
shows the children are incredibly unhappy and in unfortunate
circumstances. The adjectives “frightful and hideous” describe their
appearance. Hideous means extremely ugly and abject shows that they
are unhappy. Dickens dehumanises the children by describing them
wolfish and yellow connotes illness: jaundice. These children are
malnourished and undersized due to poverty. Dickens deliberately uses
these adjectives to shock the reader. This is effective due to Dicken’s use
of structure, as the reader has just read a detailed account of the cheerful
festivities at Fred’s, followed by Scrooge’s tour of homes, always with a
happy ending. The jarring change of tone is completely out-of-sync with
previous descriptions.
The adjective“shrivelled” is used here, which compares these children,
who are also victims of the struggles of poverty, to Tiny Tim. It creates a
similar image of premature decay to highlight the neglect of lower classes
in society. The boy in this scene represents Ignorance, and the Ghost of
Christmas Present tells Scrooge to “most of all beware the boy”. This
strongly conveys Dickens’ message about poverty and the poor, as he is
trying to tell society that ignoring the struggles and problems of the poor
will be their downfall.
Dickens was especially aware of the plight of poor children in the 19th century, and children
appear in the story as symbols of the ruined youth of Industrial Capitalism. The youths of
Ignorance and Want are especially clear representations of these problems. And Tiny Tim is a
lasting symbol of the power of goodness and generosity to overcome adversity. Putting these
large themes in the figures of children emphasizes the tragedy of the premature suffering of
the Victorian youth, affected by the grinding poverty created by the Industrial Revolution and
England's poverty laws which made being in debt a crime punishable by forcing debtors into
working houses.
Although the Cratchit family are poor, they are shown as happy despite their
situation. Dickens compares the cups to “golden goblets”, which to me suggests
that the Cratchits feel enriched simply by each other’s company, which is worth
more to them than anything materialistic. Earlier in the same scene, we learn
first how vibrant the scene is among this family when Dickens personifies even
the potatoes, saying they were “knocking” to get out of their pan, as if the
joyous atmosphere was so desirable to be amongst that even inanimate objects
wanted to be part of the festivities. In the extract we are told that the chestnuts
cracked “nosily”, which conveys the same idea, building a feeling of community
despite the poverty in the scene.
One member of the Cratchit family who strongly highlights the struggles of the
poor is Tiny Tim, whose hand is described as a “withered little hand,” suggesting
it has prematurely withered like a flower with no light. As the word “withered”
has connotations of a flower - this could perhaps be seen as a metaphor for how
something beautiful had been hindered and killed by the tight-fistedness of the
of the rich in society, which is something that Dickens was strongly trying to
convey in this novella. Light is often a symbol of hope, so this flower could be
shrivelled due to a lack of light, which is the lack of generosity from the upper
classes. Dickens may have intended “withered little” as a juxtaposition, as we
would normally associate “withered” with old age and “little” with childhood. This
contrast highlights how wrong it is that an innocent child should be so shunned
by society due to his wealth and status, and this demonstrates Dicken’s
frustration over the inequality.
REMEMBER PEEL PARAGRAPH FOR HOMEWORK
1. How does Dickens present the character of Scrooge in A Christmas Carol?

2. How does Dickens present the Cratchits in A Christmas Carol?

3. How does Dickens present the ghosts in A Christmas Carol?

4. How does Dickens explore the theme of redemption in A Christmas Carol?

5. How does Dickens explore the theme of greed in A Christmas Carol?

6. How does Dickens explore the theme of social justice in A Christmas Carol?

7. How does Dickens explore the role of the family in A Christmas Carol?

8. How does Dickens present selfishness in A Christmas Carol?

9. How important is Christmas to the novel A Christmas Carol?

10. How does Dickens criticise society in A Christmas Carol?