A Christmas Carol
Stave One
Events
1) Stave One begins with Scrooge at work within his office, Bob Cratchit(Scrooge's clerk) is there also with a pitiful fire of ("One Coal").
2) Scrooge then converses with his nephew Fred and expresses his hatred for Christmas, Fred invited Scrooge to his Christmas party
3) Scrooge is visited by two charity men who ask money of him to go towards the poor, Scrooge turns them down.
4) A child visits Scrooge's office, carol singing. Scrooge scares the child off with a ruler.
5) Bob asks Scrooge if he can have the day off work on Christmas day, Scrooge agrees reluctantly and Bob rushes home.
6) Scrooge walks home and notices the face of Marley on his door knocker.
7) Scrooge witnesses multiple paranormal phenomenon, he is paranoid and checks multiple locations around the house.
8) The ghost of Jacob Marley appears, Scrooge blames it on indigestion but is clearly frightened.
9) Scrooge is shown the chains that Marley bares, they are symbolic of his misdeeds
10) Scrooge learns that he will be visited by three ghosts.
11) Marley shows Scrooge a phantom world in which the dead suffer because of their wrong-doings in life
12) After the ordeal is over, Scrooge attempts to say "Humbug" but stops himself.
Quotes
1) "He was a tight fisted hand at the grindstone" ... "No wind that blew was bitterer than he" ... "A dismal little cell" ... "The clerk's fire was so very much smaller that it looked like one coal"
2) "What reason have you to be merry? You're poor enough" ... "It has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good and will do me good."
3) "Are there no prisons" ... "If they would rather die ... they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population" ... "It's not my business"
4) "The singer fled in terror"
5) "It's not convenient ... and it's not fair" ... "The clerk promised that he would"
6) "Not a knocker but Marley's face" ... "had a dismal light about it" ... "he did look cautiously around it first"
7) "It's Humbug still ... I won't believe it"
8) "The chain he drew was clasped around his middle" ... "He (Scrooge) was still incredulous, and fought against his senses" ... "You may be an undigested bit of beef" ... "the spectre's voice disturbed the very marrow in his bones"
9) "I wear the chain I forged in life" ... "Is its pattern strange to you?" ... "It was as full as heavy and as long as this seven Christmas eves ago. You have laboured on it since. It is a ponderous chain!"
10) "You will be haunted ... by three spirits" ... "Without their visits you cannot hope to shun the path I tread"
11) "some few were linked together ; none were free" ... "who cried piteously at being unable to assist a woman with an infant"
12) "He tried to say 'Humbug!' but stopped at the first syllable.
Stave 2
Events
1) Scrooge is visited by the Ghost of Christmas Past
2) Scrooge is first shown the school at which he attended, his friends had went home for Christmas but he was left at the school. Scrooge is emotional upon seeing this.
3) A childhood Scrooge is told by his younger sister, fan, that he may come home for Christmas.
4) Scrooge revisits his young-man hood, he witnesses his old bosses' party of which he attended. This makes him rethink about the way he treats his clerk.
5) Scrooge is then shown the scene of his breakup with his fiance, Belle, she leaves him because of his growing avarice.
6) Scrooge is then shown Belle's household, she has a large, happy family. Belle's husband states that he saw Scrooge and identified his loneliness.
7) Scrooge is overwhelmed by these visions and requests to see them no longer, he then (in a fit of rage), attempts to extinguish the spirit.
Quotes
1) "He had a special desire to see the spirit in his cap" ... "Scrooge reverently disclaimed all intention to offend"
2) "Your lip is trembling ... and what is that upon your cheek" ... "A solitary child, neglected by his friends, is left there still" ... "with a rapidity of transition very foreign to his usual self" ... "I should like to have given him something, that's all"
3) " 'Your nephew!' ... Scrooge seemed uneasy in his mind"
4) "a comfortable, oily, fat, rich, jovial voice" ... "I should like to be able to say a word or two to my clerk right just now"
5) "There was an eager, greedy, restless motion in the eye" ... "Another idol has displaced me ... a gold one" ... "I have thought of it, and can release you" ... "show me no more! Conduct me home!"
6) "such another creature, quite as graceful and as full of promise, might have called him father" ... "his sight grew very dim indeed" ... "Quite alone in the world I do believe" ... "remove me from this place"
Theme of Poverty
"I can't afford to make idle people merry"
Poor law introduced in the 19th century: aimed to help the poor but did very little. Higher classes believed it was effective.
Scrooge can afford this, however, as shown in stave 5 when he purchases a turkey for the Cratchits
Thomas Malthus (english scholar) stated that food production will not be able to keep up with the human population
The poor are often represented as jovial in the novella. Contrasts from: "What right have you to be merry, you're poor enough".
Bob has a "one coal" fire present in his tank
Bob has "no great-coat"
Dickens wants to portray the poor as ignored by higher classes: Scrooge often says "Humbug" as a term of ignorance, the character of Ignorance is hidden away underneath a robe
"Are there no prisons" "and Union Workhouses" - Shows the wealthy's misunderstanding of the poor's situation
Tiny Tim's medical expenses cannot be covered by his family
Scrooge becomes "a second father" to Tiny Tim at the end of the novella: shows that the wealthy can sympathise and live among the poor.
"Nobody said or thought it was at all a small pudding for a large family" - Appreciative
Theme of Family
Scrooge rejects the idea of close kinship when conversing with Fred, he repeats "good afternoon" in hopes of Fred withdrawing from the conversation
Scrooge was "at home in five minutes" upon arriving to the party in stave five, shows that family does indeed have a positive effect, even on the harshest of men
Bob Cratchit juxtaposes Scrooge: he is rich in family but lacking of wealth yet he is much more merry than Scrooge
Scrooge's distaste for family may have arised after his parting with Belle, resulting in a contempt for kinship
"a spring time in the haggard winter of his life" - Shows that Scrooge knows he would benefit from being engrossed by family relations
Context: Large families were common, Queen Victoria had a large family and was in some ways idolised by the British people,
Dickens wishes to present family as a possession that should be highly desired, projecting it in a positive light.
In stave 3, some sailors are shown to think about "those he cared for at a distance" - Shows that family is renowned to be a thought that can bring positivity even in the hardest moments (the sailors at sea on Xmas day)
The Cratchits closeness and kinship aids them during Tiny Tims passing
"as if he loved the child, and wished to keep him by his side" - (Bob to Tiny Tim)
Scrooge is surrounded by family upon the end of his transformation: Fred's party, became a "second father" to Tiny Tim
Stave 3 - Fred's wife "laughed heartily as he"
In stave 2: Belle and her daughter also "laugh heartily"
Context
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