X-Mas Key Quotes

X-Mas Key Quotes

1. Ebeneezer Scrooge

   • It's not my business [..] It's enough for a man to understand his own business, and not to interfere with other people's. Mine occupies me constantly. (STAVE 1)
     • Characters who want to enclose and isolate the unpleasant from their sight because it's just too pesky to deal with. (CONTEXT of Capitalistic view of every man should only look after himself)
   • An intelligent boy [..] A remarkable boy [...] What a delightful boy [...] It's a pleasure to talk to him (STAVE 2)
     • Since this is Scrooge's first positive communication with anyone, he is exclaiming in (Third Person Aside) It is almost as if he has forgotten how to have a normal conversation. He seems shocked at much happiness he is getting from talking to one person. (positive adjectives)
   • A merrier Christmas, Bob [..] I'll raise your salary, and endeavour to assist your struggling family (STAVE 5)
     • Scrooge is completely Transformed. He is giving away money for the benefit of others, something he would not do in Stave 1. Clearly, the visit of the ghosts has gotten to him and making him want to change his ways. (Intensifier "Merrier")
       • cannot change but merrier is not an intensifier, it's a comaprative
   • Where graceful youth should have filled their features out and touched them with its freshest tints, a stale and shrivelled hand (STAVE 3)
     • These kids are symbols of Want and Ignorance, and that the Poor are always Wanting and that the Uneducated are ignorant, but they cannot help this, as they do not have the money or the power, however, Scrooge does. (Sibilance in "Stale And Shrivelled")
     • Instead of being normal children, Poverty has led them into being ignorant and wanting, but they cannot break out of this cycle without the help of the wealthy and powerful. (CONTEXT of that many people lived this way in industrial England)
   • My clerk, with fifteen shillings a week, and a wife and family, talking about a merry Christmas. I'll retire to Bedlam (STAVE 1)
     • Scrooge is unable to reconcile the idea of someone having positive emotions and at the same time being financially insecure—the very thought of mixing these two things seems crazy—Bedlam-worthy. (Possessive of "My")
   • There was a boy singing a Christmas Carol at my door last night. I should like to have given him something: that's all. (STAVE 2)
     • First point of change (Anagorisis), begins to see the errors of his ways, from seeing himself in the past.
   • He has the power to render us happy or unhappy; to make our service light or burdensome; a pleasure or a toil. [..] The happiness he gives, is quite as great as if it cost a fortune. (STAVE 2)
     • Scrooge suddenly has a revelation. He realises the boss has the power to change the tone of their employees, and seeing how fezziwig made it a "pleasure" and how he himself has made it "burdensome" so Bob. (Irony)
   • Are these the shadows of the things that will be, or are they shadows of things that May be, only? (STAVE 4)
     • Scrooge freaks out that everything might be determined by fate rather than free will. (Modals)
   • No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him. (STAVE 1)
     • Dickens uses (Pathetic Fallacy) to represent Scrooge's nature. The weather is a (metaphor) for Scrooge's behaviour as he cannot be made either warmer or colder by it.
   • 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. (STAVE 1)
     • He cannot accept the generosity that is offered him and instead turns images of Christmas into images of violence (Semantic Field)
   • If they had rather die, then they had better do it and decrease the surplus population (STAVE 1)
     • It shows how Scrooge is cold hearted as would rather see that the poor are dying, before helping them, he thinks that anyone who is not helping themsleves or the economy should go off and die (Capitalistic views)
   • Spirit [..] Tell me Tiny Tim will live (STAVE 3)
     • The idea to send away anonymous crowds of the needy, like Scrooge does, by putting an individual face on the problem, Tiny Tim, Scrooge begins to feel compassion and empathy for the Cratchit family and no longer thinks the poor should die, (Anagnorisis)
   • I fear you more than any other spectre i have seen [..] i know your purpose is to do my good (STAVE 4)
     • He fears the future, not the "spectre" he knows that the intention of the Ghost is to help his correct his ways, but still fears what he will be shown.
     • The first spirit referred to as a Spectre, which immediately forebodes something more frightening than the other spirits.
   • I hope to live to be another man from what i was (STAVE 4)
     • Hope is not strong enough, the spectre's job is to turn that HOPE into a WILL and the spectre does just that

2. Bob Cratchit

   • I'll give you Mr. Scrooge, the Founder of the Feast! (STAVE 3)
     • Scrooge is too miserly to offer his clerk a decent wage, but Cratchit is generous enough to be grateful to his boss. (Irony, he seems much happier even though he isnt poor, and the only thing that Scrooge associates happiness with is money)
     • Ironic - It was barely a feast as there was so little for such a big fmaily, but to them it is a feast as they are poor, but they still thanbk scrtooge for providing for them
   • My little, little child! cried Bob. My little child! (STAVE 4)
     • The (repetition) of 'little' adds to the sad effect of Bob's cry.
   • It's only once a year, sir," pleaded Bob (STAVE 5)
     • Bob 'pleaded' which shows he is worried about being punished by Scrooge.

3. Jacob Marley

   • It is required of every man, that the spirit within him should walk among his fellow men [...] If that spirit goes not in life, it is condemned to do so after death (STAVE 1)
     • Foreshadowing Scrooges' afterlife unless he changes, that he will be in as much painm and suffereing as Marley is
     • He is saying that scrooge should mix with everybody, rich or poor, as the afterlife doesn't care if you're rich or poor
   • I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free wore it (STAVE 1)
     • He chose to be cold and heartless of his "own free will" and therefore built his own chain to carry.
     • Ironic - Clearly not his own free will to carry that chain and be in pain and suffering, but he is forced to do so, as no one forced him to be how he was,like no oine is forcing scrooge to be the way he is

4. Ghost Of Christmas Past

   • Rise! and walk with me!" (STAVE 2)
     • The (imperatives) 'Rise' and 'walk' show that the ghost is to be obeyed. It has control here.
   • Like a child; yet not so like a child as like an old man (STAVE 2)
     • This represents all that Scrooge is at this moment, for he is an old man, but within him is still this child. It is Scrooges' childhood that causes him to loathe Christmas
     • Man is born innocent and loses this innocence through experience, but as he ages, he returns to a higher state of innocence. This notion can be seen in the combination of the child and the old man in the spirit.
     • Antithesis - Child VS Old Man
     • Child = Innocence // Old Man = Wise
   • It wore a tunic of the purest white (STAVE 2)
     • Superlative - Purest
     • Furthers that this spirit is good hearted and innocent

5. Fred

   • Let him in! It is a mercy he didn't shake his arm off. He was at home in five minutes. Nothing could be heartier. (STAVE 5)
     • Shows how welcvoming everyone is at christmas time, he is "home" and shows how he had been fully accepted and integrated into thw group, despite the altercation the previous afternoon.
     • Intensifier - Heartier
       • not an intensifier, but it's a comparative
   • He's a comical old fellow [..] and not so pleasant as he might be. However his own offences carry their own punishment. (STAVE 3)
     • Fred understands that Scrooge will get what he deserves and that he doesn't need to add to Scrooge's misery as there is a higher power who will judge and punish Scrooge accordingly, so Fred tries to make Scrooge's time more pleasurable.
     • Links to that a man will forge his own chain of free will, and will carry it of their own free will
   • He has given us plenty of merriment, i am sure [..] it would be ungrateful not to drink to his health. (STAVE 3)
     • He drinks to Scrooges health as although he is a miserable old git, he has given the family a good laugh, and they thank him for that, ALTERNATIVELY, it could be because they wouldn't be able to laugh at a dead man, so by drinking to his health, they are actually drinking to the laughs they wish to continue having but based on Fred's positive and friendly nature, the first is far more likely

6. Ghost Of Christmas Present

   • "If he be like to die, he had better do it, and decrease the surplus population." [..] Scrooge hung his head [..] and was overcome with pentinence and grief. (STAVE 3)
     • Ironic - The Ghost of Christmas Present uses Scrooge's own words against him, and Scrooges' response clearly shows how he is seeing the error of his ways and is beginning to change
   • I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased." (STAVE 3)
     • He presents two children called 'Ignorance' and 'Want' hiding under his cloak. He warns that 'Doom' awaits Scrooge unless a change is made.
     • Foreshadowing what will become
   • They are Man's [..] The Boy is Ignornace, the Girl is Want (STAVE 3)
     • Society has created Ignorance and Want, (Abstract Nouns Personified), this is what is wrong with society, there is only one way to change this cycle was for the wealthy (SCROOGE) to intervene.
   • Are there no Prisons [..] Are there no workhouses (STAVE 3)
     • Once again turning on Scrooge by using his own words (Ironic) to truly show the way Scrooge has been treating those in need, and it is working, Scrooge seems saddened everytime his words are reapeated
   • I see a vacant seat. The child will die (STAVE 3)
     • Telling Scrooge that Tiny Tim WILL (MODAL) die unless things and ways are changed, this seems to be most impactful foreshadow for Scrooge and is most likely why he goes on to raise Bob's wage and "endeavour to aide his struggling family"

7. Ghost Of Christmas Yet To Come

   • Scrooge feared the silent shape so much that his legs trembled beneath him (STAVE 4)
     • The presence of this ghost makes Scrooge afraid. His trembling legs and inability to stand firm show how he is worried about the future that the ghost will show him.
     • Sibilance - Silent Shape
   • It thrilled him with a Vague, Uncertain horror [..] that behind the dusky shroud there were ghostly eyes intently fixed upon him. (STAVE 4)
     • Is he scared of the ghost, Or of the unknown "uncertainty" of the future
     • The future is personified here, that he is "thrilled" wiuth "uncertainty" to look inot the "dark shroud" that is the future
   • The children's faces were brighter; and it was a happier house for this man's death [..] The only emotion the Ghost could show him, caused by this event was one of pleasure. (STAVE 4)
     • Positive emotions on the news of Scrooge's death, comparitive used to show how things have affected them for the better, even the children, who were not fully understanding were happy, and this was the only emotion after his death "pleasure"