Dickens used these words in the way to explain how Scrooge dealt with money;
Wrenching; forcing out every money from you
Grasping; getting hold of you forcefully
Scraping; scraping off every money you’ve got
Clutching; grabbing you and not letting until all debts are paid
Squeezing; squeezing out every last penny you’ve got
Covetous; a bloody miser
And this was how Scrooge handled debtors, which was his means of making money.
Dickens uses Pathetic Fallacy; which is when the weather is used to describe a person. The part were Dickens says Scrooge his cold, the cold is actually from is heart; meaning that, he his cold-hearted, i.e.
“The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed
Nose, shrivelled his cheek, and stiffened his gait, made his eyes red, his thin lips blue.......”
All these showed how scrooge’s feelings were, meaning he could not feel any emotions.
When Dickens starts the story, he begins it with “Once upon a time”, This term is usually used for fairy tales and fairy tales mostly end with “and they lived happily ever after” or always have an happy ending, which then gives us the impression that Dickens’ story will end happily; once again he changes the atmosphere, and slows down the pace.
Bob Chrachit was a clerk, he worked for Scrooge; copying letters was what he did. Scrooge treats Chrachit in a terrible a manner. We know these, because Bob was writing in a freezing cold room because Scrooge gave him only a coal of fire, and he kept the others in his room. Bob was treated badly but he couldn’t quit, because he would not get any other job again. Bob Chrachit earned 15 shillings a week, with a wife and family, and this was a little bit high according to the rate at which other people were paid.
In that time, England was the richest empire, but all the money went to some people, while majority starved to death. It was the law; the rich gets richer and poor gets poorer. If you were poor then, you could be put in prison for being poor and homeless. And poor and sick people were also taken to the work house to go and work. Scrooge’s nephew was a very cheerful person, he came to invite Scrooge to a Christmas in his house, but Scrooge hated Christmas, so he refused. Scrooge has a very terrible attitude for Christmas; he made a statement when everyone was shouting “Merry Christmas” at his door in stave 1, saying; “every idiot who goes
about with “Merry Christmas” in his/her mouth should be boiled with his own pudding.
There was a knock on the door, Scrooge opened the door and these Charity workers came in. They asked Scrooge for money to help the poor, and he asked them why the poor were not sent to the “work House”. Scrooge says he has already helped the poor by all the tax he paid to the government (socio-historic). In stave 1, a young boy turns up, he knows the time of person Scrooge is, so he goes up to the keyhole and sings Christmas songs, Scrooge reacted to this angrily by chasing him off with an heavy wooden ruler.
Dickens brings in the ghosts, these ghosts have their own job in Scrooge’s life. The first ghost; the depiction of the ghost of Christmas is both childlike and old like, it shows spirit of light. It is the spirit of Scrooge’s past. The ghost shows Scrooge’s Christmas of Feziwig, he was an apprentice of Feziwig. It showed him how he was left alone in school; he also shows him when his sister comes to collect him from school, because his father wanted him back home. Dickens makes us feel sympathy for Scrooge, because we now understand why he is the person he is. And if we
(the readers) feel sympathy for Scrooge; we will want him to change.
The ghost of Christmas presents; the robe the ghost was wearing had to do with growth, life, and it was representing everything that had to do with Christmas. The ghost shows Scrooge, Bob Chrachit’s family, and what they were about to eat and Scrooge felt sympathy for them because of what they wanted to eat was extremely small. It showed scrooge a number of different families; it showed Scrooge his ex-fiancée’s family who was not that comfortable. It showed Scrooge lots of poor families, even Scrooge’s nephew and his family but the amazing bit was that all these different families were every happy. All these represent families and happiness, Dickens makes us understand that Scrooge is the only person that is not happy and that he is living a miserable life.
And then, here is the third spirit, the spirit of horror: This ghost, shows him how people were happy and delighted that he was dead, and how they stole from his corpse, messed up his grave and did so many other bad things. This was when it dawned on Scrooge, and he really felt bad. Dickens is deliberately manipulating the audience, he is playing with our emotions; we feel a great deal of sympathy for Scrooge. By this time, Scrooge is then ready to change, and it is up to him to redeem himself.
There are lists of things that can point out the beginning of his redemption:
- Scrooge feels sympathy for himself and for others
- Scrooge felt sorry about Tiny Tim’s death
- Scrooge remembered who he was then, and what he has turned to now
- He noticed that he is the only sad person
- The ghost showed him the time his sister came to get him from school, because his Father wanted him
- Marley’s ghost came to talk to Scrooge about how he is, and that he might end up like him(Marley)
- He is shown Tiny Tim’s grave, how it is clean, kept tidy and being
- cared for, and how his own grave is dirty and not being cared for because no one likes him
Scrooge is now exercising free will, he does not have to change but it is up to him whether to change or not; but he is being shown the way out and what may be if he does not change. Dickens makes us realise that Scrooge could change, and if Scrooge could change, anyone could change.
Scrooge’s redemption occurs when he learns to integrate the past, present and future into his own view of the world. He is shown how to step out of the capitalism obsessions with the present tense and into a timeless framework in which qualities like generosity and love cannot be qualified.
This encapsulates the past, present and future tense.
This is the time we begin to compare stave 1&5
Scrooge has become like child. Dickens uses a list of similes and repetitions; he is so excited he is like a young kid jumping around (looking at this it seems like Scrooge has become a baby, which is like he was born-again and he is starting life in a new way). Dickens exaggerates the emotions of his characters. “Onomatopoeia”; when a world makes the sound it stands for e.g. Clash, clang, hammer, ding, dong, and bell.
The whether in stave one was cold, foggy, e.t.c, now there is no fog, no mist; clear, bright, and cold. The weather represents Scrooge, as Scrooge changes, the weather also changes; this is pathetic fallacy (looking at the pathetic fallacy, it gives us full information about how Scrooge changes, because in stave 1, the weather was cold, foggy and very bad; which means that Scrooge was cold-hearted, bad and had no emotions. But in stave 5, the weather was warm, not foggy, and bright; which simply means that Scrooge was now warm-hearted, friendly, and had emotions for others.)
Dickens used semi-colons to separate items in the list, this showed that there were similarities in the words and he was trying to link it to a big word.
When Scrooge came back from the “dead”, he was really happy, he came out of his bedroom, went outside and then said to a little boy who was passing by “what’s today, my fine fellow?” At this stage, Scrooge will find anything exciting and delightful.
Scrooge is now so open hearted that he offers the boy a grown man’s day wage (Bob Chrachit) Scrooge tells the boy to go and get him a turkey and he then sends the turkey off to Bob anonymously because he wants to change correctly.
Every part of this is giving Scrooge a time to redeem himself. Scrooge goes around thanking people because he has been given the chance to change. He changes his behaviour at Fred, by asking politely whether he could come into his house when he finally decided to go to the Christmas party. Scrooge also increased the amount of coals he had given Bob in stave 1 to lots of coals.
Dickens uses emphasis “NOT” that Tiny Tim did NOT die, he was a second Father (because Scrooge helped him). Dickens uses the word “GOOD” repeatedly so that he can make the audience feel happy and good at the end. Dickens uses “Scrooge’s heart laughed” because in stave 1, his heart was cold and he had no feelings but at the end, his heart laughs, and also he is quite happy with that, that is, he no longer wants more (Scrooge was never satisfied but now he is) so he has really changed.
In the 19th century, poverty was right and a lot of people spent money drinking Gin because it was very cheap. Drinking was for the working class, they drank because they were poor, the middle class tried to support the poor to stop drinking. The Total Abstinence Principle (TAP), which brings out water, was a pledge of anyone never to drink spirits.
But the TAP for Scrooge was that he never did anything bad so that, he is not visited by the spirits ever again. So not only did Scrooge not drink, he was never visited by the ghost again.
Dickens makes all these from the 19th century joke. He makes it known that Scrooge always kept Christmas well from then and also that all of us (audience) should also keep Christmas well (may that be truly said of us and all of us!).
- Tiny Tim was created by Dickens as a crippled child, not a crippled child who is sad but one who is happy and cares about other people.
Dickens deliberately creates Tiny Tim in other to manipulate our emotions so that we will feel sorry for Tiny Tim, and if so happens we can bless him (Tiny Tim) because he also blessed everyone saying “And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless us, every one!”.
But since Dickens wants an happy ending, he reveals to us that Tiny Tim is not dead; so everyone is still very happy which brings it all to Dickens main point that – “Christmas always ends happily, it is always a happy period and we should always be happy and celebrate Christmas happily”.
