Scrooge is shown as being heartless by the clever comparison of him to cold weather. For instance “External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge”. This is a great example of this. He is saying that heat or cold had no effect on him. He is so cold and heartless already that even the wind wasn’t as bitter as him, not even the snow matched up to his coldness. “No warmth could warm, nor wintry weather chill him”. This example describes him perfectly.
Scrooge is brought to life from the use of the use of imagery by using adjectives. The best and only example is “A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner!”. Throughout the book he lists the adjectives like this or he uses many adjectives patterns such as using three adjectives before a noun. His use of adjectives when describing Scrooge is extraordinary. He uses adjectives to describe everything, every place and everyone in the whole of ‘A Christmas Carol’. This is the best technique which Dickens uses to bring Scrooge to life.
Dickens describes Scrooge as a really tight person which no one seems to like. “Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say ‘My dear Scrooge how are you?’”. This shows that nobody likes talking to him, however Scrooge prefers it this way. He also goes on to say that no beggars begged Scrooge for money, no children stopped him to ask the time. These are good examples of how Dickens describes everyone’s mood to certain people, places or events/time. He doesn’t just do this to people, he also does this to animals also. An example of this is “Even the blind men’s dogs … saw him coming, would tug their owners into doorways and up courts”. This again shows how he sets the mood for Scrooge among other people. This is an excellent way which Dickens brings people to life.
The next key aspect of Dickens style is how he brings places to life as described in the following two passages, the first is the street on Christmas Eve and the other, is the shops on Christmas Eve.
The first passage is mainly to do with the cold weather and the people and place.
Dickens describes the streets and the shops in a clever way. Instead of just using writing techniques, he describes the people’s attitudes to the shops and the streets as well as just describing the shops. This is effective because he describes everything in real detail and this really paints a picture in the readers mind. In some parts of the book it feels as your really there. This is because he uses many writing techniques to really make the book real for the reader.
Dickens describes the weather brilliantly. He does this by describing the peoples actions “… At the corner of the court, the labourers were repairing the gas pipes, and had lighted a great fire in a brazier, round whom a party of ragged men and boys were gathered”. This is a great example of this because it shows how cold it was outside and what the homeless were doing as well as other people. This makes the place real by describing the surroundings.
He also uses personification as well as adjectives to bring objects to life. “The ancient tower of a church, whose gruff old bell was always peeping slyly down at Scrooge”, this is just one of the great examples used throughout the whole book.
The second passage is a description of the shops and the objects inside them.
Dickens creates a happy scene using adjectives. As I was saying before, Dickens uses adjectives skilfully and to great effect. “For the people… were jovial and full of glee… laughing heartily”. This again shows how people react to the environment and he uses figurative language to create excellent imagery for the reader to create pictures in their heads.
Personification is brilliantly used in this particular passage. He gives the food human characteristics to describe food effectively. He describes the onions to look like “Spanish friars”, even though this is also a simile, it still says they look like them because of the onions fatness. “…winking from their shelves in wanton slyness at the girls”, this gives the onions human features by saying the onions have eyes which winked at the girls.
Dickens uses his brilliant listing of adjectives technique to describe the wide range of food. This is one of the best techniques Dickens uses to bring, people, places and time/events to life. He describes every piece of food in lots of detail by using his adjectives. “The raisins… rare plentiful… the almonds… extremely white… sticks of cinnamon… so long and straight”. These are just a few examples of this, there are many more throughout the whole passage.
The final key aspect is how Dickens brings time/events to life. Dickens brings time/events to life in a number of ways. I am going to use the example of Fezziwig’s Ball to describe the ways which Dickens uses to bring time/events to life.
One way is how Dickens uses similes to really describe certain objects as well as people. “Tuned like fifty stomach aches”, is a great example of one of the similes used to show how tuned the orchestra was. “They shone in every part of the dance like moons”, this describes how Mr Fezziwig (Scrooge’s master, Scrooge was his apprentice) dances, and how the light looked like it was appearing from his calves. His use of similes is great in this passage.
He also uses a lot of repetition to describe how the guests came in and how they danced. “In came” and “They came” is used repeatedly in one paragraph in the passage of Fezziwig’s ball. “New top couple”, “old couple” and “all couples”, are quotes that are repeated a few times. This really is a good way to show how the people danced because it implies that everyone was doing the same dance.
He uses adjectives which are listed always when describing a particular thing. He describes one particular voice as “…comfortable, oily, rich, fat, jovial”. This is a brilliant example of how well he uses his adjectives especially when he lists them like this. “… some shyly, some boldly, some gracefully, some awkwardly, some pushing, some pull”. He also does this when he describes the guests’ actions and the way they come in.
When he uses his adjectives he always uses a long sentence structure. This is effective because he clumps all the adjectives together in one long sentence so he really describes everything well. This links back to what I was saying before about his listing of adjectives. This is a great technique he uses in every passage where he describes people, places or events/time.
Dickens also appeals to the senses in this passage. He describes main characters in great detail by describing their senses. Again this quote is a good example of this “…comfortable, oily, rich, fat, jovial voice”. In this example he describes the voice in great detail and this really gives a clear picture in the readers mind. He does this a lot when describing the senses in any passage in the book.
To conclude, Charles Dickens brings people, places, and time/events to life in a number of ways. The main way which he does this has to be his use of adjectives to describe everything. His adjectives create clear pictures in the readers mind, this is an effective writing technique which Dickens uses brilliantly. As I was saying before, he also describes people’s moods to other people, places and events/time. This is effective because it shows he can really describe every single thing in this book.
Overall this book has been a very interesting read. The most interesting about ‘A Christmas Carol’ is Charles Dickens’ imagery in this book. Everything he describes paints a picture in the readers mind. My favourite part of the book is ‘Fezziwig’s ball’. The amount of imagery in this passage has to be one of the best in the whole book.
From studying this book, I never realised, when first reading this book, that so much skill has been put into this book to make it brilliant. I also have learnt why books had to be this good in the mid nineteenth century. This is because there was no TV, radios etc. as there was no electricity. Books were the only entertainment. This is why Dickens’ book really is a story which “no one could help but enjoy”.
