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Stave One (Marley’s Ghost):
1. Who was Marley? What was his condition at the beginning of the story?
Jacob Marley was Scrooge’s business partner. He was “dead as a doornail.”
2. What is the setting of the story?
The setting is Victorian England (London, England) in 1843 (19th Century)
3. One of Scrooge’s relatives visited him at his warehouse. Who was it and what did he want? What was Scrooge’s reply?
Fred, Scrooge’s nephew (Scrooge’s sister’ son) visited him. He invites Scrooge to Christmas dinner with his wife and friends. Scrooge replies, “Good afternoon!”; “Bah! Humbug!”; “I live in a world of fools.”; What reason have you to be merry? You’re poor enough.”
4. What did the other men who came to the warehouse want? What was Scrooge’s reply to them?
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Scrooge replies, “Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?”; “I wish to be left alone.” ; “I don’t make myself merry at Christmas, and I can’t afford to make idle people merry.” ; “They should just die then to decrease the surplus population.”
5. What did Scrooge say about giving his clerk a day off to celebrate Christmas?
He said, “It’s not convenient.”; “It’s not fair.” ; “Be here all the earlier next
Scrooge was and owner of a factory and made a whole bunch of money, but he did not care about anyone else. “Merry Christmas said his nephew, what right do have to be merry you are poor enough”. This shows that scrooge is mean to family and does not care about Christmas.
The first reason he said what he said is because of what the Spirit of Christmas Past said to him. One of the first things he showed him was when he went to a party with his girlfriend and proposed marriage. She said yes. This was before he was greedy and mean. This showed him that being pleasant and kind pays off. The spirit then shows Scrooge another part of his past, where his wife
In the beginning of the play in spite of being selfish Scrooge is also cheap, cold-hearted, and cruel. Scrooge behaves in this manner to his nephew, Fred. One way of proving this is when Fred said “Merry Christmas.” Scrooge replied salty saying “Humbug Christmas is just a time for spending and wasting money.” Not only he treats Fred badly but many more people. For instance take one of his quotes towards the Gentleman Visitor, “Are there no Jails for the poor, are there no
In the play, Mr. Scrooge is a greedy man who thinks Christmas is “Bah Humbug!” (Dickens 3). His family has always wanted him to join them for a Christmas feast, but Mr. Scrooge has never wanted anything to do with Christmas. Marley, Mr. Scrooge’s old business partner, didn’t want Mr. Scrooge to end up like him with chains of greed attached to him when he died, so he sent Mr. Scrooge three spirits: Christmas Past, Present, and Future. Those three spirits visited each day to haunt him about his Christmases. Eventually, he traveled with two of the three spirits, but when the spirit of Christmas Future arrived, Mr. Scrooge realized that he would die in a few years. Ebenezer begged for mercy and promised to celebrate Christmas with joy and festivity. (Dickens 7-32) After the haunting with the spirits, Mr. Scrooge woke up and asked a boy what day it was. When the little boy, Adam, replied that it was Christmas, he ordered the boy
Money is a first priority for Scrooge, and this is easily shown in multiple areas throughout the first section of the book. The rising action included a hallucination of Marley’s face on the doorknob, that was used on the door that led into Ebenezer’s household, which gave Scrooge such a fright that it left him astonished. Little did Ebenezer Scrooge know, this was going to be the kickoff to a substantial journey on his Christmas Eve night. The ghost of Christmas past had the appearance similar to a child, yet it had some characteristics comparable to a lit candle. This ghost took Scrooge to all of his most painful memories leading up to his present day position.
The novel introduces Scrooge as a man of greed. This is shown in the first stave when Scrooge's clerk Bob Cratchit can barely keep warm by such a small fire "that it looked like one coal." Because of Scrooge's greed, he insists on storing up on his wealth by burning less coal, despite it's lack of warmth. Furthermore, one can notice Scrooge's greed as he refuses to give any donation from his surplus wealth to the poor and destitute that the collectors were raising money for. Scrooge's selfish response to the collectors was, " 'I wish to be left alone...I don't make merry myself at Christmas, and I can't afford to make idle people merry..."
He is like Victor and chooses to be isolated for how he treated others. For example, Scrooge says, “I wish to be left alone. Since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer. I don’t make merry myself at Christmas, and I can’t afford to make idle people merry” (Dickens 16). Scrooge is showing the reader that he is an ungrateful and a non-friendly man. The author wants us to know that he has no Christmas sprit and is selfish man that is also very stingy with his money. He also is rude to the people that come to his store. Charles Dickens describes him in A Christmas Carol as “a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, clutching, covetous old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel has ever struck generous fire; secret, and self contained, and solitary as an oyster” (Dickens 12). This description of Scrooge shows that he is a very negative person, that chooses to isolate himself, and keeps things all to himself. He does not care about anyone other than money and himself. He loves money and also watching his clerk; “the door of Scrooge’s counting-house was open that he might keep his eye upon his clerk” (Dickens 13). Scrooge was always watching what his clerk was doing; he was not a friendly guy. There is an example of this in Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein also, where Victor was being watched constantly by the monster, everything victor did the monster was watching. Scrooge
He is taken to the streets of his town. Scrooge sees three businessmen discussing his funeral. They say that they thought he would never die. They also say that they will only go to his funeral if there is food there, but if there is no food they don't plan on attending. Nor, do they even think that there will be a funeral because there will be no one willing to pay for it because he was such an awful person. Scrooge is unable to put two and two together to figure out that this was what was going to happen to him. He thought that they were talking about his ex business partner, James Marley. Next, Scrooge sees people discussing things that they would want to sell for money. They then begin discussing how they had taken it off dead Scrooge’s body after he had died. They explain how they had taken the very clothes he was wearing right off of his back and just left him there. They took everything they thought they could make money off of. Scrooge, while watching the scene, realizes that this is an awful thing to happen to someone, but still does not understand that it is him that they are talking about. Finally, Scrooge is taken to his grave with the Ghost Of Christmas Future. The ghost points at the grave and gestures for him to get in it. Scrooge pleads, and pleads with the spirit to allow him to live, and after a while of begging, the ghost shakes a little bit and puts his finger down. “Spirit, this is a
"At one of these a lonely boy was reading near a feeble fire; and Scrooge sat down upon a form, and wept to see his poor forgotten self as he had used to be." (38).
On page 64, we see how Scrooge shows sympathy in the quote, “There was a boy singing a Christmas carol at my door last night. I should like to have given him something. That 's All.” After being shown a memory of himself as a boy, Scrooge regrets being harsh to the boy caroling and not giving him any money. Seeing his own sadness as a child made him realize it would have been nice to give the boy something to make him happy. He will probably do nicer things in the future because he now realizes that the boy would have been upset because of how Scrooge turned him away so harshly. He is changing his actions, and regretting bad actions in the past. He wants to fix what he did wrong, and he feels sympathy for the boy. People want to be shown compassion, so in the future if he helps people out and is kind, he will not be as isolated. Another quote to show how he becomes less detached from humanity is on pages 92-93, ‘”Spirit,” said Scrooge, “Tell me if Tiny Tim will live.” Scrooge feels sorry for Bob Cratchit because the spirit says if the future remains unaltered he will die. He feels upset that Tiny Tim will die, and sympathy for Bob because his son will probably die. He probably regrets not giving Bob more time with his son. He had made a comment earlier that if someone will die they better go and die to decrease the population, when the donation collector
It’s December of 1801 and the whole town is decorating, dancing, singing, and laughing as they get ready for a near holiday: Christmas. All but one pessimistic, obdurate cripple of a man. His name is Ebenezer Scrooge, an undermined old male swathed in dark clothing. He is typically found strolling the streets on Victorian London with poor posture, eyes locked on the cracked sidewalk beneath the soles of his shoes. Slumping along, carolers cease to sing near him and nobody speaks when in his presence. Scrooge is a prejudging business man who hurries to be left alone and disregards cheer. He is obdurate and blind to the consequences of his actions. Sudden wealth brings a snobbiness when his business partner dies, and as a result, his one true love divorces him, sending him into a state of hatred and regret. With this evidence to back it up, Scrooge can be perceived as a negative, crippling man with little tolerance to change. However, things are bound to change with the visitation of the wraiths: the Spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come, an inevitable change that be...
“hear me! I am not the man I was. I will not be the man I must have been but for this intercourse.” “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!” (Dickens, Stave 4, Page 84) Finally, Scrooge changed for good.
During the story, Scrooge is visited by the Ghosts from Christmas past, present, and future, who shows the ill-tempered Scrooge how to be feel compassion towards others human beings. A large quantity of the story revolves around money, and it plays a large role, to contrast how generosity is viewed in society. Scrooge is incredibly wealthy, as he lives a l...
After Fred leaves, two gentlemen come to Scrooge and ask for money for the poor. His response is, "Are there no prisons? And the union workhouses? Are they still in operation?" One of the gentlemen replies, "They are. Still, I wish I could say they were not." Scrooge's remark shows that he doesn't care about poor people. He does not care if they live or die, just as long as he is comfortable. The two gentlemen are shocked by this.
Meeting the Ghost of Christmas Past begins the first stage of Scrooge’s transformation: regretting his actions. When Scrooge is shown his younger self alone in his classroom on Christmas, he regrets chasing a Christmas caroler away from his door. The Spirit skips ahead a few years to show him a happier time. His sweet little sister Fan arrives to take him home, and this is his first Christmas in a long time that is spent with family. Unfortunately, Scrooge doesn’t see it that way; seeing this scene makes him “uneasy in his mind” as he thinks about the way he treats his nephew Fred. Instead of treating him like his only family member, Scrooge denies invitations to Christmas dinner every year and is rude whenever Fred speaks to him. He doesn’t have time to dwell on this for long, however; Scrooge has many other important things to think...