Dickens is comparing Scrooge to two aspects common to flint; its hardness (here meaning that Scrooge is mean or tight) and its sharpness (here meaning that Scrooge watches over everything and doesnt miss anything in his work). -- apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin. You have laboured on it, since. Foul weather didnt know where to have him. Now, it is a fact, that there was nothing at all particular about the knocker on the door, except that it was very large. The fact that there are three spirits and that they will arrive at the same time for the next three nights creates a definite, easy structure for Scrooge, and the story, to follow. "So surely as the clerk came in with the shovel, the master predicted that it would be necessary for them to part. There was a boy singing a Christmas carol at my door last night. Detailed explanations, analysis, and citation info for every important quote on LitCharts. Dine with us tomorrow.. a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Instead of being a crotchety old man, he feels like a schoolboy. Scrooge sees the workhouses as a solution to a problem, and shuts out the idea that their inhabitants are real feeling human beings. He has the power to render us happy or unhappy; to make our service light or burdensome; a pleasure or a toil. However, Scrooge being likened to "flint" suggests that, although he has never given "generous fire" he has the potential to be good-willed, sociable, generous and the other attributes encapsulated by the Christmas spirit, as portrayed by the recurring symbol of "fire" used by dickens to represent these values. Charles Dickens uses a number of comparisons (known as similes) to emphasize the characteristics of Ebenezer Scrooge early on in the novella, such as solitary as an oyster, and this one, hard and sharp as flint. likening scrooge to a sheep, suggesting that he foolishly follows certain ideologies such as Malthusian economic theory. (meaning rubbish or nonsense) suggesting that scrooge is dismissive of Christmas and the values that come with it, and the animalistic onomatopoeia of "bah!" He took us home and hammered us. This has a double meaning both as a sympathetic term of endearment and also the fact that thanks to Scrooge the man is literally poor. The power of light and music to shine through the winter gloom is a visual way of showing the moral of this story. What reason have you to be morose? Struggling with distance learning? Note the use of the adjective poor to describe Bob Cratchit. Through Scrooges transformation in this allegorical tale, we also see his attitude to using fuel change. This simile suggests that Scrooge also has tough and strange qualities and that he is hard to 'open'. The way the content is organized. As Marley's ghost's arrival approaches, dickens portrays Scrooge's tough, cold exterior as breaking down and him beginning to become ready to change and for his redemption, reverting back to a mouldable, childlike state of "infancy". Instant PDF downloads. Current Year 11 Official Thread (2022-2023)! In 1861, 35,000 children under 12 lived and worked in workhouses in Britain. View further examples of the literary technique of. Scrooge was not much in the habit of cracking jokes, nor did he feel, in his heart, by any means waggish then. When will you come to see me? No beggars implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it was oclock, no man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to such and such a place, of Scrooge. You'll be able to access your notes and highlights, make requests, and get updates on new titles. Though his nephew tries to convince him to join his family, Scrooge replies, "Nephew, keep Christmas in your own way, and let me keep it in mine!" His most famous saying is bah humbug. He used it as an exclamation when he wanted to express his displeasure about something. What to expect as an older masters student? You'll also get updates on new titles we publish and the ability to save highlights and notes. It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade. Latest answer posted December 05, 2020 at 2:12:53 PM. I defy himif he finds me going there, in good temper, year after year, and saying, Uncle Scrooge, how are you? If it only puts him in the vein to leave his poor clerk fifty pounds, thats something. Who is Belle in A Christmas Carol, and why was she important to Scrooge? Despite Scrooge's ill temper Fred generously and authentically invites him over. Detailed quotes explanations with page numbers for every important quote on the site. Oh! The original text plus a side-by-side modern translation of. - Narrator. To see the dingy cloud come drooping down, obscuring everything, one might have thought that Nature lived hard by, and was brewing on a large scale. This gives the perception of Scrooge being a very cold character, a word also associated with being mean. Just as Scrooge seems unaffected by the cold and darkness, he also shuns his feelings of fear and refuses to trust his senses or give in to them. Teach your students to analyze literature like LitCharts does. Second, he is uncharitable . Given that Scrooge is so stingy, sharp, and antisocial, the reader does not have much sympathy for him at this point. PDF downloads of all 1699 LitCharts literature guides, and of every new one we publish. The narrator wants to make it clear that what is to come are. But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! Once upon a time -- of all the good days in the year, on Christmas Eve -- old Scrooge sat busy in his counting-house. And I know I know my dears, that when we recollect how patient and how mild he was; although he was a little, little child, we shall not quarrel easily among ourselves and forget poor Tiny Tim in doing it. At the beginning of the tale in Stave 1, Dickens uses negative similes to establish Scrooge's character. The water-plug being left in solitude, its overflowing sullenly congealed, and turned to misanthropic ice. Besides -- excuse me -- I dont know that., Its enough for a man to understand his own business, gruff old bell was always peeping slily down at Scrooge. It is much easier to burn men than to burn their opinions. The use of similes helps an author to strengthen a description, and for the reader it helps to better visualize the scene in their heads. - Scrooge, create, study and share online flash cards, "Oh! Browse Library, Teacher Memberships I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices, I dont make merry myself at Christmas and I cant afford to make idle people merry. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did not die, he was a second father. Even the blind men's dogs appeared to know him, and when they saw him coming on would tug their owners into doorways and up courts, and then would wag their tails as though they said, 'No eye at all is better than an evil eye, dark master!'" eNotes Editorial, 17 Oct. 2017, https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/which-quotes-suggest-that-scrooge-is-presented-as-568005. Dickens, as Scrooge learns lessons and truths from the ghost of Christmas past, portrays scrooge as beginning to change, breaking away from his miserly attitudes and becoming more generous, wanting to "give" the caroller "something", in contrast to his absolute selfishness, rejection of the Christmas spirit and lack of generosity from earlier. Creating notes and highlights requires a free LitCharts account. Apparently, Scrooge is: Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. Teachers and parents! The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his. Complete your free account to request a guide. LitCharts Teacher Editions. How is the theme of isolation presented in A Christmas Carol? The clerk in the Tank involuntarily applauded. These cover themes like wealth, poverty, Christmas, and kindness. Instead of being hard and sharp, he is soft and light. "My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." Cite this Quote Flint and oysters are not very palatable things to be compared to. A great many very young girls grown into bold women before they had well ceased to be children. It swung so softly in the outset that it scarcely made a sound; but soon it rang out loudly, and so did every bell in the house. Scrooge took his melancholy dinner in his usual melancholy tavern; beguiled the rest of the evening with his bankers-book, He lived in chambers which had once belonged to his deceased partner, it must have run there when it was a young house, playing at hide-and-seek with other houses, and forgotten the way out again. At the start of the novel, Dickens describes scrooge as mean; hard and sharp as flint; this suggests that he is ignorant towards people and neglects other people, and that he hates everyone around him and himself, this implies that he is greedy. Struggling with distance learning? "no beggars implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it was o'clock". This poignant moment arrives when Scrooge is looking at Christmas yet to come. It is a dark, sad moment but Bob Cratchit handles the situation with grace and dignity. Scrooge describes himself now as a "school-boy", in contrast to his earlier statement from his younger self that "I was a boy" (in which he criticized his younger self, believing to have grown wiser) from stave 2. Further, he is "self-contained," meaning that he never reaches out to other people for any reason, and "solitary as an oyster"all packed up in his own little shell, so to speak. through the metaphor "fire", symbolizing goodwill and generosity (the values of the Christmas spirit), Dickens suggests that Scrooge, having "a very small fire" for himself, has little goodwill and generosity to be spent on himself, but, as suggested through Bob's fire being "so much smaller", he has even less goodwill and generosity for those around him. ", "Hard and sharp as a flint.solitary as an oyster. wander through the world -- oh, woe is me! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Ebenezer Scrooge is one of the most famous characters created by Charles Dickens and arguably one of the most famous in English literature. External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. Mind! No, Spirit! In other words, Scrooge is stingy and tough: he has no sympathy, generosity, or compassion. If he be like to die, he had better do it, and decrease the surplus population". Why does the Ghost of Christmas Past show Scrooge the boarding school where he was left alone in A Christmas Carol? Which, you see, were a drawback on my learning. That, and its livid colour, made it horrible; but its horror seemed to be in spite of the face and beyond its control, rather than a part or its own expression. I will live in the past, the present, and the future. | Scrooge fell upon his knees, and clasped his hands before his face. I took a good deal o pains with his eddication, sir; let him run in the streets when he was wery young, and shift for hisself. This is another quote where Dickens draws on the semantic field of the cold weather. Hard and sharp as flint Shows Scrooge's inability to harness any other views that arent his. Latest answer posted January 12, 2021 at 5:08:54 PM. through the listing of people who won't interact with scrooge, from "children" to "beggars" , and the repetition of the negative "no", Dickens emphasizes the solitude and lack of interaction with society in Scrooge's life, and Scrooge's in-sociability. Explanation and AnalysisAs Dead as a Door-Nail: Explanation and AnalysisScrooge's Transformation: Would not have made it through AP Literature without the printable PDFs. `Are they still in operation?, `They are. I am determined to get 8's and 9's at GCSE. By showing Marleys face among the faces of legends and saints from scripture, Dickens puts him in a saint-like position, showing Scrooge the light like a religious leader. Dickens fills this first Stave with superlative and vivid descriptions of Scrooges miserly character and in so doing sets him up for quite a transformation. If each smooth tile had been a blank at first, with power to shape some picture on its surface from the disjointed fragments of his thoughts, there would have been a copy of old Marleys head on every one. `The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then? said Scrooge. Scrooge and he were partners for I dont know how many years. "Oh! The air was filled with phantoms, wandering hither and thither in restless haste, and moaning as they went. ragged men and boys were gathered: warming their hands and winking their eyes before the blaze in rapture. Scrooge keeps the fuel in his own room, frightening Cratchit into wearing extra clothing and trying to warm himself by a candle. At this time of the rolling year, the spectre said `I suffer most. No beggars implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it was o'clock, no man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to such and such a place, of Scrooge. 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