A Christmas Carol Revision Detailed Characters + Quotes

Characters

Scrooge 

•  AQA Sample Paper 1: How does Dickens present Scrooge as an outsider to society?                                  Extract (Description of Scrooge) 
•  AQA 2018: How does Dickens presents Scrooge's fears in A Christmas Carol.                                           Extract (Description of Ghost of Christmas yet to come) 
•  AQA 2019: Explore how Dickens uses the ghosts to help Scrooge change his behaviour.                            Extract (Visit of Marley's Ghost) 

Relevant Quotes: 

• 'Solitary as an oyster' -> 'His own heart laughed'(Simile + Personification) 
• ‘Hard and sharp as flint’ (Simile) 
• Are there no prisons, […] Union Workhouses […] The Treadmill and Poor Law are in full vigour?’ 
• ‘He tried to say 'humbug' but stopped at the first syllable' (Repetition (of humbug)) 
• 'I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a school boy'(List of Similes) 
• ’I hope to live to be another man from what I was' 
• ‘I will live in the past, the present, and the future' 

Context:

• Moral < Material 
• Reflects Malthaus’ and Disraeli’s Views 
• Believes that poor should be sent to these places -> Poor Law of 1843 
• Changes... 
• Moral > Material  

Dickens Message: 

• It’s never too late to change 
• Redemption is possible 
• Try to become more charitable and open 

Cratchit Family 

• AQA 2017: Explore how Dickens uses the Cratchits family to show the struggles of the poor.                        Extract (Cratchit family Christmas) 

Relevant Quotes: 

• 'Are there no prisons... Union Workhouses... The Treadmill and Poor Law are in full vigour them'(Context) 
• 'If they would rather die, they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population' 
• ‘A Merry Christmas to us all, my dears. God bless us’ (Christian values) 
• ‘He hoped the people saw him in the church, because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to remember upon Christmas day, who made lame beggars walk and blind men see.’ (Christian Values) 
• They were not a handsome family [...] But, they were happy, grateful, pleased…