Scrooge had a very small fire, but the clerks fire was so very much smaller that it looked like one coal. Scrooge represents the ignorant attitude of the wealthy classes that Dickens despised in his own society. Marley brings only warnings; he cannot himself help Scrooge. Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and . a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shriveled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. Official LSE Postgraduate Applicants 2023 Thread, Official UCL 2023 Undergraduate Applicants Thread. a time for finding yourself a year older, but not an hour richer; a time for balancing your books and having every item in em through a round dozen of months presented dead against you? But he couldnt replenish it. A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner! Consequently, everybody who comes into contact with Scrooge avoids him. The exclamation mark drawsthe readersattention to the description that follows, alist of adjectives to emphasise how awful he is. Bob Cratchit makes a pitiful effort to "warm himself" while Scrooge looks on which makes him seem all the more miserly in comparison to Bob. (meaning rubbish or nonsense) suggesting that scrooge is dismissive of Christmas and the values that come with it, and the animalistic onomatopoeia of "bah!" 2023. Who are the experts?Our certified Educators are real professors, teachers, and scholars who use their academic expertise to tackle your toughest questions. the weight and length of the strong coil you bear yourself? Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster." To say that Scrooge could be made neither warm nor cold by any outside influence again paints him as an outcast. 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. secret, and self contained, and solitary as an oyster. You'll be able to access your notes and highlights, make requests, and get updates on new titles. This is a great quote for highlighting the sort of character that Scrooge was in A Christmas Carol. A squeezing, wrenching, grasping,scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner! "No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him." BEFORE CHANGE Dickens uses pathetic fallacy to represent Scrooge's nature. Yet we have heard that Marley was at least somewhat generous in his lifetime. Current Year 10 Official Thread (2022-2023). This is evident in his early relationship with his nephew Fred. Finally, he is not only isolated from others, but he also keeps to himself in his own world, contained within his own shell. he was all in a glow; his face was ruddy and handsome; his eyes sparkled, and his breath smoked again. View further examples of the literary technique of. The truth is, that he tried to be smart, as a means of distracting his own attention, and keeping down his terror; for the spectres voice disturbed. The original text plus a side-by-side modern translation of. hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire simile, he is hard and mean secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster sibilance, hissing, sinister, simile suggest he is hard to open up but may have a pearly within, foreshadowing Dickens sets up Cratchit and Scrooge as opposite figures, Cratchit symbolizing joy despite poverty and hardship and Scrooge symbolizing the grave-like sobriety of greed. "Hard and sharp as a flint.solitary as an oyster." Scrooge was not much in the habit of cracking jokes, nor did he feel, in his heart, by any means waggish then. `Because, said Scrooge, `a little thing affects them. he walked through his rooms to see that all was right. Our summaries and analyses are written by experts, and your questions are answered by real teachers. Living conditions there were unpleasant and the work was tough such as 'picking out' old ropes. ragged men and boys were gathered: warming their hands and winking their eyes before the blaze in rapture. Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. `Let me leave it alone, then, said Scrooge. The narrator sets Scrooge up as the quintessential sinner, the most miserable man in the whole city. eNotes.com will help you with any book or any question. My students love how organized the handouts are and enjoy tracking the themes as a class., Requesting a new guide requires a free LitCharts account. Scrooge and he were partners for I dont know how many years. Instant PDF downloads. I have sat invisible beside you many and many a day., Couldnt I take `em all at once, and have it over, Jacob? hinted Scrooge. Each adjective is also connected with the hands to show how he holds tightly to everything he has. Dine with us tomorrow.. ", "Hard and sharp as a flint.solitary as an oyster. As Scrooge looked fixedly at this phenomenon, it was a knocker again. This makes me think that Scrooge would have very sharp features, a pointy nose and always has a scowl on his face. I revise four hours a day. Oh! Stave One. "Oh! If he be like to die, he had better do it, and decrease the surplus population". Genius is the ultimate source of music knowledge, created by scholars like you who share facts and insight about the songs and artists they love. It was not angry or ferocious, but looked at Scrooge as Marley used to look: with ghostly spectacles turned up on its ghostly forehead. I will not be the man I must have been but for this intercourse! The door of Scrooges counting-house was open that he might keep his eye upon his clerk, who in a dismal little cell beyond, a sort of tank, was copying letters. Teacher Editions with classroom activities for all 1699 titles we cover. - Narrator. Marleys ghost is a terrifying figure - his huge clanking chain makes him look like an exaggeration of a typical Victorian prisoner. The passage clearly states that Scrooge is "a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone" and is "hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel struck out a generous fire." Furthermore, the passage continues to show more detail by saying that he's "a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner" and . Last weekend, I read $\underline{\color{#c34632}\text{To Build a Fire}}$ . This quote is from a paragraph describing Ebenezer Scrooge at the beginning of A Christmas Carol. Creating notes and highlights requires a free LitCharts account. Latest answer posted January 12, 2021 at 5:08:54 PM. Let it also be borne in mind that Scrooge had not bestowed one thought on Marley, since his last mention of his seven years dead partner that afternoon. But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! I should like to give him something: that's all.". Complete your free account to access notes and highlights. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his. Fred is unrelenting in his attempts to change his uncles way of thinking. very low fire indeed; nothing on such a bitter night. Though Fred is poor (though not as poor as Cratchit), his attire is colorful and he is generous and sociable with his Christmas provisions. But Scrooge sees any such human sentimentanything that interferes with the accumulation of moneyas foolishness. Scrooge's logic is somewhat consistenthe sees money as being the sole important thing in the world, and therefore sees anyone lacking money as being unimportant. What have recent studies shown about a spirit of cooperation in nature? It beckoned Scrooge to approach, which he did. "Nothing" said scrooge "nothing. Detailed quotes explanations with page numbers for every important quote on the site. | Whoever the author.Discover new and exciting books to dive into with our Book Explorer Tool. It is much easier to burn men than to burn their opinions. Home Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol Best Quotes. "My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." Here, readers are exposed to the ghost of Christmas yet to come. The ghost breaks the news to Scrooge that the person whose death has been talked about so callously was his own. 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 is a cold-hearted tight miser who watches everything going on within his counting-house business. (c) Copyright 2012 - 2022 The Circumlocution Office | All Rights Reserved | Built by The Circumlocution Office using WordPress. But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct,London, EC1A 2BN, United Kingdom, 2023 Book Analysis. The apparition walked backward from him; and at every step it took, the window raised itself a little, so that when the spectre reached it, it was wide open. Many's the hard day's walking in rain and mud, and with never a penny earned. `How it is that I appear before you in a shape that you can see, I may not tell. Once more? 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. Much good may it do you! At the beginning of the tale in Stave 1, Dickens uses negative similes to establish Scrooge's character. I am determined to get 8's and 9's at GCSE. I lived rough, that you should live smooth. Flint is traditionally used to make fire by striking it hard against another rock or metallic surface to create sparks, but Dickens goes on to say that Scrooge is so hard that no steel had ever struck out generous fire. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. Download the entire A Christmas Carol study guide as a printable PDF! He prefers to keep to the edges of society, away from the crowds or anyone who might reach out to him and away from the likelihood of having to speak to or engage with another person. This boy is Ignorance. He is cold and greedy, not the kind of man people want to befriend. This might have lasted half a minute, or a minute, but it seemed an hour. To make the comparison, similes most often use the connecting words "like" or "as," but can also A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two unlike things. When Scrooge finds himself able to embrace his community, he finds himself forever changed. Through Scrooges transformation in this allegorical tale, we also see his attitude to using fuel change. 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. It is required of every man, the Ghost returned, `that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellowmen, and travel far and wide; and if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death. 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. Scrooge is especially disgruntled when Fred mentions his wife, for example. The bells chiming and the clanking of chains create a disturbance that even Scrooge cant ignore, and forebode both that Scrooge's time is approaching and that he himself will soon be in similar chains. What right have you to be merry? The adjectives squeezing and wrenching, etc., relate to how one should imagine him with money, refusing to let go of his wealth. Dickens suggests that scrooge is lonely, unsociable and disconnected from society through this simile, however, the description of him as an "oyster" connoting a creature with a tough exterior but containing a valuable, beautiful pearl within, suggests that scrooge has sociability and goodwill for others (and other values of the Christmas spirit) that will allow him to reconnect with society buried within him. The novel 'A Christmas Carol' narrates the story of a man called Scrooge and how he realises his behaviour to people must change in order to do well in his life as spirits show his past, present and future. Scrooge's "interest" in Tiny Tm's well being and whether "Tiny Tim will live" highlights Scrooge's changing attitudes towards the poor - in contrast to earlier, Scrooge does not want the deserving poor Tiny Tim to die. as if that were the only one thing in the world more ridiculous than a merry Christmas. From the creators of SparkNotes, something better. 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