A Christmas Carol (1843) PDF Free Download
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Notes
In its complete form (this is only a sample), this textbook contains many extracts to
allow a detailed discussion of key moments in the novel. It also contains guided
writing activities and example paragraphs for every extract.
It will be most useful if it is printed out as a booklet so that students can take notes
on the relevant pages in preparation for writing. Use the PDF file that is labelled
'booklet form' and print double sided, then fold and staple.
Some pages are deliberately blank so that students cannot see the example
paragraphs while they are working on their own.
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Contents (of the full textbook)
Stave One: Dickens Describes His Hero (1) 4
Stave One: Dickens Describes His Hero (2) 8
Stave One: Scrooge and His Nephew 11
Stave One: The Charitable Gentlemen 16
Stave One: Scrooge and Marley's Ghost 20
Stave Two: Scrooge Meets the Ghost of Christmas Past 24
Stave One and Stave Two: Two Very Different Employers 28
Stave Two: Family Relations and All that Scrooge Has Lost 31
Stave Three: The Riches of the Poor 36
Stave Three: Scrooge's Penitence 42
Stave Three: Bob and Fred's Magnanimity 46
Stave Three: Ignorance and Want 50
Stave Four: Two Scenes of Death 54
Stave Four: Scrooge Begs for Time to Change 58
Stave Five: Scrooge Revels in His Fresh Start 62
Stave Five: Scrooge Is Welcomed Back into Society 66
Stave Five: Scrooge the Reformed Character 70
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Extract from Stave One ('Marley's Ghost'): Dickens Describes His Hero (1)
Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! a squeezing,
wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as
flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-
contained, and solitary as an oyster. 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. A frosty rime was on
his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low temperature
always about with him; he iced his office in the dog-days; and didn’t thaw it one
degree at Christmas.
External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth could warm, no
wintry weather chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow
was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting rain less open to entreaty. Foul
weather didn’t know where to have him. The heaviest rain, and snow, and hail, and
sleet, could boast of the advantage over him in only one respect. They often “came
down” handsomely, and Scrooge never did.
Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks, “My dear
Scrooge, how are you? When will you come to see me?” 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. 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!”
But what did Scrooge care! It was the very thing he liked. To edge his way along
the crowded paths of life, warning all human sympathy to keep its distance, was
what the knowing ones call “nuts” to Scrooge.
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Dickens' Characterisation of Scrooge in Stave One: Guided Writing 1
Starting Sentence Vocabulary
At the start of the novel, Dickens
emphasises strongly how cruel and
selfish Scrooge is.
verbs, violent, seizing, seven deadly sins,
Ten Commandments, punishment,
Jacob Marley, Victorian readers
Notes:
Starting Sentence Vocabulary
Dickens adds further to his detailed
characterisation of Scrooge here by
using two similes.
hard, sharp, weapons, cold, incapable,
love, relationships, tough shell, cut off,
isolated
Notes:
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Dickens' Characterisation of Scrooge in Stave One: Example Paragraphs 1
At the start of the novel, Dickens emphasises strongly how cruel and selfish
Scrooge is. He uses five verbs which all suggest a violent taking from others without
any consideration for them. Scrooge ‘squeezes’ other people – this suggests that he
will get whatever he can from them, without concern for their suffering. He
‘wrenches’ from other people – this suggests violent seizing of others’ property.
‘Grasping’ and ‘clutching’ suggest similar ideas. All of these harsh verbs are summed
up in the phrase ‘covetous old sinner’. Scrooge is guilty of one of the seven deadly
sins, being covetous, which means wanting whatever anyone else has for himself. He
breaks the Ten Commandments, which forbid covetousness, and therefore he is a
very hardened ‘sinner’. Dickens’ use of religious language here underlines the idea
that Scrooge is on his way to being punished in the afterlife, as Jacob Marley is.
Dickens adds further to his detailed characterisation of Scrooge here by using
two similes. He describes Scrooge as ‘hard and sharp as flint’. Flint is one of the
hardest kinds of stone, which was used in the past for making weapons. This simile
therefore suggests that anyone who comes close to Scrooge will be hurt by him, as
you would be if you touched a sharp piece of flint. It also conveys the cold and hard
character of Scrooge, which, like stone, lacks any warmth or sympathy. Dickens
develops this idea of coldness further by adding that ‘no steel’ has ever struck
‘generous fire’ from Scrooge. He seems to be incapable of any human warmth. This
leads into Dickens’ second simile, in which he describes Scrooge as ‘self-contained,
and solitary as an oyster’. Because Scrooge sees other people merely in terms of
what he can ‘clutch’ and ‘grasp’ from them, he is incapable of maintaining any loving
human relationship. Like an oyster, he is encased in a hard shell, cut off from others,
and this makes him ‘solitary’. His avarice has brought him loneliness and isolation.
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