He is smug and condescending about the poor, and refuses to listen to the gentlemens reasoning. Mind! A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! I should like to give him something: that's all.". `How it is that I appear before you in a shape that you can see, I may not tell. Note the use of the adjective poor to describe Bob Cratchit. Still, returned the gentleman, `I wish I could say they were not.. He took us home and hammered us. Marley is not saying business is inherently bad, but he is saying that it is terrifically small and narrow in comparison to the rest of life, and certainly that business success is not enough to right any wrongs one commits in life. Teachers and parents! Ebenezer Scrooge is one of the most famous characters created by Charles Dickens and arguably one of the most famous in English literature. In other words, Scrooge is not alone; many people, while perhaps less obviously awful than Scrooge, share his sinful failings. To make the comparison, similes most often use the connecting words "like A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two unlike things. Dine with us tomorrow.. Fuel was an expensive commodity for many at the time the novella was written so the amount burnt, reflected by the size of a fire, reflected the generosity of a character. When he gets home, Scrooge would rather save money and live in discomfort, keeping a very low fire for himself, described as nothing on such a bitter night to which he is forced to lean over just to extract the least sensation of warmth from such a handful of fuel. 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. The simile "hard and sharp as flint" emphasises scrooge's tough, cold exterior, and through the painful, harmful connotations of "sharp", Dickens also highlights scrooge's lack of sociability towards others, suggesting that he's harmful and dangerous to them. Oh! The simile first appeared in Shakespeare's Henry IV. No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting rain less open to entreaty." 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. Before telling us the incident with the door knocker, In order to make this night stand out as a unique milestone in Scrooges routine existence, the narrator focuses first on Scrooge's sanity and the usual normality of his world. 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. Indeed, Scrooge has become a new man. But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! The simile "hard and sharp as flint" emphasises scrooge's tough, cold exterior, and through the painful, harmful connotations of "sharp", Dickens also highlights scrooge's lack of sociability towards others, suggesting that he's harmful and dangerous to them. Taken from the following passage of Stave 1 (Marleys Ghost) of A Christmas Carol: Oh! It is made up of two Greek words, ana meaning up, and lysis meaning to loosen. It was not angry or ferocious, but looked at Scrooge as Marley used to look: with ghostly spectacles turned up on its ghostly forehead. This suggests his ability to hurt others. Our, "Sooo much more helpful thanSparkNotes. His stash of money could afford him a rich, luxurious Christmas but he avoids these traditions. Instant PDF downloads. But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster." In other words, Scrooge is stingy and tough: he has no . Hot and Cold Extensive imagery describes Scrooge as cold because of his cold heart; in contrast, his nephew is described as warm because he is merry and loving. "So surely as the clerk came in with the shovel, the master predicted that it would be necessary for them to part. Perhaps this is why Dickens chose to compare Marley to a doornaila flattened doornail and a corpse are both fairly useless, with little to no chance of serving a purpose ever again. Analysis; Cold-hearted: According to Dickens's description, . Detailed explanations, analysis, and citation info for every important quote on LitCharts. Yet we have heard that Marley was at least somewhat generous in his lifetime. Discipline was harsh and. Scrooge was not much in the habit of cracking jokes, nor did he feel, in his heart, by any means waggish then. Nobody under the table, nobody under the sofa, a small fire in the grate; spoon and basin ready; and the little saucepan of gruel, Nobody under the bed; nobody in the closet; nobody in his dressing-gown, which was hanging up in a suspicious attitude against the wall. Why does the Ghost of Christmas Past show Scrooge the boarding school where he was left alone in A Christmas Carol? 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. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir., `And the Union workhouses demanded Scrooge. Characters of Martin Chuzzlewit: The Pecksniffs. What to expect as an older masters student? They're like having in-class notes for every discussion!, This is absolutely THE best teacher resource I have ever purchased. Oyster shells are calcified, hard and irregular in shape. **Example 1**. the weight and length of the strong coil you bear yourself? Teachers and parents! Exam focus: Writing about Scrooge. "I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a school-boy. "To say that he was not startled, or that his blood was not conscious of a terrible sensation to which it had been a stranger from infancy, would be untrue.". Near the beginning of the book, as we are being introduced to Scrooge, we read, Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks, 'My dear Scrooge, how are you? 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. ". Find related themes, quotes, symbols, characters, and more. Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. Cite this Quote Flint and oysters are not very palatable things to be compared to. If we were not perfectly convinced that Hamlets Father died before the play began, there would be nothing more remarkable in his taking a stroll at night, in an easterly wind, upon his own ramparts, than there would be in any other middle-aged gentleman rashly turning out after dark in a breezy spot -- say Saint Pauls Churchyard for instance -- literally to astonish his sons weak mind. `We have no doubt his liberality is well represented by his surviving partner, said the gentleman, Scrooge frowned, and shook his head, and handed the credentials back, `At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge, said the gentleman, taking up a pen, `it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the Poor and Destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. very low fire indeed; nothing on such a bitter night. The cold became intense. Scrooge bends over his weak fire. _____Why did the puppy hide when Sebastian appeared? the other rooms being all let out as offices. Leading up to this moment it appears as if Scrooge already fears that this is the case, but that does not detract from the tension that Charles Dickens can create here. "No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him." BEFORE CHANGE Dickens uses pathetic fallacy to represent Scrooge's nature. 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 Who is Belle in A Christmas Carol, and why was she important to Scrooge? A squeezing, wrenching, grasping,scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner!" - Narrator. 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. What have recent studies shown about a spirit of cooperation in nature? `I wonder you dont go into Parliament., `Dont be angry, uncle. Scrooge doesn't live by his senses in any aspect of his life. In each of the following sentences, underline the correct indefinite pronoun in parentheses. Not to know that no space of regret can make amends for one lifes opportunity misused! Latest answer posted December 05, 2020 at 2:12:53 PM. 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. Here in this quote, one can see Dickens playing with literal and figurative meanings to great effect. 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? Even the beggars in the street are silent when he passes. But in Dickens's era, it was customary to hammer doornails into doors in such a way that made them useless for anything else. The way the content is organized. -, "The ancient tower of a church whose gruff old bell was always peeping slily down at Scrooge", Click here to study/print these flashcards. 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. Moreover, the narrator explains, "External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. On this page, readers can explore the quotes, they are broadly separated into a few sub-categories. Fred is the opposite of Scrooge in appearance and spirit. Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. Find related themes, quotes, symbols, characters, and more. 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