a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! `What right have you to be dismal? 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.. Youre rich enough., Scrooge having no better answer ready on the spur of the moment. Marley really makes things clear for Scrooge. Complete your free account to access notes and highlights, A doornail was a kind of nail or stud that was often used in Dickens's time tobothaesthetically adorn, The simile first appeared in Shakespeare's. Even the beggars in the street are silent when he passes. Learn how your comment data is processed. Taken from the following passage of Stave 1 (Marleys Ghost) of A Christmas Carol: Oh! 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? Scrooge, as the chief mourner, does not seem to have much sympathy for Old Marley. Finally, the narrator says that Scrooge likes it this way, "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." You'll also get updates on new titles we publish and the ability to save highlights and notes. The Student Room and The Uni Guide are trading names of The Student Room Group Ltd. Register Number: 04666380 (England and Wales), VAT No. Note the use of the adjective poor to describe Bob Cratchit. Foul weather didnt know where to have him. Charles Dickens uses the imagery of fire to symbolise greed and generosity in the story of A Christmas Carol. This might have lasted half a minute, or a minute, but it seemed an hour. 2023 eNotes.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved, "Secret, And Self-contained, And Solitary As An Oyster". 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. I lived rough, that you should live smooth. 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. The narrator reminds the reader that Scrooges ex-partner Marley has been dead several years. 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. Scrooge is Hard and sharp as flint (p. 2). 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 logic is somewhat consistenthe sees money as being the sole important thing in the world, and therefore sees anyone lacking money as being unimportant. The man took strong sharp sudden bites, just like the dog. "Scrooge had a very small fire, but the clerk's fire was so much smaller that it looked like one coal". Note how Scrooge here condemns such fools to death, when over the next few nights it will be he who learns that he is condemned to a terrible death. It is a ponderous chain! Scrooge was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole assign, his sole residuary legatee, his sole friend, and sole mourner. The mention of Marleys funeral brings me back to the point I started from. Scrooge could have family, if only he would allow himself to. It is also a fact, that Scrooge had seen it, night and morning, during his whole residence in that place; also that Scrooge had as little of what is called fancy about him as any man in the city of London, even including -- which is a bold word -- the corporation, aldermen, and livery. Still, returned the gentleman, `I wish I could say they were not.. Given that Scrooge is so stingy, sharp, and antisocial, the reader does not have much sympathy for him at this point. When Jack Cade leads a rebellion against the king, he declares that "if I do not leave you all as dead as a doornail, I pray God I may never eat grass more." Humbug! but stopped at the first syllable, A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost-Story of Christmas, commonly known as A Christmas. A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! "So surely as the clerk came in with the shovel, the master predicted that it would be necessary for them to part. Scrooge is described as "solitary as an oyster". You are fettered, said Scrooge, trembling. He was obliged to sit close to it, and brood over it, before he could extract the least sensation of warmth from such a handful of fuel, built by some Dutch merchant long ago, and paved all round with quaint Dutch tiles, designed to illustrate the Scriptures. Living conditions there were unpleasant and the work was tough such as 'picking out' old ropes. `Youll want all day to-morrow, I suppose? said Scrooge. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the Countrys done for. What lesson does Scrooge learn from each spirit in A Christmas Carol? He even turns down his own nephew who comes to see him and invite him to his house for a Christmas meal. 30-4) the young Scrooge is full of energy and . 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. There was a boy singing a Christmas carol at my door last night. Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. Refine any search. `Because, said Scrooge, `a little thing affects them. Describe the two children who emerge from the second spirit's robe in A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct,London, EC1A 2BN, United Kingdom, 2023 Book Analysis. You have laboured on it, since. "What then? This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Instant PDF downloads. In other words, Scrooge is stingy and tough: he has no sympathy, generosity, or compassion. (including. I should like to be able to say a word or two to my clerk just now! The narrator sets Scrooge up as the quintessential sinner, the most miserable man in the whole city. Youre quite a powerful speaker, sir, he added, turning to his nephew. Oh! Oh! the other rooms being all let out as offices. And even Scrooge was not so dreadfully cut up by the sad event, but that he was an excellent man of business on the very day of the funeral, and solemnised it with an undoubted bargain. But Scrooge sees any such human sentimentanything that interferes with the accumulation of moneyas foolishness. Scrooge represents the ignorant attitude of the wealthy classes that Dickens despised in his own society. I dont mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a door-nail. Discover more quotations from A Christmas Carol. Indeed, Scrooge has become a new man. LitCharts Teacher Editions. similarly when other characters talk to Scrooge he often shouts at them. `The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then? said Scrooge. . Much good may it do you! There were Cains and Abels, Pharaohs daughters; Queens of Sheba, Angelic messengers descending through the air on clouds like feather-beds, Abrahams, Belshazzars, Apostles putting off to sea in butter-boats, hundreds of figures to attract his thoughts -- and yet that face of Marley, seven years dead, came like the ancient Prophets rod, and swallowed up the whole. 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. A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two unlike things. Ebenezer Scrooge is one of the most famous characters created by Charles Dickens and arguably one of the most famous in English literature. But you were always a good man of business, Jacob, faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to himself. The clock tower that looks down on. Teach your students to analyze literature like LitCharts does. From the creators of SparkNotes, something better. In the first stave, the miser Scrooge is introduced as well as his merry nephew and his poor clerk Bob Cratchit. No, no, no. Privacy Policy, https://bookanalysis.com/charles-dickens/a-christmas-carol/quotes/. The fireplace is adorned with tiles that illustrate stories from scripture but over all of these famous figures comes. This is a great quote for highlighting the sort of character that Scrooge was in ' A Christmas Carol '. ", "Hard and sharp as a flint.solitary as an oyster. Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. Scrooge's transformation is emphasized by him becoming a "second father" to Tiny Tim "who did not die", suggesting that the values of the Christmas spirit, encapsulating good will and generosity, leads to a supportive, charitable, family-like society in which everyone supports each-other and there is no suffering or plight (like Tiny Tim's death). 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!" Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. _____Why did the puppy hide when Sebastian appeared? (imperative), int. 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. Find related themes, quotes, symbols, characters, and more. Finally, he is not only isolated from others, but he also keeps to himself in his own world, contained within his own shell. Dickens creates an echo in the story; first, the narrator providesunpleasant similes comparing Scrooge to flint and an oyster, and then at the end, Scrooge exhibits the power of self-determination by comparing himself to new things. He keeps his office cold, not even heating it at Christmas time. Generally speaking, nails can usually be used more than once. He does not see the basic human value in all people. - Scrooge, create, study and share online flash cards, "Oh! This is not just a tale of one man's redemption; it is a kind of call to arms for all people to take to heart. Our, "Sooo much more helpful thanSparkNotes. Let him make a tool of me afresh and again? 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. 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