Key Quotes

Arguably, this is the most famous quote from A Christmas Carol. The image of the oyster is almost perfect for Scrooge at this stage in the book. Like an oyster, he keeps himself to himself, hidden beneath a hard shell that he uses to protect himself from the world. However, inside that shell - like Scrooge - the oyster is soft and vulnerable. Also, and most tellingly, given time an oyster produces one of natures greatest changes - that of creating pearls out of sand. Scrooge, like an oyster, has great potential and Dickens reminds us of this during the opening of the book.

Scrooge is tough, there's no two ways around it. He's hard - and a life spent alone will certainly make you that - but hard things are also unbending, stubborn and become easily stuck in a single purpose. He isn't flexible or capable of change - he's rigid. The sharpness also suggests that he's dangerous and can hurt you if you get too close, or handle him without care. But someone who is sharp is also smart - quick witted and intelligent - and this is something Scrooge clearly is as well. Flint is an interesting comparison: it's a rock - which is cold and tough - but it was also quite useful to ancient societies who used it to make hunting weapons. Again, it is a reference to Scrooge being dangerous if he's not dealt with very carefully.

Throughout this opening description, Scrooge is often described by comparing him to weather - temperature is the most common; he is cold. Here, though, Dickens writes that "external" heat and cold had little influence on him, and although this is probably true literally (he doesn't really heat his office or his house) it is also true figuratively. Other people's behaviour - be they warm or cold - has no effect on him. You can be nice to him and he won't care, or you can be horrible and, again, he won't care. This image both continues the theme of temperature and emotional states, and highlights how solitary Scrooge is.

This most famous of Scrooge's lines is often misunderstood. These days a humbug is more commonly known as a sweet, but back then if something was "humbug" it was a trick - something that behaves in a deceptive way. Suddenly, this quote becomes quite insightful. Scrooge is arguing that Christmas is a trick - something designed to make people feel in a way that isn't true. When this is brought next to the Portly Gentlemen, for example, his meaning becomes clear: the two men clearly don't really want to help the poor - hence their being so portly - but Christmas has tricked them into behaving in ways that are unnatural for them. Scrooge isn't going to fall for that, and continues to act selfishly and irresponsibly regardless of the season!

Here, Scrooge makes two things very clear: he doesn't like Christmas, and so he doesn't see why he should pay for other people to enjoy it. Crucially, this shows that Scrooge isn't a skinflint because he hoards his wealth to use for his own pleasure - since he doesn't enjoy anything - and that he sees a direct correlation between material expense and happiness. He sees everything in material terms: there is an expense to making merry that he "can't afford." Also, his use of the adjective "idle" highlights Scrooge's deep capitalist leanings: if they haven't the money to afford it themselves, then they must be lazy. The idea that poverty breeds poverty has never occurred to him.

Here, Scrooge is suggesting that the poor should simpy use the workhouses and prisons that are setup for them if they can't afford food. On one level, this reveals just how selfish and unreasonable he is: the workhouses were horrendous places to be, and a prison sentence (for stealing a loaf of bread to feed a starving family, for example) could see you deported to Australia forever. However, there is a defence here: Scrooge pays for the prisons and workhouses out of his taxes. In effect, he contributes to the government and supports their policy on how to deal with poverty; his attitude is that, beyond that, the poor aren't his problem. In a lot of ways, this isn't unreasonable. The problem here isn't that Scrooge isn't contributing directly to the poor, but that the government's solutions were just so unreasonable.

"What right have you to be dismal ? You're rich enough ." / “What reason have you to be merry ? You’re poor enough .”

In this brief exchange between Fred and Scrooge we can see just how different their perceptions of the relationship between happiness and poverty was. Scrooge can't see how anyone can be happy unless they're rich enough (and Fred was reasonably wealthy, remember) while Fred can't see how someone with all Scrooge's wealth can be dismal. The reason, it seems clear to Fred, is that Scrooge's wealth is not making him happy, and Fred - as he reveals in Stave 3 - "pities" him for it.

The most ruthless of all Scrooge's sayings. Here, he says that poor people who don't want to go to the workhouses should just hurry up and died. He is referencing a famous essay by Thomas Malthus, who argued that at some point there would simply be too many people for society to support and that there was a "surplus" (an excess) of population. Again, Scrooge is being very harsh here, but I can't help but wonder whether there weren't people in the audience who looked at the poverty around them and secretly agreed with what Scrooge said.

Here, Jacob Marley confirms Dickens's fictional theory for what happens after death: if we do not travel amongst people during life, we are condemned to do so once we've died. Neither Marley nor Dickens elabourate on who actually "condemns" us, but the idea is simple: Dickens believed that humans were deeply social creatures, as though socialising was as important to us as food or water, and that if we didn't share our experience then something within us died. At the heart of this book is Dickens's encouragement that we all share our world, and that we'll enjoy ourselves much more if we do.

This is quite crucial: Marley wears the chain he made. No-one forced him to be who he was, he did it to himself . The verb "forged" for example refers to something crafted, intentionally. He "chained" himself during life - he actually worked hard to create the chain that now imprisons him. This is a really key thing when looking at Dickens's version of life after death. In the book, Marley is physically trapped by the things he allowed to take over his life. Scrooge is going to be in the same boat: he chained himself with money during this life, and his exitence after death will be marked in the same way.

This quote comes from the moment in the book when Scrooge sees himself, sitting in the corner of his old school room, all alone. There are two really crucial things about this quote: the first is that this is one of the first times in the book when Scrooge shows real emotion - the walls of his cage are beginning to come down. BUT - he first feels emotion for himself , which begs a question that's quite crucial for us all: did Scrooge first feel sympathy for himself because he's innately selfish and learns to feel for others only by learning to feel for himself; or does he feel this way because before we can learn to love others, we all have to learn to love ourselves? The other interesting thing about the line is that he is described as "poor" and "forgotten." These two features are crucial because you get the feeling that they somehow represent everything Scrooge fears - poverty and ignominy (which is being forgotten.) Scrooge is afraid of being poor and forgotten. By the end of the book, he's managed to avoid being poor ever again, but when he sees the final ghost he is forced to face the fact that he will be forgotten and his grave will be "neglected."

Here, Scrooge is describing Fezziwig's party, which didn't cost a lot of money by any standards, but it did bring an awful lot of joy. This is the first time Scrooge realises that there is not a direct corrolation between financial cost and pleasure - and that, just maybe, he can afford to make both himself and other people merry at Christmas.

After re-living the fun that was had at Fezziwig's, Scrooge reflects that he would like to speak to Bob Cratchit, and perhaps even do something similar for him. The use of "able" here is interesting though, because at the time he speaks he is remembering his past and so he isn't able to change any of the things he is seeing, but he is - or he will be - able to speak to Bob next time he sees him. This simple word reminds us of thed difference between the things we are able to change, and the things we are not. This, surely, is central to Scrooge's eventual lesson.

Belle claims that Scrooge "fears" the world "too much." Here, she accepts that there are things to fear in the world - though fear is a strong word to use in any circumstance. But she accepts that there are things to fear, but he fears "too much." His terror of poverty is turning him into a monster, and she advises him against it. Tellingly, however, like so many of the characters in the book, she does it with good grace and patience. She doesn't rage at him, or scream or shout, she defeats his selfishness with compassion and speaks to him "gently" - almost like a patient parent talking to a wayward child.

“I have seen your nobler aspirations fall off one by one, until the master passion , Gain , engrosses you .”

Belle's statement is interesting as the Scrooge we met in Stave One didn't seem like the kind of person who'd ever had "noble aspirations." Noble being something that deserves respect, and aspirations being dreams - Scrooge from the opening, didn't aspire to anything worthy of respect. This is an important revelation for the audience as it shows that Scrooge wasn't always bad, and if he's capable of changing one way, he can definitely change back the other!

One of the best lines in the book to show that people are more important than profit. Tiny Tim is as "good as gold" - a phrase that's now become a idiom for describing a nice child. But here, the language is definitely loaded with references to Scrooge's understanding of gold - real gold. Bob s saying that the happiness Tim brings, the real value of people like Tim, is even more important than gold - he's better than gold, because he's a good person.

This lovely description of Mrs Cratchit reminds us both how poor she is - the gown being "twice-turned" means it has been hemmed twice just to keep it together - but it also shows how she feels about it when it says she's "brave in ribbons." In short, Mrs Cratchit is wearing a rubbish dress - frayed and falling apart - but she's going to draw attention to herself anyway by adding ribbons to show it off. This isn't someone who's shrinking into poverty, this is a woman who is proud of herself no matter how poor she is!

In one of the classic moments of compassion from the book, Bob insists on toasting his miserly boss. On one level this shows that Bob cares for Scrooge, despite him being a skinflint. But the quote also reminds us of something else: Bob does work for Scrooge; Bob's job only exists because Scrooge has built the business, and although Bob isn't wealthy he's much better off than a lot of the Victorian poor. He has a house, and even a goose for Christmas. It's true that Scrooge isn't kind or charitable, but there is a powerful school of thought which argues that people like Scrooge create jobs and create wealth for others, and, in this respect, without him the Cratchits wouldn't have enjoyed any food for Christmas dinner.

This boy is Ignorance . This girl is Want . Beware them both, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom .

This quote from the Ghost of Christmas Present comes as he reveals the two children who have come to him, appealing for his help. With the names of the two children, Dickens highlights what he feels are the two biggest ills in society - Ignorance of the problem, and the fact that so many children were in Need of even the most basic neccessities. But here, the spirit doesn't just say that the children are poor and need help, he turns their presence into an almost apocalyptic warning. The writing on the boy's brow is a clear reference to the Biblical Revelations when a number of characters have things written on their bodies. Also the strange syntax in the phrase "I see written that which is Doom" echoes the writing of Revelations in the King James Bible. Regardless of that though, Dickens is definitely saying that unless Ignorance is erased - unless people wake up to, and understand what is happening around them - then humanity will be doomed.

Here, Scrooge questions where the poor children can go to for help. He recognises that they are young and incapable of defending themselves and for the first time he realises that prisons and workhouses might not be the solutions they present themselves as. I can't help but wonder whether, if Scrooge's change really was as significant as the book makes it out to be, he didn't spend most of the new year in Parliament making the kind of legislative changes that would have really made a difference to the poor. In fact, an interesting sequal to the book might even see Scrooge bankrole Fred's move into Parliament, as he suggested back in Stave 1.

Here, Fred embodies Dickens's belief that families should always be there for each other. Fred insists that he will give Scrooge the same "chance" - the change of redemption - every year. Scrooge can rant and rave all he likes, but Fred will be there, with open arms, offering him the chance to save himself. Also, however, crucially, Fred says he'll do this because he feels "pity" for Scrooge. This is quite wild when you think about it. Fred is actually feeling sorry for the richest, most selfish person in the book; a man so selfish his name has come to mean horrible and selfish. But Dickens wanted to make something very clear: he didn't believe that people like Scrooge were evil, he believed that they were just misguided or reacting badly to being hurt. This brings up a really important question for us all: do bad people behave badly because they're 'evil' or because they're damaged? This question is so important for anyone who wants to actually fix the problems in society, rather than just sitting there complaining about them. Do people who behave badly need to be punished or supported?

When the first ghost arrives, Scrooge has his bed curtains pulled aside for him. For the second ghost, Scrooge pulls them aside himself. Now, withh the third ghost, Scrooge demands that the ghost take him on his journey. "Lead on!" he says, using a simple imperative. But, most importantly, he recognises that time is precious . He's realised the most important thing: there is no amount of money you can lose that you can't get back, but once time has gone it is gone forever. Scrooge's value system has changed and with that his entire personality has been made anew - born again, you could say.

The two bankers are discussing the death of someone during the opening of Stave 4, and although we know it's Scrooge, Scrooge himself refuses to see the fact. Here, they mention that it is likely to be a very "cheap" funeral, obviously a dig at the fact that despite Scrooge's wealth no-one feels the need to remember him with anything lavish. It's interesting to link this back to the fact that Stave One tells us that Scrooge actually likes darkness "because it is cheap." Scrooge likes cheap things, because they're cheap. I think there's also something telling in the fact that Scrooge didn't organise his own funeral - he could have spent his entire fortune on it if he wanted (he had no-one else to leave it to, after all) but he didn't. Arguably, this is because he never really faced up to the fact that he would die, and that this is why he didn't celebate his life more passionately, but also - arguably - Scrooge just doesn't like that kind of stuff. There is a case for saying that the Scrooge we met at the beginning of the book would have wanted a cheap funeral, and in fact I can imagine that even the newly reborn Scrooge from Stave Five would have been happier donating his money to a charity rather than spending it on an expensive coffin for him to rot in. But that's just the kinda guy I think Scrooge was.