Once more? I am sure we shall none of us forget poor Tiny Timshall weor this first parting that there was among us? Dickens highlights Scrooges newfound sociability as him having "patted children on the head, and questioned beggars" alludes and directly contrasts against the description from stave one that "no beggars implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it was o'clock", emphasising how Scrooge has reconnected with society in embracing the Christmas spirit. God save you! cried a cheerful voice. Foul weather didnt know where to have him. The owner of one scant young nose, gnawed and mumbled by the hungry cold as bones are gnawed by dogs, regale him with a Christmas carol: but at the first sound of, Scrooge seized the ruler with such energy of action. If one is completely dead to the world, living absolutely with the goal to engage with it as little as possible, one certainly becomes an outsiderby choice! Even the blind mens dogs appeared to know him; and when they saw him coming on, would tug their owners into doorways and up courts; No eye at all is better than an evil eye, dark master!. Flint is a form of the mineral quartz, which occurs chiefly as nodules and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalk and limestones. 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. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his. 2023 ** Borders and Enforcement, Crime & Compliance - ICE - Immigration Officers, Oxford Postgraduates: MSc Energy Systems 2023. Oh, no, no! The finger was still there. 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. Find full texts with expert analysis in our extensive library. 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? A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost-Story of Christmas, commonly known as A Christmas Carol. Be here all the earlier next morning. 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. It is through your support of visiting Book Analysis that we can support charities, such as Teenage Cancer Trust. He is cold and greedy, not the kind of man people want to befriend. Mind! A solitary child, neglected by his friends, is left there. Fred is the opposite of Scrooge in appearance and spirit. Design changes: Please bear with us if you come across anything that may look a little disjointed. `Youll want all day to-morrow, I suppose? said Scrooge. I'll raise your salary, and endeavour to assist your struggling family, and we will discuss you affairs this very afternoon". Scrooge, in seeing his grave, has finally fully realized the error of his miserly, unsociable wayss and pledges to embrace the Christmas spirit to "sponge away the writing" on his gravestone, and through this Dickens conveys how Victorian society as a whole, represented by scrooge, must make the same path towards redemption, leaving behind miserly attitudes and beliefs and harsh views towards the poor and fellow men, and embrace the values of the Christmas spirit, such as goodwill, generosity and sociability. Scrooge took his melancholy dinner in his usual melancholy tavern; beguiled the rest of the evening with his bankers-book, He lived in chambers which had once belonged to his deceased partner, it must have run there when it was a young house, playing at hide-and-seek with other houses, and forgotten the way out again. Whatever the book. 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. "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 the present, Scrooge witnesses scenes of fires at Christmas time that bring happiness, many associated with the theme of eating food at this festive time, such as the brightness of the roaring fires in kitchens, parlours, and all sorts of rooms, was wonderful and the flickering of the blaze showed preparations for a cosy dinner, He sees scenes associated with the coming together of family at this time of year, such as that of a miner and his family who are a cheerful company assembled round a glowing fire. Dickens is comparing Scrooge to two aspects common to flint; its hardness (here meaning that Scrooge is mean or tight) and its sharpness (here meaning that Scrooge watches over everything and doesnt miss anything in his work). This poignant moment arrives when Scrooge is looking at Christmas yet to come. It is a dark, sad moment but Bob Cratchit handles the situation with grace and dignity. Historical Context Marleys ghost is a terrifying figure - his huge clanking chain makes him look like an exaggeration of a typical Victorian prisoner. a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! 16, no GCSES, no other qualifications, is there anything left for me? He becomes nearly inebriated with joy. Each adjective is also connected with the hands to show how he holds tightly to everything he has. Much good it has ever done you!, There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say, But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round. Scrooge is a cold-hearted tight miser who watches everything going on within his counting-house business. ". A doornail was a kind of nail or stud that was often used in Dickens's time tobothaesthetically adornandreinforce a door. I want to be an Architect, what GCSEs should I do? What does the quote hard and sharp as flint mean?Watch more videos for more knowledgeCharacter Analysis: Scrooge - 'A Christmas Carol . A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner! This is another quote where Dickens draws on the semantic field of the cold weather. 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. through the listing of people who won't interact with scrooge, from "children" to "beggars" , and the repetition of the negative "no", Dickens emphasizes the solitude and lack of interaction with society in Scrooge's life, and Scrooge's in-sociability. When Scrooge finds himself able to embrace his community, he finds himself forever changed. Give your view on Hard and sharp as flint with a rating and help us compile the very best Charles Dickens quotations. who cold as he was, was warmer than Scrooge; for he returned them cordially. I am not the man I was. clause. You'll also get updates on new titles we publish and the ability to save highlights and notes. Early in the chapter, the narrator says, "Oh! Teacher Editions with classroom activities for all 1699 titles we cover. 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 cold became intense. Let him make a tool of me afresh and again? Scrooge, however, aggressively fights it off. Find related themes, quotes, symbols, characters, and more. In other words, Scrooge is not alone; many people, while perhaps less obviously awful than Scrooge, share his sinful failings. No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him. "Every idiot who goes about with "Merry Christmas" on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart". 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." Why did I walk through crowds of fellow-beings with my eyes turned down. These cover themes like wealth, poverty, Christmas, and kindness. By contrast, scenes of happiness and generosity are represented by large fires, such as that of a party in a scene from the past held by Fezziwig, where fuel was heaped upon the fire, so much so that the generous host had a positive light appeared to issue from Fezziwigs calves which shone like moons. My partner is letting her friend sleep in her bed, am I overeacting? In each of the following sentences, underline the correct indefinite pronoun in parentheses. Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. Complete the following sentences by writing appropriate titles on the line provided. 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. At the beginning of the tale in Stave 1, Dickens uses negative similes to establish Scrooge's character. How is the theme of isolation presented in A Christmas Carol? Scrooge fell upon his knees, and clasped his hands before his face. No, no, no. monstrous iron safe attached to its ankle, who cried piteously at being unable to assist a wretched woman with an infant, whom it saw below, upon a door-step. Scrooge doesn't live by his senses in any aspect of his life. --------------------------------------------------------, "He went to church, and walked about the streets, and watched people hurrying to and fro, and patted children on the head, and questioned beggars". 1 / 4. Scrooge sees the senses as pointless, as easily fooled or manipulated. A Christmas Carol is a widely studied book filled with memorable quotes. Detailed explanations, analysis, and citation info for every important quote on LitCharts. It was not angry or ferocious, but looked at Scrooge as Marley used to look: with ghostly spectacles turned up on its ghostly forehead. Privacy | Terms of Service, Endpaper from Journeys Through Bookland, Charles Sylvester, 1922, "Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster". No, Spirit! Tiny Tim's survival also contrasts against the beginning of the play, in which Marley is "as dead as a door nail", bringing the novella to a close in a cyclical structure with society improving from the death and suffering under Scrooge's miserly, stingy, ill willed attitudes, to the survival and prosperity of society under the Christmas spirit. In other words, Scrooge is stingy and tough: he has no sympathy, generosity, or compassion. 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. The adjectives squeezing and wrenching, etc., relate to how one should imagine him with money, refusing to let go of his wealth. Now, it is a fact, that there was nothing at all particular about the knocker on the door, except that it was very large. a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! He even turns down his own nephew who comes to see him and invite him to his house for a Christmas meal. "Oh! 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. 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. Our, "Sooo much more helpful thanSparkNotes. Living conditions there were unpleasant and the work was tough such as 'picking out' old ropes. Refine any search. Christmas Carol - Generosity Quotes. Accessed 2 Mar. Scrooge bends over his weak fire. Scrooge refuses to believe in Marley, just as he refuses to believe in Christmas. eNotes Editorial, 17 Oct. 2017, https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/which-quotes-suggest-that-scrooge-is-presented-as-568005. Scrooge is an outsider because that is the way he likes it. Come! The last line of A Christmas Carol is God bless us, everyone. Its spoken by the well-loved character Tiny Tim. How could it be otherwise? Once upon a time -- of all the good days in the year, on Christmas Eve -- old Scrooge sat busy in his counting-house. It was long, and wound about him like a tail; and it was made (for Scrooge observed it closely) of cash-boxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, deeds, and heavy purses wrought in steel. Who is Belle in A Christmas Carol, and why was she important to Scrooge? Download. Scrooge sat down upon a form, and wept to see his poor forgotten self as he used to be. wherefore the clerk put on his white comforter, and tried to warm himself at the candle; in which effort, not being a man of strong imagination, he failed". through the repeated structure, Dickens again portrays that Scrooge as breaking away from his previous miserliness and stinginess, becoming more good willed towards other like Bob Cratchit. as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. PDF downloads of all 1699 LitCharts literature guides, and of every new one we publish. From this exchange, it sounds like Marley was at least somewhat generous. `I am sorry, with all my heart, to find you so resolute. 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