Scrooges empathy and compassion are developed by seeing the Cratchit familys happiness and gratitude despite their relatively meager holiday feast and small home. His family cannot afford any of the treatments, or even the nutrition, that might save his life. It was a great surprise to Scrooge, while listening to the moaning of the wind, and thinking what a solemn thing it was to move on through the lonely darkness over an unknown abyss, whose depths were secrets as profound as Death: it was a great surprise to Scrooge, while thus engaged, to hear a hearty laugh. Look upon me!. Its tenderness and flavour, size and cheapness, were the themes of universal admiration. You know he is, Robert! The Daughters of the Late Colonel: XII, 189. Uncle Scrooge!. He is such a ridiculous fellow!. cried Scrooge. The Importance of Being Earnest: Act III, 63. A merry Christmas and a happy new year! The children drank the toast after her. Who suffers by his ill whims? At last the plump sister, falling into a similar state, cried out: I have found it out! He has given us plenty of merriment, I am sure, said Fred, and it would be ungrateful not to drink his health. And so it was! At last the plump sister, falling into a similar state, cried out: I have found it out! A decorated cake made for a Twelfth Night (January 5, the eve of Epiphany) celebration. Slander those who tell it ye! The Spirit did not tarry here, but bade Scrooge hold his robe, and passing on above the moor, spedwhither? It was clothed in one simple green robe, or mantle, bordered with white fur. Powerful metaphor, children should be innocent but poverty had ruined them, "Have they no refuge or resource?" The Ghost of Christmas Present rose. The Daughters of the Late Colonel: V, 180. But the whole scene passed off in the breath of the last word spoken by his nephew; and he and the Spirit were again upon their travels. What did Scrooge say about giving his clerk a day off to celebrate Christmas in Charles Dickens'sA Christmas Carol? This idea taking full possession of his mind, he got up softly and shuffled in his slippers to the door. Oh, perfectly satisfactory. And at the same time there emerged from scores of bye-streets, lanes, and nameless turnings, innumerable people, carrying their dinners to the bakers shops[5]. Not coming upon Christmas Day!. I am afraid I have not. But he raised them speedily, on hearing his own name. The mention of his name cast a dark shadow on the party, which was not dispelled for full five minutes ' is a quotation from A Christmas Carol ( Stave 3 ). "Scrooge was conscious of a thousand odours floating in the air, each one connected with a thousand thoughts and hopes and joys long long forgotten." Triplets - to show Scrooge once had dreams and thoughts and hopes like everyone else. It was his own room. Spirit, said Scrooge submissively, conduct me where you will. Of course there was. He watches as Bob Cratchit takes Tiny Tim's, . It was a Game called Yes and No, where Scrooges nephew had to think of something, and the rest must find out what; he only answering to their questions yes or no, as the case was. After finally allowing him to leave for the night, Scrooge. They stood beside the helmsman at the wheel, the look-out in the bow, the officers who had the watch; dark, ghostly figures in their several stations; but every man among them hummed a Christmas tune, or had a Christmas thought, or spoke below his breath to his companion of some bygone Christmas Day, with homeward hopes belonging to it. But now, the plates being changed by Miss Belinda, Mrs. Cratchit left the room alonetoo nervous to bear witnessesto take the pudding up and bring it in. Here, again, were shadows on the window-blind of guests assembling; and there a group of handsome girls, all hooded and fur-booted, and all chattering at once, tripped lightly off to some near neighbours house; where, woe upon the single man who saw them enter-artful witches, well they knew it - in a glow! And abide the end!. Delete commas used incorrectly, using the delete ( \gamma ) symbol. "Scrooge was the Ogre of the family." Scrooge is portrayed as a monster, and his family don't like him but feel obligated to toast him. There were ruddy, brown-faced, broad-girthed Spanish Onions, shining in the fatness of their growth like Spanish Friars, and winking from their shelves in wanton slyness at the girls as they went by, and glanced demurely at the hung-up mistletoe. Scrooge hung his head to hear his own words quoted by the Spirit, and was overcome with penitence and grief. I mean to give him the same chance every year, whether he likes it or not, for I pity him. At every fresh question that was put to him, this nephew burst into a fresh roar of laughter; and was so inexpressibly tickled, that he was obliged to get up off the sofa and stamp. The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxeds Church, 11. Scrooges nieces sisters, and all the other ladies, expressed the same opinion. By this time it was getting dark, and snowing pretty heavily; and as Scrooge and the Spirit went along the streets, the brightness of the roaring fires in kitchens, parlours, and all sorts of rooms, was wonderful. Mrs Cratchitdressed out but poorly in a twice-turned gown, but brave in ribbons, which are cheap, and make a goodly show for sixpence. If you had fallen up against him (as some of them did), on purpose, he would have made a feint of endeavouring to seize you, which would have been an affront to your understanding, and would instantly have sidled off in the direction of the plump sister. As they move on with the spirit of Christmas future, the image of the Crachits and Tiny Tim remain with Scrooge who continues to be distressed by what he has seen of Tim's illness. Here, the flickering of the blaze showed preparations for a cosy dinner, with hot plates baking through and through before the fire, and deep red curtains, ready to be drawn to shut out cold and darkness. I know what it is, Fred! Alas for Tiny Tim, he bore a little crutch, and had his limbs supported by an iron frame! "A tremendous family to provide for!" muttered Scrooge. The narrator considers that the phrase "dead as a doornail" doesn't even describe Marley's lifelessness well enough. He was not the dogged Scrooge he had been; and though the Spirits eyes were clear and kind, he did not like to meet them. The poulterers shops were still half open, and the fruiterers were radiant in their glory. After tea, they had some music. Will you decide what men shall live, what men shall die? It is the Ghost of Christmas present who takes Scrooge to view how the Crachit family celebrates Christmas. There was nothing very cheerful in the climate or the town, and yet was there an air of cheerfulness abroad that the clearest summer air and brightest summer sun might have endeavoured to diffuse in vain. There never was such a goose. The old man, in a voice that seldom rose above the howling of the wind upon the barren waste, was singing them a Christmas songit had been a very old song when he was a boy!-and from time to time they all joined in the chorus. If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, the child will die., No, no, said Scrooge. 7. Study Questions, Activities, and Resources, 93. Will you decide what men shall live, what men shall die? God bless us!. No change, no degradation, no perversion of humanity, in any grade, through all the mysteries of wonderful creation, has monsters half so horrible and dread. It was the first of their proceedings which had no heartiness. But this the Spirit said could not be done. Here, the flickering of the blaze showed preparations for a cosy dinner, with hot plates baking through and through before the fire, and deep red curtains, ready to be drawn to shut out cold and darkness. There was nothing of high mark in this. At last the dishes were set on, and grace was said. It may be, that in the sight of Heaven, you are more worthless and less fit to live than millions like this poor mans child. The spirit reminds Scrooge that in the past, he has wished that the sick would just die and decrease the population. It was a long night, if it were only a night; but Scrooge had his doubts of this, because the Christmas Holidays appeared to be condensed into the space of time they passed together. He has given us plenty of merriment, I am sure, said Fred, and it would be ungrateful not to drink his health. In half a minute Mrs Cratchit enteredflushed, but smiling proudlywith the pudding, like a speckled cannon-ball, so hard and firm, blazing in half of half-a-quartern of ignited brandy, and bedight with Christmas holly stuck into the top. Where graceful youth should have filled their features out, and touched them with its freshest tints, a stale and shrivelled hand, like that of age, had pinched, and twisted them, and pulled them into shreds. Bob Cratchit said, and calmly too, that he regarded it as the greatest success achieved by Mrs. Cratchit since their marriage. To-night, if you have aught to teach me, let me profit by it." "Touch my robe!" The rise and fall of The Eagle and Grecian, City Road. Scrooge now has "an interest he had never felt before.". Yellow, meagre, ragged, scowling, wolfish; but prostrate, too, in their humility. Man, said the Ghost, if man you be in heart, not adamant, forbear that wicked cant until you have discovered What the surplus is, and Where it is. Scrooge reverently did so. But soon the steeples called good people all, to church and chapel, and away they came, flocking through the streets in their best clothes, and with their gayest faces. He told me, coming home, that he hoped the people saw him in the church, because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to remember upon Christmas Day, who made lame beggars walk, and blind men see.. The ghost replies by saying that if things go on as they are, then the poor boy will die. They were a boy and a girl. Scrooges niece was not one of the blind-mans buff party, but was made comfortable with a large chair and a footstool, in a snug corner, where the Ghost and Scrooge were close behind her. Likewise at the game of How, When, and Where, she was very great, and to the secret joy of Scrooges nephew, beat her sisters hollow: though they were sharp girls too, as Topper could have told you. It has been done in your name, or at least in that of your family, said Scrooge. Ha, ha! laughed Scrooges nephew. He regards Cratchit merely as an expense and resents having to pay his miserable wages. You know he is, Robert. A tremendous family to provide for! muttered Scrooge. Accessed 1 May 2023. Who are the experts?Our certified Educators are real professors, teachers, and scholars who use their academic expertise to tackle your toughest questions. Readers might infer that Scrooge developed self-containment by emotional necessity. ", poverty and lack of education will ruin the city of London. Hell be very merry and very happy, I have no doubt!. Mrs. Cratchit calls Mr. Scrooge an "odious, stingy, hard, unfeeling man," and if Bob hadn't reminded her that it was Christmas Day and to calm herself in front of the children, she would never. It would have been flat heresy to do so. Scrooge hung his head to hear his own words quoted by the Spirit, and was overcome with penitence and grief. Are there no workhouses?. And now, without a word of warning from the Ghost, they stood upon a bleak and desert moor, where monstrous masses of rude stone were cast about, as though it were the burial-place of giants; and water spread itself wheresoever it listed, or would have done so, but for the frost that held it prisoner; and nothing grew but moss and furze[9], and coarse rank grass. He felt that he was restored to consciousness in the right nick of time, for the especial purpose of holding a conference with the second messenger despatched to him through Jacob Marleys intervention. Joining their horny hands over the rough table at which they sat, they wished each other Merry Christmas in their can of grog; and one of them: the elder, too, with his face all damaged and scarred with hard weather, as the figure-head of an old ship might be: struck up a sturdy song that was like a Gale in itself. Scrooge sees the family make much of a simple goose for dinner. These held the hot stuff from the jug, however, as well as golden goblets would have done; and Bob served it out with beaming looks, while the chestnuts on the fire sputtered and cracked noisily. Nobody knows it better than you do, poor fellow!, My dear, was Bobs mild answer, Christmas Day., Ill drink his health for your sake and the Days, said Mrs. Cratchit, not for his. This work (A Christmas Carol: Stave 3 by Charles Dickens) is free of known copyright restrictions. look here! Five minutes, ten minutes, a quarter of an hour went by, yet nothing came. He was not the dogged Scrooge he had been; and though the Spirit's eyes were clear and kind, he did not like to meet them. Although they don't have two brass ha'pennies to rub togetherlargely thanks to Scrooge's incorrigible stinginessthey still somehow manage to maintain a household full of love, warmth, and happiness. The sight of these poor revellers appeared to interest the Spirit very much, for he stood with Scrooge beside him in a bakers doorway, and taking off the covers as their bearers passed, sprinkled incense on their dinners from his torch. 2023 eNotes.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved, "Secret, And Self-contained, And Solitary As An Oyster", https://www.enotes.com/topics/christmas-carol. Learn how your comment data is processed. To a poor one most., Spirit? said Scrooge, after a moments thought, I wonder you, of all the beings in the many worlds about us, should desire to cramp these peoples opportunities of innocent enjoyment., You would deprive them of their means of dining every seventh day[6], often the only day on which they can be said to dine at all, said Scrooge. Study Questions, Activities, and Resources, 9. And every man on board, waking or sleeping, good or bad, had had a kinder word for another on that day than on any day in the year; and had shared to some extent in its festivities; and had remembered those he cared for at a distance, and had known that they delighted to remember him. It would have been flat heresy to do so. They are generous and loving, happy despite their poverty. I went forth last night on compulsion, and I learnt a lesson which is working now. After a while they played at forfeits; for it is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child himself. I dont think I have, said Scrooge. But even here, two men who watched the light had made a fire, that through the loophole in the thick stone wall shed out a ray of brightness on the awful sea. Come in! Here is a glass of mulled wine ready to our hand at the moment; and I say, Uncle Scrooge! , A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to the old man, whatever he is! said Scrooges nephew. Bless those women; they never do anything by halves. It was not alone that the scales descending on the counter made a merry sound, or that the twine and roller parted company so briskly, or that the canisters were rattled up and down like juggling tricks, or even that the blended scents of tea and coffee were so grateful to the nose, or even that the raisins were so plentiful and rare, the almonds so extremely white, the sticks of cinnamon so long and straight, the other spices so delicious, the candied fruits so caked and spotted with molten sugar as to make the coldest lookers-on feel faint and subsequently bilious. But, finding that he turned uncomfortably cold when he began to wonder which of his curtains this new spectre would draw back, he put them every one aside with his own hands, and lying down again, established a sharp look-out all round the bed. Who suffers by his ill whims! Start your 48-hour free trial to get access to more than 30,000 additional guides and more than 350,000 Homework Help questions answered by our experts. I am the Ghost of Christmas Present, said the Spirit. Alas for Tiny Tim, he bore a little crutch, and had his limbs supported by an iron frame! He dont make himself comfortable with it. Hark! withered little hand in his, as if he loved the child, and wished to keep him by his side, and dreaded that he might be taken from him. The sky was gloomy, and the shortest streets were choked up with a dingy mist, half thawed, half frozen, whose heavier particles descended in a shower of sooty atoms, as if all the chimneys in Great Britain had, by one consent, caught fire, and were blazing away to their dear hearts content. And every man on board, waking or sleeping, good or bad, had had a kinder word for another on that day than on any day in the year; and had shared to some extent in its festivities; and had remembered those he cared for at a distance, and had known that they delighted to remember him. And their assembled friends being not a bit behindhand, roared out lustily. The way he went after that plump sister in the lace tucker, was an outrage on the credulity of human nature. View over 250 locations associated with Charles Dickens in our trail. He particularly resents having to pay him for the day off at Christmas, seeing it as a swindle. And your brother, Tiny Tim? Study Questions, Activities, and Resources, 136. Spirit, said Scrooge, with an interest he had never felt before, tell me if Tiny Tim will live., Dickens illustrates powerfully how allowing aperson to witness a scene can exert a powerful influence on a one's heart. The Cratchits show that when it comes down to it, you don't need money to be happy. Prior to this visit, Scrooge had declared that if poor people would rather die than go to the workhouse or poorhouse, then they should just do it and decrease the surplus population. He did not care about their lives, and he does not seem to have cared about anything other than money. Forgive me if I am not justified in what I ask, said Scrooge, looking intently at the Spirits robe, but I see something strange, and not belonging to yourself, protruding from your skirts. But, they were happy, grateful, pleased with one another, and contented with the time; and when they faded, and looked happier yet in the bright sprinklings of the Spirits torch at parting, Scrooge had his eye upon them, and especially on Tiny Tim, until the last. One half hour, Spirit, only one!. Oh God! Where angels might have sat enthroned, devils lurked, and glared out menacing. All this time the chestnuts and the jug went round and round; and by-and-bye they had a song, about a lost child travelling in the snow, from Tiny Tim, who had a plaintive little voice, and sang it very well indeed. Then all the Cratchit family drew round the hearth, in what Bob Cratchit called a circle, meaning half a one; and at Bob Cratchits elbow stood the family display of glass. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. He begins to care about them, especially poor Tiny Tim, who can't get medical treatments because of how little Scrooge pays his father. Bobs voice was tremulous when he told them this, and trembled more when he said that Tiny Tim was growing strong and hearty. They are always in earnest. How do the Cratchits react to their Christmas feast, and what does their celebration show Scrooge in Dickens'sA Christmas Carol? Just before the selfish Scrooge met the first of his ghostly visitors, the knocker on his door seemed to turn into his dead partner Marley's face. And Martha warnt as late last Christmas Day by half-an-hour?. For they were a musical family, and knew what they were about, when they sung a Glee or Catch, I can assure you: especially Topper, who could growl away in the bass like a good one, and never swell the large veins in his forehead, or get red in the face over it. This garment hung so loosely on the figure, that its capacious breast was bare, as if disdaining to be warded or concealed by any artifice. Now, when Scrooge sees the Crachits in their own home, they start to become real people to him. Suppose it should break in turning out! In time the bells ceased, and the bakers were shut up; and yet there was a genial shadowing forth of all these dinners and the progress of their cooking, in the thawed blotch of wet above each bakers oven; where the pavement smoked as if its stones were cooking too. However, his offences carry their own punishment, and I have nothing to say against him., Im sure he is very rich, Fred, hinted Scrooges niece. Answer each of the following questions in the form of a sentence. He dont do any good with it. The sky was gloomy, and the shortest streets were choked up with a dingy mist, half thawed, half frozen, whose heavier particles descended in shower of sooty atoms, as if all the chimneys in Great Britain had, by one consent, caught fire, and were blazing away to their dear hearts content. To any kindly given. Scrooge was the Ogre of the family. All this time the chestnuts and the jug went round and round; and by-and-bye they had a song, about a lost child travelling in the snow, from Tiny Tim, who had a plaintive little voice, and sang it very well indeed. He never finishes what he begins to say! These held the hot stuff from the jug, however, as well as golden goblets would have done; and Bob served it out with beaming looks, while the chestnuts on the fire sputtered and cracked noisily. Scrooge even sends the Cratchit family a Christmas turkey. Spirit, said Scrooge, with an interest he had never felt before, tell me if Tiny Tim will live., I see a vacant seat, replied the Ghost, in the poor chimney-corner, and a crutch without an owner, carefully preserved. It is a fair, even-handed, noble adjustment of things, that while there is infection in disease and sorrow, there is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good-humour. Our summaries and analyses are written by experts, and your questions are answered by real teachers. What do you say, Topper?. He wouldnt catch anybody else. The narrator calls Scrooge the ogre of the family. It was a much greater surprise to Scrooge to recognise it as his own nephews and to find himself in a bright, dry, gleaming room, with the Spirit standing smiling by his side, and looking at that same nephew with approving affability.
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