GCSE English Literature Grade 9 Christmas Carol Themes and Quotes Mindmap
A christmas charol summary revision notes
GCSE GRADE 9 English Literature - A Christmas Carol Context + Character Analysis + Theme Notes
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Marley Quotes Character Role/Effect
‘Marley was dead, to begin with.’ Beginning - emphasising Marley’s death so Marley’s Ghost has an impact on the reader
‘Marley was as dead as a door-nail.’ X2 as well. As the starting sentence is about Marley being dead - death = new beginning
‘Marley’s face. It was not in impenetrable shadow as the other objects in the yard were,
but had a dismal light about it, like a bad lobster in a dark cellar. It was not angry or ‘not angry or ferocious’ - there to help Scrooge
ferocious, but looked at Scrooge as Marley used to look: with ghostly spectacles turned
up on its ghostly forehead. The hair was curiously stirred, as if by breath or hot air; and, Him and Scrooge are very similar personalities: they are obsessed with money and don't
though the eyes were wide open, they were perfectly motionless. That, and its livid care about people.
colour, made it horrible; but its horror seemed to be in spite of the face and beyond its
control, rather than a part of its own expression.’ He shows what could happen to scrooge if he doesn't change, scares the audience into
‘Upon its coming in, the dying flame leaped up, as though it cried, “I know him; thinking what would happen to them.
Marley’s Ghost!” and fell again.’
‘The same face: the very same. Marley in his pigtail, usual waistcoat, tights and boots; He acts as a hellish guardian angel for scrooge.
the tassels on the latter bristling, like his pigtail, and his coat-skirts, and the hair upon
Suggest that scrooge is worse than him and might have a worse fate than him.
his head.’
‘The chain he drew was clasped about his middle. It was long, and wound about him
Marley regrets he didn't change will he was alive.
like a tail; and it was made (for Scrooge observed it closely) of cashboxes, keys,
padlocks, ledgers, deeds, and heavy purses wrought in steel.’ He's acting selflessly, he's helping Scrooge even though he has no hope of redemption
‘His body was transparent; so that Scrooge, observing him, and looking through his for himself.
waistcoat, could see the two buttons on his coat behind.’
‘Scrooge had often heard it said that Marley had no bowels, but he had never believed it The chains are made of money related objects that was forged because he cared more
until now.’ about money than people.
‘he felt the chilling influence of its death-cold eyes’
‘the ghost sat down on the opposite side of the fireplace, as if he were quite used to it.’ He is described as a link to hell and eternal suffering and gives off an infernal
‘“I wear the chain I forged in life,” replied the Ghost. “I made it link by link, and yard atmosphere.
by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it.’
‘“Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, When Scrooge sees Marley, he hadn't been that afraid since he was a child.
forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but
a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!”’ Terrifying " the spectres voice disturbed the very marrow in his bones"
‘the spectres voice disturbed the very marrow in his bones"’
Exhausted " I cannot rest, I cannot stay, I cannot linger anywhere"
‘Why did I walk through crowds of fellow-beings with my eyes turned down, and never
raise them to that blessed Star which led the Wise Men to a poor abode! Were there no
Direct " I am here tonight to warn you"
poor homes to which its light would have conducted me!”’
When he was alive his greed of money led him to lack compassion and care for others.
, Intrusive Narrator Character Role/Effect
Mind! I don’t mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly
dead about a door-nail. I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the
deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the
simile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the Country’s done for. You will
therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as dead as a door-nail.’
‘There is no doubt that Marley was dead. This must be distinctly understood, or nothing
wonderful can come of the story I am going to relate. If we were not perfectly convinced
that Hamlet’s 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 Paul’s Churchyard for instance—literally to astonish his son’s
weak mind.’
‘Once upon a time’
‘found himself face to face with the unearthly visitor who drew them: as close to it as I
am now to you, and I am standing in the spirit at your elbow’
‘What would I not have given to be one of them! Though I never could have been so
rude, no, no! I wouldn’t for the wealth of all the world have crushed that braided hair,
and torn it down; and for the precious little shoe, I wouldn’t have plucked it off, God
bless my soul! to save my life.’
‘If you should happen, by any unlikely chance, to know a man more blest in a laugh
than Scrooge’s nephew, all I can say is, I should like to know him too. Introduce him to
me, and I’ll cultivate his acquaintance.’
‘I don’t mind calling on you to believe that he was ready for a good broad field of
strange appearances’
‘he began to think—as you or I would have thought at first; for it is always the person
not in the predicament who knows what ought to have been done in it, and would
unquestionably have done it too’
‘he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May
that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us,
Every One!’
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