Is an accounting and finance degree worth it? 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. He does not see the basic human value in all people. Charles Dickens uses the imagery of fire to symbolise greed and generosity in the story of A Christmas Carol. In 1861, 35,000 children under 12 lived and worked in workhouses in Britain. Flint and oysters are not very palatable things to be compared to. 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. Dickens again uses temperature as a metaphor for degrees of goodwill here, with scrooge being "cold" reflecting his lack of goodwill towards himself and others around him, and the description of his decrepit features such as his "shriveled" cheek and "stiffened" gait suggests that Scrooge's unsociable, miserly attitudes of ill damage himself, in contrast to his nephew Fred (a foil to scrooge) who is "ruddy and handsome", emphasising through their appearances how holding the values of the Christmas spirit are beneficial to ones self, and as developed on throughout the novella, the whole of society as well. It is a ponderous chain! Copyright The Student Room 2023 all rights reserved. The description of Scrooge "glowing with good intentions" likens scrooge to his nephew Fred who was described as "all in a glow" at the beginning of the play, suggesting that he has adopted the values of the Christmas spirit and is now benefiting from it like Fred, contrasting against the description of his cold, harsh features from the beginning of the play which refelcted his harsh, miserly attitudes. I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices, I dont make merry myself at Christmas and I cant afford to make idle people merry. "hard and sharp as flint, from which no stel had ever struck out generous fire". `The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then? said Scrooge. Dickens, as Scrooge learns lessons and truths from the ghost of Christmas past, portrays scrooge as beginning to change, breaking away from his miserly attitudes and becoming more generous, wanting to "give" the caroller "something", in contrast to his absolute selfishness, rejection of the Christmas spirit and lack of generosity from earlier. Oh! The happiness he gives is quite as great as if it costs a fortune. That, and its livid colour, made it horrible; but its horror seemed to be in spite of the face and beyond its control, rather than a part or its own expression. Marley brings only warnings; he cannot himself help Scrooge. No beggars implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it was o'clock, no man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to such and such a place, of Scrooge. Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster". All rights reserved. I revise four hours a day. At this time of the rolling year, the spectre said `I suffer most. Our, "Sooo much more helpful thanSparkNotes. such was I! As Scrooge looked fixedly at this phenomenon, it was a knocker again. | 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. *(Many, Nobody)* is predicting rain for tomorrow. Find related themes, quotes, symbols, characters, and more. God save you! cried a cheerful voice. No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him. 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. 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 other words, Scrooge is stingy and tough: he has no . It was cold, bleak, biting weather: foggy withal: and he could hear the people in the court outside, go wheezing up and down, beating their hands upon their breasts, and stamping their feet upon the pavement stones to warm them. To say that Scrooge could be made neither warm nor cold by any outside influence again paints him as an outcast. Last weekend, I read $\underline{\color{#c34632}\text{To Build a Fire}}$ . its teeth were chattering in its frozen head up there. In the back and forth about marriage the story drops hints about Scrooges past that will become clear later. `You dont mean that, I am sure?, `I do, said Scrooge. Home Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol Best Quotes. a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! His nephew left the room without an angry word, notwithstanding. ", "If they would rather die.they had better do it and decrease the surplus population." Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. Download the entire A Christmas Carol study guide as a printable PDF! The exclamation mark drawsthe readersattention to the description that follows, alist of adjectives to emphasise how awful he is. The bells ceased as they had begun, together. This then gives you an idea of what Scrooge looks like. 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. Down banks and up banks, and over gates, and splashing into dikes, and breaking among coarse rushes: no man cared where he went. The dark, wintry night, and the approach of Christmas Day, should provide the conditions for some seasonal camaraderie between Scrooge and his clerk, but Scrooges misery wins out over all. But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! Before telling us the incident with the door knocker, In order to make this night stand out as a unique milestone in Scrooges routine existence, the narrator focuses first on Scrooge's sanity and the usual normality of his world. Teach your students to analyze literature like LitCharts does. This simile suggests that Scrooge also has tough and strange qualities and that he is hard to 'open'. Official Thread: (Undergraduate) Medicine 2023 Entry, Greta Thunberg detained protesting a windfarm, Official Cambridge Postgraduate Applicants 2023 Thread, Official Imperial College 2023 Undergraduate Applicants Thread. 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. 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. The apparition walked backward from him; and at every step it took, the window raised itself a little, so that when the spectre reached it, it was wide open. 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. Youre quite a powerful speaker, sir, he added, turning to his nephew. As the day passes, the fog and cold become more severe. `Christmas a humbug, uncle! said Scrooges nephew. Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. Its the only way to make a boy sharp, sir. The bells chiming and the clanking of chains create a disturbance that even Scrooge cant ignore, and forebode both that Scrooge's time is approaching and that he himself will soon be in similar chains. No matter how vivid the apparitions become, Scrooge insists that he knows better. Marley represents a kind of family for Scrooge, even though they are not blood-related. Detailed quotes explanations with page numbers for every important quote on the site. `Mr. Marley has been dead these seven years, Scrooge replied. Marleys ghost is a terrifying figure - his huge clanking chain makes him look like an exaggeration of a typical Victorian prisoner. 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. 2023 eNotes.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved, "Secret, And Self-contained, And Solitary As An Oyster". The air was filled with phantoms, wandering hither and thither in restless haste, and moaning as they went. Discipline was harsh and. `Because, said Scrooge, `a little thing affects them. "No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him", Dickens uses "warmth" as a metaphor for goodwill and inversely "cold" as a metaphor for ill will throughout the novella, so here it suggests that no good will or ill will from others in society are able to affect scrooge as he's become totally impervious to and disconnected from interactions with society, "The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shriveled his cheek, stiffened his gait". Marley's questions and Scrooge's answers about the senses are important. With our Essay Lab, you can create a customized outline within seconds to get started on your essay right away. Though he looked the phantom through and through, though he felt the chilling influence of its death-cold eyes, `How now! said Scrooge, caustic and cold as ever. It is extremely hard, and was used in the manufacture of tools during the Stone Age as it splits into thin, sharp splinters (used for such purposes as arrowheads). "Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster." See in text (Stave One) These two similes define Scrooge in three ways: First, he is portrayed as inflexible through the comparison to flint (a hard gray rock). Scrooge had a very small fire, but the clerks fire was so very much smaller that it looked like one coal. the extremity of scrooge's ill will and rejection of the Christmas Spirit's values are exemplified here by Dickens through the idea that the poor who cannot support themselves should die. 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 refuses to believe in Marley, just as he refuses to believe in Christmas. `Are they still in operation?, `They are. A squeezing, wrenching, grasping,scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner!" Scrooge! Explanation and AnalysisAs Dead as a Door-Nail: Explanation and AnalysisScrooge's Transformation: Would not have made it through AP Literature without the printable PDFs. In this way, Dickens universalizes his message. Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. He took us home and hammered us. Our, "Sooo much more helpful thanSparkNotes. At Fezziwig's party (pp. Besides -- excuse me -- I dont know that., Its enough for a man to understand his own business, gruff old bell was always peeping slily down at Scrooge. "No," said scrooge, "no. His most famous saying is bah humbug. He used it as an exclamation when he wanted to express his displeasure about something. `How it is that I appear before you in a shape that you can see, I may not tell. 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 way the content is organized, LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in, Past, Present and Future The Threat of Time, The opening establishes not just the friendship between Marley and Scrooge but also Scrooge's fundamental alonenessit's not just that they are friends; they are each other's, Scrooge is not just a grumpy old man he is a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner. Why show me this, if I am past all hope! For the first time, the hand appeared to shake. 1. `I am sorry, with all my heart, to find you so resolute. Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. It is required of every man, the Ghost returned, `that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellowmen, and travel far and wide; and if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death. 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