such was I! It was full as heavy and as long as this, seven Christmas Eves ago. Though he never speaks this way about Marley, the reader can infer that Scrooge has similar thoughts. A slight disorder of the stomach makes them cheats. He took us home and hammered us. Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. . Describe the two children who emerge from the second spirit's robe in A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. (c) Copyright 2012 - 2022 The Circumlocution Office | All Rights Reserved | Built by The Circumlocution Office using WordPress. Label each adjective clause adj. This is a great quote for highlighting the sort of character that Scrooge was in A Christmas Carol. This almost prompts a realization in Scrooge as he catches on to the fact that his wealth provides him (and indeed Fezziwig) with the power to make people happy. The passage clearly states that Scrooge is "a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone" and is "hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel struck out a generous fire." Furthermore, the passage continues to show more detail by saying that he's "a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner" and . Latest answer posted December 11, 2020 at 10:52:15 AM. After emerging from a night when he is visited by the spirits of his former business partner, Jacob Marley and three ghosts, Scrooge asks to make up the fires and even tells Cratchit to buy another coal-scuttle, indicating he now wants to pay for more fuel. He thinks he sees the dead Marley in his door knocker. You are fettered, said Scrooge, trembling. I am not the man I was. 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. a terrible sensation to which it had been a stranger from infancy, The sound resounded through the house like thunder, but I mean to say you might have got a hearse up that staircase, and taken it broadwise, with the splinter-bar towards the wall and the door towards the balustrades: and done it easy. It is much easier to burn men than to burn their opinions. 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. `Let me leave it alone, then, said Scrooge. No, no, no. Oh, tell me I may sponge away the writing on this stone!". I was too cowardly to do what I knew to be right, as I had been too cowardly to avoid doing what I knew to be wrong. "Oh! No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him. Flint is a form of the mineral quartz, which occurs chiefly as nodules and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalk and limestones. 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 . 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. However, at the end of the tale in Stave 5, Scrooge employs a string of similes to celebrate his return to the present: I am light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a school-boy. Humbug!" https://www.youtube. Educators go through a rigorous application process, and every answer they submit is reviewed by our in-house editorial team. They're like having in-class notes for every discussion!, This is absolutely THE best teacher resource I have ever purchased. Each adjective is also connected with the hands to show how he holds tightly to everything he has. But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grind- stone, Scrooge! The passage precisely states that Scrooge is "a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone" and "hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel struck out a generous fire." Furthermore, the passage shows greater detail by saying that he's "a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner" and "solitary as an . Flint is a form of the mineral quartz, which occurs chiefly as nodules and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalk and limestones. Scrooge never painted out Old Marleys name. The Student Room and The Uni Guide are both part of The Student Room Group. 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. It contrasts sharply with the narrator's initial description, as these positive similes differ greatlyfrom ones like "as hard and sharp as flint" or "solitary as an oyster." When will you come to see me? No beggars implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it was oclock, no man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to such and such a place, of Scrooge. What is the theme of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens? And even Scrooge was not so dreadfully cut up by the sad event, but that he was an excellent man of business on the very day of the funeral, and solemnised it with an undoubted bargain. I will not be the man I must have been but for this intercourse! Scrooge is especially disgruntled when Fred mentions his wife, for example. (including. Click the card to flip . Detailed quotes explanations with page numbers for every important quote on the site. Write the kind of sentence in the blank using these abbreviations: dec. (declarative), imp. 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. This gives the perception of Scrooge being a very cold character, a word also associated with being mean. This might have lasted half a minute, or a minute, but it seemed an hour. 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 contrast, Scrooges routine is deliberately isolated and miserable. "Hard and sharp as flint." BEFORE CHANGE Shows his personality. As Marley's ghost's arrival approaches, dickens portrays Scrooge's tough, cold exterior as breaking down and him beginning to become ready to change and for his redemption, reverting back to a mouldable, childlike state of "infancy". 1. | The original text plus a side-by-side modern translation of. Near the beginning of the book, as we are being introduced to Scrooge, we read, Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks, 'My dear Scrooge, how are you? He is smug and condescending about the poor, and refuses to listen to the gentlemens reasoning. Second, he is uncharitable as shown by his inability to give something warm (the generous fire). What lesson does Scrooge learn from each spirit in A Christmas Carol? The Student Room and The Uni Guide are trading names of The Student Room Group Ltd. Register Number: 04666380 (England and Wales), VAT No. Flint was traditionally used to start fires which may hint at Scrooges later change in attitude as the story unfolds. --------------------------------------------------------, "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". 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. Scrooge bends over his weak fire. A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner! Scrooge sees the senses as pointless, as easily fooled or manipulated. Given that Scrooge is so stingy, sharp, and antisocial, the reader does not have much sympathy for him at this point. Charles Dickens uses the imagery of fire to symbolise greed and generosity in the story of A Christmas Carol. clause. In Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge is presented as a miserly old man, who is a social outcast and is quite happy to be one, at least in the beginning. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his. This might seem like a small detail, but regardless of whether or not the reader consciously juxtaposes these similes, they underscore Scrooge's transformation and provide evidence of a true change of heart. Part of the lesson that Scrooge must learn is that life is short but regrets are long and haunting, and have an affect even after death. Marley really makes things clear for Scrooge. Many's the hard day's walking in rain and mud, and with never a penny earned. And we can see that his conscience is beginning to come alive when he notices the judgmental feeling of the ghosts stare. The narrator describes Scrooge as "Hard and sharp as flint." His appearance matches his character, with cold-looking, pointy features. The cold became intense. He carried his own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office. "Scrooge had a very small fire, but the clerk's fire was so much smaller that it looked like one coal". However, Scrooge being likened to "flint" suggests that, although he has never given "generous fire" he has the potential to be good-willed, sociable, generous and the other attributes encapsulated by the Christmas spirit, as portrayed by the recurring symbol of "fire" used by dickens to represent these values. The view of Scrooge's house shows how his love of money is so absolute that he is cheap even with himself, denying himself even the basics, such as light or food better than gruel. When will come to see me?' I have got a paragraph here from the book Christmas Carol explaining what scrooge was like. Term. It is made up of two Greek words, ana meaning up, and lysis meaning to loosen. 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. Scrooge signed it. 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). A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two unlike things. They often `came down handsomely, and Scrooge never did. 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. Taken from the following passage of Stave 1 (Marleys Ghost) of A Christmas Carol: Oh! wishing, though it were only for a second, to divert the visions stony gaze from himself, e for the rest of my days persecuted by a legion of goblins, all of my own creation, when the phantom taking off the bandage round its head, as if it were too warm to wear indoors, its lower jaw dropped down upon its breast. What to expect as an older masters student? Be here all the earlier next morning. A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! 10:52:15 AM uses the imagery of fire to symbolise greed and generosity in the story of a Christmas Carol Charles. For example the Circumlocution Office using WordPress answer posted December 11, 2020 at AM. ( c ) Copyright 2012 - 2022 the Circumlocution Office | All Rights Reserved | Built by the Circumlocution using! For this intercourse the original text plus a side-by-side modern translation of rigorous process! 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