Stave 1

Test yourself

Stave 1: Scrooge's Attitudes to Christmas and the Poor

The story begins on Christmas Eve. Scrooge is in his counting house, working with his clerk, Bob Cratchit.

Attitude to Fred

Scrooge’s nephew, Fred, enters, wishing his uncle a merry Christmas.
Scrooge responds with “Bah! Humbug!” and exclaims that he does not know how Fred can be so happy when he is so poor.

Scrooge's attitude to marriage

Fred invites Scrooge to dinner with him and his wife on Christmas Day.
Scrooge asks Fred why he got married – when Fred tells him it was because he fell in love, Scrooge growls at him, as if he thinks the whole idea is “ridiculous”.
Fed up with his cheery nephew, Scrooge continually attempts to ignore him and tries to dismiss him by repeating “good afternoon!”

Scrooge's attitude to the poor

Two gentlemen enter the counting house and tell Scrooge that they are collecting money for the “poor and destitute, who suffer greatly”.
Scrooge responds by asking the men “are there no prisons?” He asks if the workhouses are still being used and if the Poor Law is still in effect.
Scrooge does not feel that anyone needs to worry about poor people because they have options – he does not care about what these options would mean for people (i.e. leaving their families to enter workhouses and to live and work in horrific conditions for very little pay).

Scrooge's attitude to business

The gentlemen reply that some people “would rather die” than go to the workhouses. Scrooge replies that they should just hurry up and die then, and “decrease the surplus population”.
He goes on to tell the men that the poor are “not my business” and that “it’s enough for a man to understand his own business, and not to interfere with other people’s”.
Scrooge dismisses the men and they leave.

Scrooge's attitude to working over Christmas

Scrooge begrudgingly allows Cratchit the day off for Christmas, but states that he must get to work earlier than usual the day after Christmas Day.
Cratchit is happy it is Christmas and runs home to play games with his family.
Scrooge is alone – he has a “melancholy dinner in his usual melancholy tavern” before reading the paper, looking over his banking book, and going home.

Attitude to Christmas

Scrooge complains that Christmas is just a time for wasting money and paying more bills – he thinks that anyone who celebrates Christmas is foolish and should be “buried with a stake of holly through his heart”.
Fred tells Scrooge that Christmas is good because it is the one time in the year when people open up their hearts to one another – it is a “kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time”.

Stave 1: Scrooge is Spooked

Dickens introduces the supernatural in the first stave.

Symbolism and pathetic fallacy

Scrooge’s home is described as being “dreary” and “old” – his life, home and personality are lifeless and lack any sort of fun or vitality.
Fog and frost hang in the air throughout the opening – this symbolises Scrooge’s lack of enjoyment in his life.
- Maybe Scrooge cannot see the enjoyment in his life because he is metaphorically trapped in the fog of his own unhappiness.

Ghostly images

Upon reaching his front door, Scrooge looks at the door knocker – it seems to take the shape of Marley’s face.
As he climbs the stairs, he sees another ghostly image: a hearse (a carriage which carries coffins) moving up the stairs next to him.
- Right from the start of the novella, Charles Dickens sows the seeds of the supernatural. He makes these ghostly images and ideas appear, which puts the readers on edge as they wonder what will happen next.

Gruel

Scrooge is rattled - he “double-locked himself in, which was not his custom”.
He sits in front of the fire and eats his meal: gruel. On Christmas Eve, Scrooge is alone, eating gruel (which was quite tasteless and cheap), in front of “a very low fire indeed” on a freezing cold night.
Dickens portrays Scrooge as a lonely man, obsessed with hoarding money and not spending it, even for his own comfort or enjoyment.

Stave 1: Marley's Ghost

Marley's ghost appears to Scrooge to warn him about how he is living his life.

Ghost's entrance

An old, disused bell suddenly starts moving and chiming loudly. Every bell in the house starts chiming as well. Then, just as suddenly, all of the bells stop.
From the cellar, Scrooge hears a clanging noise, which sounds like somebody dragging chains.
He remembers hearing stories about ghosts dragging chains but refuses to believe that these stories might be true.
He grows pale as he watches a ghost start to pass through his closed door and into the room.

Identifies ghost

Scrooge realises that the ghost wearing chains is Jacob Marley (his old, dead partner).
Marley’s ghost wears a long, heavy chain made of “cash boxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, deeds, and heavy purses wrought in steel”.

Marley's chain

Marley’s ghost says: “I wear the chain I forged in life”.
In life, he created the heavy burden (the chain) through his own actions and mistakes. This chain now weighs him down in death.
He tells Scrooge that his own chain is “ponderous” (heavy) and that he keeps doing things in his life which are making his chain longer and heavier.
He tells Scrooge that he is there to warn him and give him a chance to change his fate.
Scrooge will be haunted by three ghosts.

Hundreds of ghosts

As he talks, Marley moves back to the window. Scrooge follows and sees hundreds of ghostly figures floating around, all with heavy chains wrapped around them, all seeming to moan and groan unhappily.
Scrooge can see how these self-inflicted chains that people create in their lives seem to cause them pain and misery in death as well.
As the ghosts all fade, Scrooge goes to bed.

1Plot Summary

1.1Plot Summary

1.1.1Outline

1.1.2Introducing Scrooge & Marley

1.1.3Stave 1

1.1.4Stave 2

1.1.5Stave 3

1.1.6End of Topic Test - Staves 1-3

1.1.7Stave 4

1.1.8Stave 5

1.1.9End of Topic Test - Staves 4-5

2Key Characters & Quotes

2.1Ebenezer Scrooge

2.1.1Outline & Stave 1

2.1.2Stave 2

2.1.3Stave 3

2.1.4Stave 4

2.1.5Stave 5 & Key Quotes

2.1.6End of Topic Test - Ebeneezer Scrooge

2.2Other Characters

2.2.1Bob Cratchit

2.2.2Tiny Tim

2.2.3Fred

2.2.4The Ghosts Pt 1

2.2.5The Ghosts Pt 2

2.2.6End of Topic Test - Other Characters

2.3Grade 9 - Key Characters

2.3.1Grade 9 - Key Characters

2.3.2Grade 9 - Extract Analysis

3Key Ideas

3.1Key Ideas

3.1.1Inequality, Ignorance & Want

3.1.2Duality, Family & Love

3.1.3Christianity & Redemption

3.1.4End of Topic Test - Key Ideas

3.1.5Grade 9 - Key Themes

4Context

4.1Context

4.1.1Dickens & Victorian England

4.1.2Poverty & Victorian Christmas

4.1.3Exam-Style Questions - Poverty

4.1.4Gothic Fiction

4.1.5Gothic Fiction & Victorian England

4.1.6End of Topic Test - Context

5Authorial Method

5.1Structure & Techniques

5.1.1Structure & Time

5.1.2Time Frame & Pace

5.1.3Narrative Voice & Tone

5.1.4Settings, Similes & Metaphors

5.1.5End of Topic Test - Authorial Method

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