Key quotations to memorise from A Christmas Carol
The quotations on this page have been chosen because they are useful for methods analysis, which you need for AO2 in the exam. For each quotation we’ll offer several reasons for learning it, with some suggested analysis, though you will need to develop this analysis in your essays and revision notes. If there are other quotations which contain methods that your teacher has suggested you learn, that’s good too. These aren’t intended to replace those - they’re just intended to help you get started.
Stave 1
“decrease the surplus population"
Embedded and contextualised example: In Stave 1, Scrooge tells the charity collectors that it would be better if the poor died so that it would “decrease the surplus population".
Reasons for learning it:
It’s very short and useful for linking to the context and message of the play, with links to the methods of repetition and structure
Dickens is himself quoting Thomas Malthus here - and this has important links to the context and message of the novel - Dickens is contesting Malthusian ideas about population ethics
Dickens has the Ghost of Christmas Present repeat these words back to Scrooge in Stave 3 as part of the structure of the novel
Relevant characters and themes: Scrooge, poverty and the poor, greed and generosity, redemption
“as hard and sharp as flint ... as solitary as an oyster”
Embedded and contextualised example: In Stave 1, Dickens introduces the character of Scrooge as a man who is “as hard and sharp as flint” and “as solitary as an oyster”.
Reasons for learning it:
Two short similes which capture Scrooge’s initial characterisation and are easy to analyse
Flint simile conveys how hard he is to know and like - flint is sharp, cold, hard to hold, impossible to cuddle - also links to the motif of heat/cold in the novel (Scrooge cannot start fires, unlike flint) and connects to his being described as cold earlier in this introduction
Oyster simile conveys the idea of solitude which characterises Scrooge’s life and the life of the greedy and selfish in general - oysters are hard and sharp like flint - oysters sometimes contain pearls
Relevant characters and themes: Scrooge, poverty and the poor, greed and generosity, redemption
“he was all in a glow … his eyes sparkled, and his breath smoked”
Embedded and contextualised example: When Fred visits Scrooge in his office in Stave 1, he arrives “all in a glow” with “his eyes sparkl[ing] and his breath smok[ing].”
Reasons for learning it:
It uses one of the key motifs in the play - heat/light (contrasted with cold/dark)
It establishes Fred as a foil character for Scrooge - he is all warmth compared to Scrooge, who was vividly described as cold.
The heat (smoke) and light (sparkle) seem to come from inside Fred, from his core, his soul - he is goodness personified
Relevant characters and themes: Fred, family, greed and generosity, Christmas and tradition
“open their shut-up hearts freely ... people below them …. fellow-passengers to the grave”
Embedded and contextualised example: Early in Stave 1, Fred praises Christmas and tells Scrooge that it is the one time in the year that people “open their shut-up hearts freely” and see “people below them” (the poor) as “fellow-passengers to the grave”.
Reasons for learning it:
It captures the core attitude that Dickens wants his readers to develop
There is a metaphor of hearts being “shut-up” (like Scrooge) but then opened - plus the adverb “freely” - it is a choice
There is the metaphor of the poor being “below” the rich - links to social class hierarchies - this is exactly the attitude Dickens wants to fight
There is the railway imagery (very Industrial Revolution) of the poor and rich all being on the same train heading towards death (linking with the ideas from Stave 4 of the novel)
Relevant characters and themes: Fred, family, poverty and the poor, redemption, greed and generosity, Christmas and tradition
“I wear the chain I forged in life”
Embedded and contextualised example: When Scrooge asks Marley’s ghost about the chains he is wearing, he tells him: “I wear the chain I forged in life.”
Reasons for learning it:
It’s short and essay to memorise
Repetition of the pronoun “I” is used to emphasise personal responsibility - used throughout this bit of direct speech
Chains as symbolic of the sins that a person commits in life - evocative of prisons - links to contextual ideas about debtors prisons - idea of selfishness as a moral crime
Relevant characters and themes: Scrooge, Marley’s ghost, family, poverty and the poor, redemption, greed and generosity, the supernatural
“Mankind was my business ... a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!”
Embedded and contextualised example: When Scrooge tells Marley’s ghost that he was a successful businessman at the end of Stave 1, the ghost replies that “mankind was [his] business” and that work was merely “a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of [his] business!”
Reasons for learning it:
Use of language from the semantic field of work to describe morality - dual meanings of the noun ‘business’ (work vs things one should be concerned with) - links to Dickens broader message of virtue being more important than money
Metaphor of the drop of water in the ocean - shows the insignificance of money, drop vs ocean - meaningless
Exclamation mark at the end conveys the passion with which Marley conveys this idea - he really means it
Relevant characters and themes: Scrooge, Marley’s ghost, family, poverty and the poor, redemption, greed and generosity, the supernatural
Stave 2
“A solitary child, neglected by his friends… Scrooge said he knew it. And he sobbed.”
Embedded and contextualised example: When the Ghost of Christmas Past shows Scrooge his childhood self, “a solitary child, neglected by his friends”, Scrooge is shaken. “He said he knew it,” Dickens tells us. “And he sobbed.”
Reasons for learning it:
Repetition of the adjective “solitary” from Stave 1 - the idea that Scrooge’s solitary adult lifestyle may have its roots in his solitary childhood
Use of two short sentences in a short paragraph (“Scrooge said he knew it. And he sobbed.”) - emphasises each of these moments, gives each one a bit of room to breath - first Scrooge’s first moment of real recognition - then his first moment of real emotion - the cold, heartless man from Stave 1 has been broken already, such is the power of the visions he is seeing
Relevant characters and themes: Scrooge, family, redemption, loneliness and isolation
“She left him, and they parted.”
Embedded and contextualised example: After the break-up with Belle, Dickens describes the parting with young Scrooge very succinctly: “She left him, and they parted.”
Reasons for learning it:
It’s short and easy to memorise
Short paragraph with two very short clauses in a single compound sentence - the parting is abrupt and uncontested - she leaves and that is that - there is no sense that young Scrooge felt any great pain here (though old Scrooge does, in retrospect) - shows how far into coldness he had already fallen - at this time, it was just over - she left him and it was done - he moved on, though now old Scrooge regrets it
Relevant characters and themes: Scrooge, redemption, greed and generosity, loneliness and isolation
Stave 3
“Oh God! to hear the Insect on the leaf pronouncing on the too much life among his hungry brothers in the dust!”
Embedded and contextualised example: When Scrooge is told that Tiny Tim will die if things do not change, Scrooge is overcome with grief, and the Ghost of Christmas Present conveys his (and Dickens’) condemnation of Malthusian attitudes to the poor: “Oh God!” he says, having repeated Scrooge’s words from Stave 1 back to him. “To hear the Insect on the leaf pronouncing on the too much life among his hungry brothers in the dust!”
Reasons for learning it:
It’s a really juicy metaphor with lots of opportunities to zoom in - perfect for a quotation explosion
Two exclamation marks and the interjection “Oh God” - conveys the Spirit’s disgust, but also Dickens’ disgust at this kind of attitude
Metaphor - conveys the way Dickens sees the attitude of the rich to the poor, composed of various parts:
Insect imagery - dehumanising and lowering - we are all just insects, struggling to survive, rich and poor alike - we are not so different
Verb “pronouncing” - conveys the sense of superiority the rich have, their arrogance and pomposity as they look down on the poor
Noun phrase “hungry brothers” - further reinforces the sense of solidarity that the rich should (but don’t have for the poor) - “brothers” has Christian connotations, with links to ideas about the brotherhood of man
Dust imagery - conveys the life of the urban poor, the literal dirt and grime of Victorian industrial cities, but also evocative of the funeral service of the Book of Common Prayer (“Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust”) - a reminder that we all begin and end our lives just the same
Relevant characters and themes: Scrooge, The Cratchits, family, poverty and the poor, redemption, greed and generosity
“while there is infection in disease and sorrow, there is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good-humour.”
Embedded and contextualised example: In Stave 3, Dickens takes several sentences to describe Fred’s laugh, and the wonder of it, concluding that “while there is infection in disease and sorrow, there is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good-humour.”
Reasons for learning it:
The metaphor of laughter as disease is rich and very easy to analyse - laughter, like disease, spreads by itself, whether people want it to or not, laughter is unstoppable, etc
Juxtaposition between the good and bad in life (laughter vs. disease)
Implied connection between disease and sorrow - being miserable, like Scrooge (and many real people) is also a kind of disease
This quotation foreshadows Scrooge’s own laughter in Stave 5
Relevant characters and themes: Scrooge, Fred, family, redemption, greed and generosity
“Yellow, meagre, ragged, scowling, wolfish”
Embedded and contextualised example: Just before the Ghost of Christmas Present leaves, Scrooge meets Ignorance and Want, two horrible-looking children who are “yellow, meagre, ragged, scowling, wolfish.”
Reasons for learning it:
Use of an asyndetic list of adjectives - conveys the idea that these are just some of the things the children could be described as - the list could go on
Each adjective could be analysed in its own right: "yellow” = malnourished; “meagre” = small, undeveloped, insignificant to society; “ragged” = poorly clothed, cold, badly looked after; “scowling” = unhappy, angry, will go on to be poor citizens; “wolfish” = inhuman; treated like animals so becoming them.
The fact they are children is important to the novel too - innocent, blameless, yet suffering
Relevant characters and themes: Scrooge, family, poverty and the poor, redemption, greed and generosity, the supernatural
Stave 4
“slowly, gravely, silently”
Embedded and contextualised example: When the Ghost of Christmas Future first enters in Stave 4, he is said to do so “slowly, gravely, silently.”
Reasons for learning it:
Easy to learn
Triad of adverbs which are each symbolic of the future itself, which the ghost is a symbol of - the future approaches us slowly, it is scary - evocative of death - and we don’t see (or hear) it coming - it is stealthy and unknowable
Relevant characters and themes: Scrooge, redemption, the supernatural
“plundered and bereft, unwatched, unwept, uncared for”
Embedded and contextualised example: When Scrooge sees the body of the dead man (himself, as it turns out), the body is said to be “plundered and bereft, unwatched, unwept, uncared for”.
Reasons for learning it:
A list of adjectives, each of which can be zoomed into for further analysis: “plundered” = greedy people are treated in death as they behaved in life; “bereft” = we lose everything when we die'; “unwatched” = nobody to mourn; “unwept” = nobody is sad; “uncared for” = nobody to look after the body or the things it has left behind
Triad of compound adjectives with prefix un-: emphasises what the body (and the person it once was) doesn’t have - this is all about loss
Relevant characters and themes: Scrooge, family, poverty and the poor, redemption, greed and generosity, the supernatural
“Quiet. Very quiet.”
Embedded and contextualised example: When Scrooge revisits the Cratchits in Stave 4, after the death of Tiny Tim, the house is “quiet. Very quiet.”
Reasons for learning it:
Very short and easy to learn
Structural echo of the first visit to the Cratchits - emphasises the difference the death of Tiny Tim has had
Repetition of adjective “quiet” - emphasis of the fact the life has gone out of the household
Two short, minor sentences - creates a sense of certainty and definitiveness - there is nothing else to say - no words to express the mournful atmosphere in the house
Relevant characters and themes: The Cratchits, family, poverty and the poor, greed and generosity
“I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future”
Embedded and contextualised example: Before the Ghost of Christmas Future leaves, Scrooge vows to change, claiming he will “live in the Past, the Present, and the Future” from now on.
Reasons for learning it:
It’s one of the key messages of the entire novel
You can analyse the symbolism of the three proper nouns in the triad: the Past, the Present and the Future as represented by the lessons of the three spirits
You can analyse the modal verb “will” in terms of its certainty
Relevant characters and themes: Scrooge, redemption, greed and generosity, the supernatural
Stave 5
“The father of a long, long line of brilliant laughs!”
Embedded and contextualised example: When Scrooge wakes up in Stave 5, he is so overcome by joy that he laughs for the first time in a long time, a laugh which will be “the father of a long, long line of brilliant laughs!”
Reasons for learning it:
Repetition of the adjective “long” - emphasising the fact Scrooge’s redemption is forever, and will not be short-lived
The metaphor of family - links with the broader theme of family as a means to happiness - laughter is linked with children and family in general (something Scrooge does not have)
Adjective “brilliant” links to the motif of light (this is the literal meaning of the word - very bright)
Foreshadows the idea of Scrooge becoming a “second father” to Tiny Tim
Easy to memorise
Relevant characters and themes: Scrooge, family, poverty and the poor, redemption, greed and generosity, Christmas and tradition
“a second father”
Embedded and contextualised example: In the end, Scrooge is said to have become “a second father” to Tiny Tim, who does not die.
Reasons for learning it:
Very easy to memorise
Metaphor of family - links to one of the key themes in the novel - family doesn’t have to be blood - family helps sustain life
Relevant characters and themes: Scrooge, family, poverty and the poor, redemption, greed and generosity, Christmas and tradition