Key Quotes

He was solitary as an oyster

Arguably, this is the most famous quote from A Christmas Carol. The image of the oyster is almost perfect for Scrooge at this stage in the book. Like an oyster, he keeps himself to himself, hidden beneath a hard shell that he uses to protect himself from the world. However, inside that shell - like Scrooge - the oyster is soft and vulnerable. Also, and most tellingly, given time an oyster produces one of natures greatest changes - that of creating pearls out of sand. Scrooge, like an oyster, has great potential and Dickens reminds us of this during the opening of the book.

He was as hard and sharp as flint.

Scrooge is tough, there's no two ways around it. He's hard - and a life spent alone will certainly make you that - but hard things are also unbending, stubborn and become easily stuck in a single purpose. He isn't flexible or capable of change - he's rigid. The sharpness also suggests that he's dangerous and can hurt you if you get too close, or handle him without care. But someone who is sharp is also smart - quick witted and intelligent - and this is something Scrooge clearly is as well. Flint is an interesting comparison: it's a rock - which is cold and tough - but it was also quite useful to ancient societies who used it to make hunting weapons. Again, it is a reference to Scrooge being dangerous if he's not dealt with very carefully.

External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge.

Throughout this opening description, Scrooge is often described by comparing him to weather - temperature is the most common; he is cold. Here, though, Dickens writes that "external" heat and cold had little influence on him, and although this is probably true literally (he doesn't really heat his office or his house) it is also true figuratively. Other people's behaviour - be they warm or cold - has no effect on him. You can be nice to him and he won't care, or you can be horrible and, again, he won't care. This image both continues the theme of temperature and emotional states, and highlights how solitary Scrooge is.

“Bah humbug!”

This most famous of Scrooge's lines is often misunderstood. These days a humbug is more commonly known as a sweet, but back then if something was "humbug" it was a trick - something that behaves in a deceptive way. Suddenly, this quote becomes quite insightful. Scrooge is arguing that Christmas is a trick - something designed to make people feel in a way that isn't true. When this is brought next to the Portly Gentlemen, for example, his meaning becomes clear: the two men clearly don't really want to help the poor - hence their being so portly - but Christmas has tricked them into behaving in ways that are unnatural for them. Scrooge isn't going to fall for that, and continues to act selfishly and irresponsibly regardless of the season!

I don't make merry myself at Christmas and I can't afford to make idle people merry.

Here, Scrooge makes two things very clear: he doesn't like Christmas, and so he doesn't see why he should pay for other people to enjoy it. Crucially, this shows that Scrooge isn't a skinflint because he hoards his wealth to use for his own pleasure - since he doesn't enjoy anything - and that he sees a direct correlation between material expense and happiness. He sees everything in material terms: there is an expense to making merry that he "can't afford." Also, his use of the adjective "idle" highlights Scrooge's deep capitalist leanings: if they haven't the money to afford it themselves, then they must be lazy. The idea that poverty breeds poverty has never occurred to him.

“Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?”

Here, Scrooge is suggesting that the poor should simpy use the workhouses and prisons that are setup for them if they can't afford food. On one level, this reveals just how selfish and unreasonable he is: the workhouses were horrendous places to be, and a prison sentence (for stealing a loaf of bread to feed a starving family, for example) could see you deported to Australia forever. However, there is a defence here: Scrooge pays for the prisons and workhouses out of his taxes. In effect, he contributes to the government and supports their policy on how to deal with poverty; his attitude is that, beyond that, the poor aren't his problem. In a lot of ways, this isn't unreasonable. The problem here isn't that Scrooge isn't contributing directly to the poor, but that the government's solutions were just so unreasonable.

"What right have you to be dismal? You're rich enough." / “What reason have you to be merry? You’re poor enough.”

In this brief exchange between Fred and Scrooge we can see just how different their perceptions of the relationship between happiness and poverty was. Scrooge can't see how anyone can be happy unless they're rich enough (and Fred was reasonably wealthy, remember) while Fred can't see how someone with all Scrooge's wealth can be dismal. The reason, it seems clear to Fred, is that Scrooge's wealth is not making him happy, and Fred - as he reveals in Stave 3 - "pities" him for it.

The poor should die if they want to, as it would "decrease the surplus population."

The most ruthless of all Scrooge's sayings. Here, he says that poor people who don't want to go to the workhouses should just hurry up and died. He is referencing a famous essay by Thomas Malthus, who argued that at some point there would simply be too many people for society to support and that there was a "surplus" (an excess) of population. Again, Scrooge is being very harsh here, but I can't help but wonder whether there weren't people in the audience who looked at the poverty around them and secretly agreed with what Scrooge said.

If that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death.

Here, Jacob Marley confirms Dickens's fictional theory for what happens after death: if we do not travel amongst people during life, we are condemned to do so once we've died. Neither Marley nor Dickens elabourate on who actually "condemns" us, but the idea is simple: Dickens believed that humans were deeply social creatures, as though socialising was as important to us as food or water, and that if we didn't share our experience then something within us died. At the heart of this book is Dickens's encouragement that we all share our world, and that we'll enjoy ourselves much more if we do.

I wear the chain I forged in life.

This is quite crucial: Marley wears the chain he made. No-one forced him to be who he was, he did it to himself. The verb "forged" for example refers to something crafted, intentionally. He "chained" himself during life - he actually worked hard to create the chain that now imprisons him. This is a really key thing when looking at Dickens's version of life after death. In the book, Marley is physically trapped by the things he allowed to take over his life. Scrooge is going to be in the same boat: he chained himself with money during this life, and his exitence after death will be marked in the same way.

Scrooge wept to see his poor forgotten self as he had used to be.

This quote comes from the moment in the book when Scrooge sees himself, sitting in the corner of his old school room, all alone. There are two really crucial things about this quote: the first is that this is one of the first times in the book when Scrooge shows real emotion - the walls of his cage are beginning to come down. BUT - he first feels emotion for himself, which begs a question that's quite crucial for us all: did Scrooge first feel sympathy for himself because he's innately selfish and learns to feel for others only by learning to feel for himself; or does he feel this way because before we can learn to love others, we all have to learn to love ourselves? The other interesting thing about the line is that he is described as "poor" and "forgotten." These two features are crucial because you get the feeling that they somehow represent everything Scrooge fears - poverty and ignominy (which is being forgotten.) Scrooge is afraid of being poor and forgotten. By the end of the book, he's managed to avoid being poor ever again, but when he sees the final ghost he is forced to face the fact that he will be forgotten and his grave will be "neglected."

The happiness he gives is quite as great as if it had cost a fortune

Here, Scrooge is describing Fezziwig's party, which didn't cost a lot of money by any standards, but it did bring an awful lot of joy. This is the first time Scrooge realises that there is not a direct corrolation between financial cost and pleasure - and that, just maybe, he can afford to make both himself and other people merry at Christmas.

I should like to be able to say a word or two to my clerk just now

After re-living the fun that was had at Fezziwig's, Scrooge reflects that he would like to speak to Bob Cratchit, and perhaps even do something similar for him. The use of "able" here is interesting though, because at the time he speaks he is remembering his past and so he isn't able to change any of the things he is seeing, but he is - or he will be - able to speak to Bob next time he sees him. This simple word reminds us of thed difference between the things we are able to change, and the things we are not. This, surely, is central to Scrooge's eventual lesson.

“You fear the world too much,” she answered gently.

Belle claims that Scrooge "fears" the world "too much." Here, she accepts that there are things to fear in the world - though fear is a strong word to use in any circumstance. But she accepts that there are things to fear, but he fears "too much." His terror of poverty is turning him into a monster, and she advises him against it. Tellingly, however, like so many of the characters in the book, she does it with good grace and patience. She doesn't rage at him, or scream or shout, she defeats his selfishness with compassion and speaks to him "gently" - almost like a patient parent talking to a wayward child.

“I have seen your nobler aspirations fall off one by one, until the master passion, Gain, engrosses you.”

Belle's statement is interesting as the Scrooge we met in Stave One didn't seem like the kind of person who'd ever had "noble aspirations." Noble being something that deserves respect, and aspirations being dreams - Scrooge from the opening, didn't aspire to anything worthy of respect. This is an important revelation for the audience as it shows that Scrooge wasn't always bad, and if he's capable of changing one way, he can definitely change back the other!

Tiny Tim is as "good as gold - and better"

One of the best lines in the book to show that people are more important than profit. Tiny Tim is as "good as gold" - a phrase that's now become a idiom for describing a nice child. But here, the language is definitely loaded with references to Scrooge's understanding of gold - real gold. Bob s saying that the happiness Tim brings, the real value of people like Tim, is even more important than gold - he's better than gold, because he's a good person.

dressed out but poorly in a twice-turned gown, but brave in ribbons

This lovely description of Mrs Cratchit reminds us both how poor she is - the gown being "twice-turned" means it has been hemmed twice just to keep it together - but it also shows how she feels about it when it says she's "brave in ribbons." In short, Mrs Cratchit is wearing a rubbish dress - frayed and falling apart - but she's going to draw attention to herself anyway by adding ribbons to show it off. This isn't someone who's shrinking into poverty, this is a woman who is proud of herself no matter how poor she is!

I'll give you Mr Scrooge, the Founder of the Feast!

In one of the classic moments of compassion from the book, Bob insists on toasting his miserly boss. On one level this shows that Bob cares for Scrooge, despite him being a skinflint. But the quote also reminds us of something else: Bob does work for Scrooge; Bob's job only exists because Scrooge has built the business, and although Bob isn't wealthy he's much better off than a lot of the Victorian poor. He has a house, and even a goose for Christmas. It's true that Scrooge isn't kind or charitable, but there is a powerful school of thought which argues that people like Scrooge create jobs and create wealth for others, and, in this respect, without him the Cratchits wouldn't have enjoyed any food for Christmas dinner.

This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom.

This quote from the Ghost of Christmas Present comes as he reveals the two children who have come to him, appealing for his help. With the names of the two children, Dickens highlights what he feels are the two biggest ills in society - Ignorance of the problem, and the fact that so many children were in Need of even the most basic neccessities. But here, the spirit doesn't just say that the children are poor and need help, he turns their presence into an almost apocalyptic warning. The writing on the boy's brow is a clear reference to the Biblical Revelations when a number of characters have things written on their bodies. Also the strange syntax in the phrase "I see written that which is Doom" echoes the writing of Revelations in the King James Bible. Regardless of that though, Dickens is definitely saying that unless Ignorance is erased - unless people wake up to, and understand what is happening around them - then humanity will be doomed.

"Have they no refuge or resource?" cried Scrooge.

Here, Scrooge questions where the poor children can go to for help. He recognises that they are young and incapable of defending themselves and for the first time he realises that prisons and workhouses might not be the solutions they present themselves as. I can't help but wonder whether, if Scrooge's change really was as significant as the book makes it out to be, he didn't spend most of the new year in Parliament making the kind of legislative changes that would have really made a difference to the poor. In fact, an interesting sequal to the book might even see Scrooge bankrole Fred's move into Parliament, as he suggested back in Stave 1.

“I mean to give him the same chance every year, for I pity him.”

Here, Fred embodies Dickens's belief that families should always be there for each other. Fred insists that he will give Scrooge the same "chance" - the change of redemption - every year. Scrooge can rant and rave all he likes, but Fred will be there, with open arms, offering him the chance to save himself. Also, however, crucially, Fred says he'll do this because he feels "pity" for Scrooge. This is quite wild when you think about it. Fred is actually feeling sorry for the richest, most selfish person in the book; a man so selfish his name has come to mean horrible and selfish. But Dickens wanted to make something very clear: he didn't believe that people like Scrooge were evil, he believed that they were just misguided or reacting badly to being hurt. This brings up a really important question for us all: do bad people behave badly because they're 'evil' or because they're damaged? This question is so important for anyone who wants to actually fix the problems in society, rather than just sitting there complaining about them. Do people who behave badly need to be punished or supported?

Lead on! Time is precious to me.

When the first ghost arrives, Scrooge has his bed curtains pulled aside for him. For the second ghost, Scrooge pulls them aside himself. Now, withh the third ghost, Scrooge demands that the ghost take him on his journey. "Lead on!" he says, using a simple imperative. But, most importantly, he recognises that time is precious. He's realised the most important thing: there is no amount of money you can lose that you can't get back, but once time has gone it is gone forever. Scrooge's value system has changed and with that his entire personality has been made anew - born again, you could say.

It’s likely to be a very cheap funeral

The two bankers are discussing the death of someone during the opening of Stave 4, and although we know it's Scrooge, Scrooge himself refuses to see the fact. Here, they mention that it is likely to be a very "cheap" funeral, obviously a dig at the fact that despite Scrooge's wealth no-one feels the need to remember him with anything lavish. It's interesting to link this back to the fact that Stave One tells us that Scrooge actually likes darkness "because it is cheap." Scrooge likes cheap things, because they're cheap. I think there's also something telling in the fact that Scrooge didn't organise his own funeral - he could have spent his entire fortune on it if he wanted (he had no-one else to leave it to, after all) but he didn't. Arguably, this is because he never really faced up to the fact that he would die, and that this is why he didn't celebate his life more passionately, but also - arguably - Scrooge just doesn't like that kind of stuff. There is a case for saying that the Scrooge we met at the beginning of the book would have wanted a cheap funeral, and in fact I can imagine that even the newly reborn Scrooge from Stave Five would have been happier donating his money to a charity rather than spending it on an expensive coffin for him to rot in. But that's just the kinda guy I think Scrooge was...

It was a happier house for this man’s death

This line comes from the end of the book, where two people who were indebted to Scrooge reluctantly celebrate his passing away. The "house" is often used as a symbol in A Christmas Carol. Scrooge's house played hide and seek when it was little and at the beginning of the book it's been lost (a little like Scrooge.) Fred's house is the home of their Christmas, and his inviting Scrooge to join him is a symbol of him inviting Scrooge into his home, into the bosom of his family. The Cratchits come together at Christmas at their house, etc... In many ways, the house represents the family. Here, the house, and the people inside it, are happier for Scrooge's death.

I hope to live to be a better man from what I was.

Scrooge hasn't chagned yet, but he's taken the most important first step: he hopes to be a better man. This humility is not something we would have seen from Scrooge in Stave One, who was set in his ways and incapable of showing anything like insecurity. The old Scrooge wouldn't have tried anything he didn't already know he was good at, this one can have "hopes" because hopes are, by definition, things you think might not happen, but might happen. Until we can accept that we might fail at something, we can't achieve anything new and we don't have the right to hope or dream of anything. At this point Scrooge may be hoping to become a better man than he once was, but he's already showing himself to be a braver one.

Upon the stone of the neglected grave… EBENEZER SCROOGE

Scrooge sees his own neglected grave and the horrific reality of who he has become finally hits home. Though it's never really explored in any depth, Scrooge strikes me as the kind of person who really thinks he's got life mastered, while everyone else has missed the point of it. I can almost imagine that somwhere in his head he imagines that one day the rest of the world will all say - Ohhhhh, Scrooge was right all along! But the truth that he wasn't right. He was wrong. And the fact that he was born and died and no-one remembered him was, for Dickens, proof of the fact. This quote is also crucial as it links so directly to when Scrooge first sees himself in the school room, where he was a "neglected" child. Scrooge was raised as a neglected child, and, as a result, he neglects the world; and as a result of that he becomes a neglected man and his grave is, in turn, neglected. In this version of his life, Scrooge never broke the pattern of behaviour. However, if he can leave behind his past, break the cycle and stop ignoring the world then there is every chance he can avoid becoming that which he most fears.

I will honour Christmas in my heart, and keep it all the year.

Scrooge has decided to keep Christmas all year... but I don't think he means he'll be draping holly and ivy over his door during July, because for Scrooge - and for the book in general - Christmas is not a moment in the calendar, it's a set of Christian ideals: kindness, forgiveness, compassion, charity and joy. These are the things that Scrooge will honour, respect and venerate. And good for him!

I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a schoolboy.

There are three consecutive similes here, and each one relates to something specific in the book: his being light is a clear reference to the chain he feels that he is no longer wearing. Also, he is no longer the "covetous old sinner" that he was in Stave One and is now an angel of happiness (this one is interesting as it draws a clear correlation between being happy and being good. Dickens felt that if you were good you wouldn't be happier, and the simile here highlights that.) And he is merry as a school boy. This is a little more challenging as Scrooge clearly wasn't always happy when he was at school! Really, though, this image is more about the joy that Dickens saw in the playfulness of youth, really this is like Scrooge saying he has become young again, which leads on to...

I’m quite a baby. Never mind. I’d rather be a baby.

This is the quintessential (which means perfect) image of Scrooge as having been born again. In many ways the book is really a coming of age story, told backwards. Scrooge starts as an embittered old man, and becomes filled with the wonder of youth by the end. He unlearns what he's learnt during his life and as he becomes more innocent as he becomes saved. It harks back to that line when he breaks up with Belle and claims that he's "grown wiser" as he grew more selfish, but now - at the end - he has decided that he'd rather not have that kind of wisdom, and he'd rather be a baby. He'd be happier like that.

To Tiny Tim, who did not die, he was a second father.

Scrooge starts the book without much of a family - he rejects Fred (and possibly Belle before him,) because he was so painfully rejected by his own father. But, by the end he visits Fred and reconnects with his own family that way, and - most importantly - he becomes a "second father" to Tiny Tim. This is crucial: on one level, he's now ready to have a child himself, which means taking responsibility for someone else; and on another level, Scrooge is taking care of someone not of his bloodline. Because for Dickens, family wasn't just about the people you were related to, he saw families as being communities or social groups; he saw how families merged through marriage; and, most importantly, he saw how we were all connected to each other through our shared humanity. And this, for Dickens, was the most important family of all. It's also telling that Scrooge's new son is the weakest member of the cast - a disabled boy from a poor background, whose nickname reminds us how small he is. By taking Tiny Tim under his wing, Scrooge is symbolically adopting everyone.

“And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One!”

This final line of the novel seems deceptively simple and, as such, difficult to analyse. But the crucial thing here - and a great way to finish any essay - is to focus on the fact that Dickens here is talking about "Every One" - the capitals (which are wrong) are used by Dickens to turn the words into a proper noun, which helps to add emphasis sometimes.

So here, Dickens is talking about absolutely "Every One": poor Tiny Tim, who was so badly weakened by a misfortune of birth; Fred, without whose charitable drive Scrooge would never have turned; Belle whose compassionate dumping allowed Scrooge to reflect on who he was; Fezziwig, whose parties added many a smile on Christmas; even Mrs Dilber, who stole Scrooge's curtains and tried to sell them on for profit.

But, perhaps most importantly, Dickens reminds us that God blesses Every One - and that includes Scrooge, that selfish, grumpy old miser; that "squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner." Yes, the message of Dickens's book is that even Scrooge deserves God's blessings, and if he gets them it might just do him - and everyone else - a whole world of good!

The description of the Ghost of Christmas Past

The Ghost of Christmas Past is an interesting vision – it changes shape and size, it has many arms and then a few, it seems distant and close, old and young – in fact it seems riddled with contradictory images. In many ways the vision works like memory can do: it changes depending on perspectives or moods. It's also interesting that the ghost is described as having strong arms and hands "as if its hold were of uncommon strength." This is a great description of the ghost as a memory, because memories - as Scrooge is about to learn - can exert an uncommonly powerful hold over us.

Visually, the ghost appears as a candle - the shot of light from its head, while its outfit is a square of white cloth (it even wanders around holding a candle snuffer that looks like a hat.) Seeing it as a candle also helps its role as representing memories as phrases like “holding a candle” for someone mean to remember them, while candles are used in churches to remember those who've passed on.

Also, Scrooge finishes the stave by putting out the candle, which shows him symbolically putting down his past – leaving behind the resentment he has harboured at having lost his childhood to neglect. In this way, like a patient completing therapy, he has faced his past, but can now move on.

Alongside this, however, you could argue that this creature, who appears to be both young and old, is an image of Jesus – who was a baby at Christmas and yet who, as the son of God, represents the divine wisdom that Christians worship. The most clearly religious image though is how it wears a “tunic of purest white,” as though it is a pure, innocent Angel sent to guide him.

The description of the Ghost of Christmas Present

The Ghost of Christmas Present greets Scrooge from on top of a pile of luxurious Christmas fare. It is really in this Stave that Dickens brings to life the Christmas that we all know and love today: the food, the presents, the games, the snow, and good feeling, the parties and generosity. Gone are the puritanical values that banned Christmas, and, also, to a large degree, gone as well are the memories of Christmas as a serious and religious celebration of the birth of Christ. Christmas is now a time for family, friends and feeling good.

The ghost is dressed in green – reminiscent both of the Green Man from Pagan mythology, and also the traditional character of St Nicholas or Father Christmas, who has more recently come to symbolise the holiday period.

He greets Scrooge with a drink that makes him feel good: the milk of human kindness – though one could be forgiven for seeing an alcoholic connection – and then takes him on a tour of Christmases around the country. Here, we get the image of a country that is united during this time of year; a place where Christmas and Britishness are inextricably linked, which would have been incredibly popular for a Victorian audience who were in the throws of empire building.

The description of the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come

The final ghost appears as a phantom – a “spectre” dressed in black: clearly an image of The Grim Reaper himself. The final ghost is by far the most scary of the three – it remains silent throughout their time together, only standing by as a guide, and leaving Scrooge – and the reader – to work out the story himself. The silent, enigmatic nature of the final spirit is perhaps an interesting commentary on the nature of death itself: death is there, looming over us all, and yet it keeps its secrets to itself, and even now - with all that modern technology has to offer us - death holds its mysteries.

One interesting feature of this stave relates to the fact that two people die in it: Scrooge and Tiny Tim: the richest and the poorest people in the book. This reminds us of Fred’s line during the beginning of the book – a phrase that Dickens later called “The Carol Philosophy”: “It is only during Christmas that we open our shut up hearts and think of each other as being fellow passengers to the grave and not other beings on some other journey.” During this section, Scrooge is reminded that we all die in the end, it is the only sure thing in life, and that all we have to work with is the short time that we have down here. Towards the end of the book, Scrooge has clearly learnt that fact and decides to spend his remaining days sharing his time, his wealth, and enjoying the fruits of his fellow men.

Often, in an essay, it is good to get quotes from across the book that link to each other. Below are some examples:

Stave Two: A solitary child, neglected by his friends, is left there still

Stave One: solitary as an oyster

Stave Five: neglected gravestone

Scrooge was left alone over Christmas, where he was solitary. Dickens uses the word to describe Scrooge at school but also in his iconic "solitary as an oyster" line. In this way, you could use an analysis of this word to show how Scrooge learnt to live in isolation as a child and then grew into it as he got older. Also, the fact that Scrooge was "neglected" as a child and is then put to rest in a "neglected" grave shows how, without change, Scrooge will be reliving his childhood trauma for all eternity.

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I can't afford to make idle people merry.

The happiness he gives is quite as great as if it had cost a fortune

During Stave One, Scrooge argues that he can't afford to make people merry. However, upon remembering his time with Fezziwig he remembers that it doesn't cost much to make people happy - and that the happiness you can give is as "great" as if it had cost a fortune. Arguably, here, Scrooge is seeing that all kinds of benefits can come from being a little more generous. Is, in fact, money spent on good times money well invested?

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Scrooge's attitudes towards the ghosts changes...

Scrooge’s changing attitude is never better highlighted than in his initial responses to the three ghosts.

Past: "The curtains of his bed were drawn aside, I tell you, by a hand"

Present: "He put them every one aside with his own hand"

Future: "Lead on! Time is precious to me"

When the Ghost of Christmas Past arrives, the “curtains of his bed were drawn aside… by a hand.” Here, it is clear that it is the ghost who makes the move – the ghost actively moves his curtains aside.

For the second ghost, Scrooge affects the change, pulling the curtains aside “with his own hand.” By this stage, Scrooge has already begun to see the error of his ways and has realised that he will benefit from the messages he is receiving and so he begins to take agency over the situation.

By the time he reaches the third ghost – The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come – he orders the ghost, using the imperative phrase “Lead on!” He is in control now, and wants the change desperately enough to be forceful about it. He also argues that “Time is precious to me.” This is most telling of all: whereas the old Scrooge saw little of value beyond his money hole, now he sees the truth that Time itself is “precious;” and it is, in fact, the most precious thing we have.