Stave One - A Christmas Carol

Sets the atmosphere
1. Pathetic fallacy
Scrooge = in his counting-house
1. Clerk = Bob Cratchit
2. Nephew = Fred
  1. Carol Philosophy
How Dickens engages at the start
1. "Marley was dead: to begin with
  1. Unusual statement to open novel with = need to understand he was dead before story starts
2. "as dead as a door-nail"
  1. Has to reinforce that Marley is definitely dead
3. "mind! I don't mean to say that I know"
  1. Direct address to reader
4. "dead" "deadest" "as dead as a door-nail"
  1. Repetition. Takes focus off plot = builds anticipation
5. "sole" x 6
  1. Repetition = Marley was isolated/alone = wonder why
6. "Hamlet's Father"
  1. Mentioning Hamlet suggests ACC will be a ghost story. Dickens establishes that Marley is dead before story begins = he will be a ghost
How Dickens builds tension
1. "saw in the knocker" "not a knocker, but Marley's face"
  1. First hint of Marley's Ghost
    1. "Scrooge had as little of what is called fancy about him as any man in the city of London"
      1. Must be real
2. "the sound resounded through the house like thunder"
  1. Scrooge is alone = ominous
3. "a locomotive hearse"
  1. Arrival of Ghost
4. "double-locked himself in"
  1. Paranoid, not usual habit
5. "as he looked, he saw the bell begin to swing"
  1. Alerting Scrooge / Warning him about what is about to come
6. "the cellar-door flew open with a booming sound"
  1. Someone / Something is approaching
7. "the dying flame leaped up"
  1. The fire is aware

Resource summary

	Created by hannahshields58 over 9 years ago