English resources/A Christmas Carol/Stave One
Stave One
Scrooge is mean to everyone at Christmas. That night the ghost of his dead partner Marley visits. It warns him three spirits are coming.
This stave in five words
Marley'sghostwarnsmeanScrooge
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The quotes
13 big quotes in this stave.
Marley was dead: to begin with.
Narrator · Stave One · the supernatural
The first line. Dickens wants you sure of this, so the ghost later is a real shock.
Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grind-stone, Scrooge!
Narrator · Stave One · greed · isolation
Scrooge holds on to money hard. He grinds people down.
Hard and sharp as flint
Narrator · Stave One · isolation · greed
Flint is a cold stone. It can make a spark, but Scrooge never lets one out.
solitary as an oyster
Narrator · Stave One · isolation
Shut tight. Alone. But an oyster can hold a pearl. Dickens leaves that hope in.
Bah!" said Scrooge, "Humbug!"
Scrooge · Stave One · christmas · isolation
Humbug means nonsense. Scrooge thinks Christmas is nonsense.
If I could work my will
Scrooge · Stave One · christmas · greed
If he had his way, every fool who says merry Christmas would be boiled with his own pudding.
Are there no prisons?
Scrooge · Stave One · poverty · responsibility
Two men ask him for money for the poor. He asks if the prisons are still open. That is his answer.
If they would rather die," said Scrooge, "they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.
Scrooge · Stave One · poverty · responsibility · greed
Let the poor die. There are too many people anyway. The worst thing he says.
I wear the chain I forged in life
Marley · Stave One · greed · the supernatural · responsibility
Marley made his own chain. Every greedy thing he did is a link in it.
Mankind was my business.
Marley · Stave One · responsibility · redemption
Scrooge says Marley was a good man of business. Marley says people were his real business. He forgot.
I am here to-night to warn you, that you have yet a chance and hope of escaping my fate
Marley · Stave One · redemption · the supernatural
Marley comes to give Scrooge a way out. Three spirits will come.
There's more of gravy than of grave about you
Scrooge · Stave One · the supernatural
Scrooge jokes that the ghost is just bad food. He is scared and pretending not to be.
The air was filled with phantoms, wandering hither and thither in restless haste, and moaning as they went
Narrator · Stave One · the supernatural · responsibility
Scrooge sees hundreds of ghosts in chains. They want to help the poor but cannot. It is too late for them.
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