He always knew where the plump sister was. At last the dishes were set on, and grace was said. M.A. Scrooges nieces sisters, and all the other ladies, expressed the same opinion. Hurrah! The Barnacles were a very high family, and a very large family. Scrooge is saddened to hear this. Stop! Admit it for your factious purposes, and make it worse! Scrooge looked about him for the Ghost, and saw it not. And how did little Tim behave? asked Mrs. Cratchit, when she had rallied Bob on his credulity, and Bob had hugged his daughter to his hearts content. Here, the flickering of the blaze showed preparations for a cosy dinner, with hot plates baking through and through before the fire, and deep red curtains, ready to be drawn to shut out cold and darkness. God love it, so it was! The Importance of Being Earnest: Act I, 61. Scrooge, Marley's business partner, signed the register of his burial. There are some upon this earth of yours, returned the Spirit, who lay claim to know us, and who do their deeds of passion, pride, ill-will, hatred, envy, bigotry, and selfishness in our name, who are as strange to us and all out kith and kin, as if they had never lived. It was a remarkable quality of the Ghost (which Scrooge had observed at the bakers), that notwithstanding his gigantic size, he could accommodate himself to any place with ease; and that he stood beneath a low roof quite as gracefully and like a supernatural creature, as it was possible he could have done in any lofty hall. This appears to bother Scrooge a great deal. Im very glad to hear it, said Scrooges nephew, because I havent great faith in these young housekeepers. Oh, perfectly satisfactory. Explain Ignorance and Want, who appear in stave 3 of A Christmas Carol. For they said, it was a shame to quarrel upon Christmas Day. Bakers were forbidden to bake bread on Sundays and holidays, but for a small fee they allowed people to bring meals to be cooked in their bakery ovens. Bob said he didnt believe there ever was such a goose cooked. And I no more believe Topper was really blind than I believe he had eyes in his boots. Scrooge! said Bob; Ill give you Mr. Scrooge, the Founder of the Feast!The Founder of the Feast indeed! cried Mrs. Cratchit, reddening. It has been done in your name, or at least in that of your family, said Scrooge. Slander those who tell it ye! Are there no prisons? said the Spirit, turning on him for the last time with his own words. God love it, so it was! These held the hot stuff from the jug, however, as well as golden goblets would have done; and Bob served it out with beaming looks, while the chestnuts on the fire sputtered and cracked noisily. For, he wished to challenge the Spirit on the moment of its appearance, and did not wish to be taken by surprise, and made nervous. "A tremendous family to provide for!" muttered Scrooge. Study Questions, Activities, and Resources, 162. It may be, that in the sight of Heaven, you are more worthless and less fit to live than millions like this poor mans child. She was very pretty: exceedingly pretty. Spirit, said Scrooge, with an interest he had never felt before, tell me if Tiny Tim will live., I see a vacant seat, replied the Ghost, in the poor chimney-corner, and a crutch without an owner, carefully preserved. In time the bells ceased, and the bakers were shut up; and yet there was a genial shadowing forth of all these dinners and the progress of their cooking, in the thawed blotch of wet above each bakers oven; where the pavement smoked as if its stones were cooking too. (c) Copyright 2012 - 2023 The Circumlocution Office | All Rights Reserved | Built by The Circumlocution Office using WordPress. It ends to-night., To-night at midnight. He was not the dogged Scrooge he had been; and though the Spirits eyes were clear and kind, he did not like to meet them. Scrooge is a miserly, cruel employer who treats the father of the Crachit family cruelly everyday but particularly on Christmas Eve. 2023 eNotes.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved, "Secret, And Self-contained, And Solitary As An Oyster", https://www.enotes.com/topics/christmas-carol. Why, wheres our Martha? cried Bob Cratchit, looking round. Whereat Scrooges nieces sister - the plump one with the lace tucker[10]: not the one with the rosesblushed. Bob Cratchit told them how he had a situation in his eye for Master Peter, which would bring in, if obtained, full five-and-sixpence weekly. The sky was gloomy, and the shortest streets were choked up with a dingy mist, half thawed, half frozen, whose heavier particles descended in shower of sooty atoms, as if all the chimneys in Great Britain had, by one consent, caught fire, and were blazing away to their dear hearts content. Latest answer posted July 29, 2019 at 8:57:00 PM. It was a great surprise to Scrooge, while listening to the moaning of the wind, and thinking what a solemn thing it was to move on through the lonely darkness over an unknown abyss, whose depths were secrets as profound as Death: it was a great surprise to Scrooge, while thus engaged, to hear a hearty laugh. Stop! The moment Scrooges hand was on the lock, a strange voice called him by his name, and bade him enter. The sight of these poor revellers appeared to interest the Spirit very much, for he stood with Scrooge beside him in a bakers doorway, and taking off the covers as their bearers passed, sprinkled incense on their dinners from his torch. Come in! Look here.. My life upon this globe, is very brief, replied the Ghost. At last the dinner was all done, the cloth was cleared, the hearth swept, and the fire made up. Then all the Cratchit family drew round the hearth, in what Bob Cratchit called a circle, meaning half a one; and at Bob Cratchits elbow stood the family display of glass. Suppose somebody should have got over the wall of the back-yard, and stolen it, while they were merry with the goosea supposition at which the two young Cratchits became livid! He never finishes what he begins to say! One half hour, Spirit, only one!. The children drank the toast after her. Scrooge promised that he would; and they went on, invisible, as they had been before, into the suburbs of the town. Look, look, down here! exclaimed the Ghost. In his pamphlet, Sunday Under Three Heads, Dickens opposed attempts to pass a Sunday Observance Bill, which would have limited peoples right to enjoy leisure activities and to buy bread on Sundays. If it only puts him in the vein to leave his poor clerk fifty pounds, thats something; and I think I shook him yesterday.. There all the children of the house were running out into the snow to meet their married sisters, brothers, cousins, uncles, aunts, and be the first to greet them. Then up rose Mrs Cratchit, Cratchits wife, dressed out but poorly in a twice-turned gown[8], but brave in ribbons, which are cheap and make a goodly show for sixpence; and she laid the cloth, assisted by Belinda Cratchit, second of her daughters, also brave in ribbons; while Master Peter Cratchit plunged a fork into the saucepan of potatoes, and getting the corners of his monstrous shirt collar (Bobs private property, conferred upon his son and heir in honour of the day) into his mouth, rejoiced to find himself so gallantly attired, and yearned to show his linen in the fashionable Parks. There was first a game at blind-mans buff. A great deal of steam! Study Questions, Activities, and Resources, 31. Latest answer posted December 04, 2020 at 2:51:25 PM. After it had passed away they were ten times merrier than before, from the mere relief of Scrooge the Baleful being done with. I know what it is, Fred! Introduce him to me, and Ill cultivate his acquaintance. Answer each of the following questions in the form of a sentence. For they were a musical family, and knew what they were about, when they sung a Glee or Catch[11], I can assure you: especially Topper, who could growl away in the bass like a good one, and never swell the large veins in his forehead, or get red in the face over it. Awaking in the middle of a prodigiously tough snore, and sitting up in bed to get his thoughts together, Scrooge had no occasion to be told that the bell was again upon the stroke of One. The house fronts looked black enough, and the windows blacker, contrasting with the smooth white sheet of snow upon the roofs, and with the dirtier snow upon the ground; which last deposit had been ploughed up in deep furrows by the heavy wheels of carts and waggons; furrows that crossed and re-crossed each other hundreds of times where the great streets branched off; and made intricate channels, hard to trace in the thick yellow mud and icy water. I have no patience with him, observed Scrooges niece. To any kindly given. ', When Scrooge protests against this future, the Spirit mocks him by retorting with Scrooge's cruel remark about the need for the poor to die, anyway, as they will "decrease the surplus population." Study Questions, Activities, and Resources, 21. Hearing abstractly about "the poor" does nothing but irritate Scrooge; however, seeing one particular kindhearted family struggling to have a merry Christmas makes poverty and want real to him. Here, the flickering of the blaze showed preparations for a cosy dinner, with hot plates baking through and through before the fire, and deep red curtains, ready to be drawn to shut out cold and darkness. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Wed a deal of work to finish up last night, replied the girl, and had to clear away this morning, mother., Well! He begins to care about them, especially poor Tiny Tim, who can't get medical treatments because of how little Scrooge pays his father. Learn how your comment data is processed. In A Christmas Carol, Scrooge is dramatically affected by the Cratchit familys poignant scene. He always knew where the plump sister was. She was very pretty: exceedingly pretty. Hes a comical old fellow, said Scrooges nephew, thats the truth: and not so pleasant as he might be. The narrator states that there was no doubt about Marley 's death. "Scrooge was the Ogre of the family." Scrooge is portrayed as a monster, and his family don't like him but feel obligated to toast him. Do go on, Fred, said Scrooges niece, clapping her hands. to hear the Insect on the leaf pronouncing on the too much life among his hungry brothers in the dust.. You have never seen the like of me before! exclaimed the Spirit. Describe the two children who emerge from the second spirit's robe in A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. And at the same time there emerged from scores of bye-streets, lanes, and nameless turnings, innumerable people, carrying their dinners to the bakers shops[5]. They stood beside the helmsman at the wheel, the look-out in the bow, the officers who had the watch; dark, ghostly figures in their several stations; but every man among them hummed a Christmas tune, or had a Christmas thought, or spoke below his breath to his companion of some bygone Christmas Day, with homeward hopes belonging to it. It was strange, too, that while Scrooge remained unaltered in his outward form, the Ghost grew older, clearly older. At last the plump sister, falling into a similar state, cried out: I have found it out! It was a Game called Yes and No, where Scrooges nephew had to think of something, and the rest must find out what; he only answering to their questions yes or no, as the case was. That was the cloth. It was a long night, if it were only a night; but Scrooge had his doubts of this, because the Christmas Holidays appeared to be condensed into the space of time they passed together. All this time, he lay upon his bed, the very core and centre of a blaze of ruddy light, which streamed upon it when the clock proclaimed the hour; and which, being only light, was more alarming than a dozen ghosts, as he was powerless to make out what it meant, or would be at; and was sometimes apprehensive that he might be at that very moment an interesting case of spontaneous combustion[1], without having the consolation of knowing it. great, round, pot-bellied baskets of chestnuts, shaped like the waistcoats of jolly old gentlemen, lolling at the doors, and tumbling out into the street in their apoplectic opulence, ruddy, brown-faced, broad-girthed Spanish Onions, shining in the fatness of their growth like Spanish Friars, slow potatoes bubbling up, knocked loudly at the saucepan-lid to be let out and peeled, compounded some hot mixture in a jug with gin and lemons, and stirred it round and round and put it on the hob to simmer, pudding, like a speckled cannon-ball, so hard and firm, blazing in half of half-a-quartern of ignited brandy, and bedight with Christmas holly stuck into the top, at Bob Cratchits elbow stood the family display of glass. Deny it! cried the Spirit, stretching out its hand towards the city. Remember that, and charge their doings on themselves, not us.. Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations. He dont do any good with it. A tremendous family to provide for, muttered Scrooge. Come in! The walls and ceiling were so hung with living green, that it looked a perfect grove; from every part of which, bright gleaming berries glistened. Study Questions, Activities, and Resources, 213. It would have been flat heresy to do so. Indeed, I think he loses a very good dinner, interrupted Scrooges niece. But they know me. Bob Cratchit told them how he had a situation in his eye for Master Peter . We are currently converting the 3,000+ pages within our WordPress site to make them more mobile friendly. The way he went after that plump sister in the lace tucker, was an outrage on the credulity of human nature. But this the Spirit said could not be done. Oh, Man! Study Questions, Activities, and Resources, 166. to hear the Insect on the leaf pronouncing on the too much life among his hungry brothers in the dust!. The mention of his name cast a dark shadow on the party, which was not dispelled for full five minutes. Study Questions, Activities, and Resources, 156. . This girl is Want. Mrs. Cratchit calls Mr. Scrooge an "odious, stingy, hard, unfeeling man," and if Bob hadn't reminded her that it was Christmas Day and to calm herself in front of the children, she would never. Where angels might have sat enthroned, devils lurked, and glared out menacing. Heaped up on the floor, to form a kind of throne, were turkeys, geese, game, poultry, brawn, great joints of meat, sucking-pigs, long wreaths of sausages, mince-pies, plum-puddings, barrels of oysters, red-hot chestnuts, cherry-cheeked apples, juicy oranges, luscious pears, immense twelfth-cakes[2], and seething bowls of punch, that made the chamber dim with their delicious steam. How it bared its breadth of breast, and opened its capacious palm, and floated on, outpouring, with a generous hand, its bright and harmless mirth on everything within its reach! Long life to him! But it had undergone a surprising transformation. A Christmas Carol is a novella, or short story, written by Charles Dickens and first published in the Christmas of 1843. Not coming upon Christmas Day!. Everybody had something to say about it, but nobody said or thought it was at all a small pudding for a large family. A smell like a washing-day! And bide the end!. The Daughters of the Late Colonel: XI, 186. This is because of his visit to the Fezziwig's Christmas celebration of years gone by with the Ghost of Christmas Past. eNotes Editorial, 20 Feb. 2021, https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/how-is-scrooge-affected-by-seeing-the-cratchits-71891. The crisp leaves of holly, mistletoe, and ivy reflected back the light, as if so many little mirrors had been scattered there; and such a mighty blaze went roaring up the chimney, as that dull petrification of a hearth had never known in Scrooges time, or Marleys, or for many and many a winter season gone. Scrooge was the Ogre of the family. All this time the chestnuts and the jug went round and round; and by-and-bye they had a song, about a lost child travelling in the snow, from Tiny Tim, who had a plaintive little voice, and sang it very well indeed. Readers learn that Scrooge lived a lonely childhood but compensated with imagination and fun. Oh, perfectly satisfactory! from Concordia University M.S. At last, however, he began to thinkas you or I would have thought at first; for it is always the person not in the predicament who knows what ought to have been done in it, and would unquestionably have done it tooat last, I say, he began to think that the source and secret of this ghostly light might be in the adjoining room, from whence, on further tracing it, it seemed to shine. ", Thus chastised, Scrooge, "bent before the Ghost's rebuke," lifts his head as he hears his name. 'Look upon me!'. It was the first of their proceedings which had no heartiness. All the fun of Charles Dickenss Greenwich Fair. Come in! exclaimed the Ghost. Altogether she was what you would have called provoking, you know; but satisfactory, too. Ha, ha! laughed Scrooges nephew. Here, he takes it into his head to dislike us, and he wont come and dine with us. But she joined in the forfeits, and loved her love to admiration with all the letters of the alphabet. He wears tattered clothes as he cannot afford a coat. He never finishes what he begins to say! How does Dickens present Scrooge's character in stave 1? He hasnt the satisfaction of thinkingha, ha, ha!that he is ever going to benefit US with it.. And it comes to the same thing.. Want to create or adapt OER like this? Is there a peculiar flavour in what you sprinkle from your torch? asked Scrooge. "Scrooge was the ogre of the family and the mention of his name cast a dark shadow" Hyperbole - showing how the rest of the family felt about Scrooge.6. . Id give him a piece of my mind to feast upon, and I hope hed have a good appetite for it., My dear, said Bob, the children! Discover more quotations from A Christmas Carol. He was not the dogged Scrooge he had been; and though the Spirit's eyes were clear and kind, he did not like to meet them. Bless those women; they never do anything by halves. The Cratchits show that when it comes down to it, you don't need money to be happy. Bobs voice was tremulous when he told them this, and trembled more when he said that Tiny Tim was growing strong and hearty. He wouldnt catch anybody else. For, the people who were shovelling away on the housetops were jovial and full of glee; calling out to one another from the parapets, and now and then exchanging a facetious snowballbetter-natured missile far than many a wordy jest laughing heartily if it went right and not less heartily if it went wrong. To-night, if you have aught to teach me, let me profit by it.. His family cannot afford any of the treatments, or even the nutrition, that might save his life. Hide, Martha, hide!. This girl is Want. To-night, if you have aught to teach me, let me profit by it." "Touch my robe!" Scrooge did as he was told, and held it fast. A glee is a song sung by three or more; a catch is a round, a song in which two or more voices sing the same melody but with each voice beginning at different times, as in Row, Row, Row Your Boat.. Having them shown to him in this way, he tried to say they were fine children, but the words choked themselves, rather than be parties to a lie of such enormous magnitude. Come in! exclaimed the Ghost. Scrooge had observed this change, but never spoke of it, until they left a childrens Twelfth Night party, when, looking at the Spirit as they stood together in an open place, he noticed that its hair was grey. Ha, ha, ha!. But soon the steeples called good people all, to church and chapel, and away they came, flocking through the streets in their best clothes, and with their gayest faces. The very gold and silver fish, set forth among these choice fruits in a bowl, though members of a dull and stagnant-blooded race, appeared to know that there was something going on; and, to a fish, went gasping round and round their little world in slow and passionless excitement. View all our archive of over 600 Charles Dickens quotations, View quotations by character (sorted by work). That was the pudding! What then? After it had passed away, they were ten times merrier than before, from the mere relief of Scrooge the Baleful being done with. It was his own room. But it had undergone a surprising transformation. He wouldnt take it from me, but may he have it, nevertheless. Christmas Day., It should be Christmas Day, I am sure, said she, on which one drinks the health of such an odious, stingy, hard, unfeeling man as Mr Scrooge. I know what it is!. There all the children of the house were running out into the snow to meet their married sisters, brothers, cousins, uncles, aunts, and be the first to greet them. To-night, if you have aught to teach me, let me profit by it.. The lamp-lighter who ran before dotting the dusky streets with specks of the light laughed out loud as the spirits passed. Bob Cratchit told them how he had a situation in his eye for Master Peter, which would bring in, if obtained, full five-and-sixpence weekly. (e\^{e}etre) En juillet, je - en France. Mrs. Cratchit said that now the weight was off her mind, she would confess she had had her doubts about the quantity of flour. At every fresh question that was put to him, this nephew burst into a fresh roar of laughter; and was so inexpressibly tickled, that he was obliged to get up off the sofa and stamp. Our summaries and analyses are written by experts, and your questions are answered by real teachers. Yet every one had had enough, and the youngest Cratchits in particular, were steeped in sage and onion to the eyebrows! Deny it! cried the Spirit, stretching out its hand towards the city. You know he is, Robert! Scrooge was the ogre of the family. Scrooge was the Ogre of the family. Passing through the wall of mud and stone, they found a cheerful company assembled round a glowing fire. It is a fair, even-handed, noble adjustment of things, that while there is infection in disease and sorrow, there is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good-humour. withered little hand in his, as if he loved the child, and wished to keep him by his side, and dreaded that he might be taken from him. Oh, a wonderful pudding! However, his offences carry their own punishment, and I have nothing to say against him., Im sure he is very rich, Fred, hinted Scrooges niece. 10 May 1851. Scrooge entered timidly, and hung his head before this Spirit. Scrooge looked about him for the Ghost, and saw it not. Taken from the following passage inStave 3 (The Second Of The Three Spirits) ofA Christmas Carol: Mr. Symbol of fire to represent family, warmth and love, the circle represents unity, his own nephew's and to find himself in a bright, dry, gleaming room, GCSE Grade 9 analysis of Ignorance and Want, Power and Conflict Poetry - Kamikaze (quotes), Latin for the New Millennium: Student Text Level 1, Vocabulary from Latin and Greek: A Study of Word Families, Level IX, North American Cambridge Latin Course Unit 2 Student's Book, Vocabulary from Latin and Greek Roots: Level X. What has ever got your precious father then? said Mrs Cratchit. Likewise at the game of How, When, and Where, she was very great, and to the secret joy of Scrooges nephew, beat her sisters hollow: though they were sharp girls too, as could have told you. After his interactions with the ghosts, Scrooge gratefully resolved to change his ways and be a more generous and kind person. Not to sea? Scrooges niece was not one of the blind-mans buff party, but was made comfortable with a large chair and a footstool, in a snug corner, where the Ghost and Scrooge were close behind her. Tiny Tim drank it last of all, but he didnt care twopence for it. "How is Scrooge affected by seeing the Cratchits in A Christmas Carol?" The Daughters of the Late Colonel: II, 177. Scrooge hung his head to hear his own words quoted by the Spirit, and was overcome with penitence and grief. Deeply moved by the love and warmth in the home of his clerk, Scrooge also notices that Bob's voice "was tremulous" when he tells the family about Tiny Tim's visit to the church where he tells his father that he hopes others see him so that they will remember that it was Christ who made beggars walk and blind men see. All sorts of horrors were supposed. He said that Christmas was a humbug, as I live! cried Scrooges nephew. Have never walked forth with the younger members of my family; meaning (for I am very young) my elder brothers born in these later years? pursued the Phantom. Oh, I have! said Scrooges nephew. Scrooge now has "an interest he had never felt before.". Have they no refuge or resource? cried Scrooge. If you like this, we think you might also be interested in these related quotations. They stood beside the helmsman at the wheel, the look-out in the bow, the officers who had the watch; dark, ghostly figures in their several stations; but every man among them hummed a Christmas tune, or had a Christmas thought, or spoke below his breath to his companion of some bygone Christmas Day, with homeward hopes belonging to it. Are spirits lives so short? asked Scrooge. There might have been twenty people there, young and old, but they all played, and so did Scrooge; for wholly forgetting in the interest he had in what was going on, that his voice made no sound in their ears, he sometimes came out with his guess quite loud, and very often guessed quite right, too; for the sharpest needle, best Whitechapel, warranted not to cut in the eye, was not sharper than Scrooge; blunt as he took it in his head to be. Alight shone from the window of a hut, and swiftly they advanced towards it. The Importance of Being Earnest: Act II, 62. Sit ye down before the fire, my dear, and have a warm, Lord bless ye!, No, no!