Hello, my name's Miss Halladay, and I'll be teaching you today.

Thank you so much for joining me for this lesson on "A Christmas Carol," which is one of my favourite texts ever.

I'm really excited to start going through Scrooge's characterization.

So without further ado, let's get started, shall we? So, today's lesson is called Stave One, the Characterization of Scrooge, and it kind of does what it says on the tin.

Today we're going to delve deeply into Dickens' characterization of Scrooge and the methods that he uses to present him as a miser.

So by the end of today's lesson, you will be able to analyse how Dickens introduces Scrooge as a character in the beginning of "A Christmas Carol." Here are some keywords that you'll need in order to unlock today's learning.

We've got covetous, asyndetic list, conservation, contempt, and callous.

I'm going to put the keyword definitions on the board, and I'd encourage you to read these carefully and perhaps pause the video if you feel that you need to digest them further.

Here's today's lesson outline.

I've split the characterization of Scrooge into two distinct parts.

First of all, we've got Scrooge's physical appearance, so we're going to begin the lesson by looking at that.

We're going to finish the lesson by examining his interactions with others and how they characterise him as am miser.

But first, let's look at Scrooge's physical appearance.

So I thought we could start with a little bit of a recap, because I want to see how much of the novella you can remember on your own.

So first, I would like you to bullet point everything that you can remember about the way Scrooge is described.

Wow, well done.

I'm really impressed with your memories.

You've remembered so much from your reading.

Excellent work, and congratulations if you remembered that he has red eyes, has a frosty rime, has thin lips that are blue, that he didn't thaw one degree at Christmas, that he's described as tight-fisted, and solitary as an oyster, and that he's described as a covetous old sinner.

So a massive well done if you got any of those, and indeed, any more.

So, first of all, let's have a look at the text, and we're going to start by reading this extract.

So I'll read it to you and you can follow along.

"Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster.

The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait, made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice.

A frosty rime was on his head and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin.

He carried his own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the dog-days, and didn't thaw it one degree at Christmas." Okay, now that we've read the extract, I'm just going to clarify a few key bits of vocabulary, starting with one of our keywords, covetous.

So we know that covetous means a great desire for wealth or possessions that often belong to someone else.

I'm also going to clarify what dog-days are, and these are the hottest days of the year in July and August.

So hopefully that little bit of extra contextual information will enhance your understanding of this passage.

So what I'd like you to do now is, given that we've just read this passage, I'd like you to highlight any instances where Scrooge is associated with the cold.

I'd then like you to think, well, what is the effect of that? Why has Dickens compared Scrooge to the cold, and what is he trying to show us? So I'm going to give you a moment while you pause the video to have a go at those two activities before we share our ideas together.

Fantastic.

Some great work there, and really well done if you manage to identify that Dickens uses an extended metaphor, and he does that so that he can compare Scrooge to the cold throughout the entire novella, okay, until his transformation at the end.

And this reflects Scrooge's harsh nature and his lack of emotional warmth, okay? So that motif of the cold in that extended metaphor is really used to show Scrooge's inner coldness, his lack of emotional warmth and generosity, and even Christmas, the season of goodwill and joy, that doesn't bring him any happiness, okay? He's still this really cold-hearted and miserable character.

So here Dickens is showing us exactly how miserly and miserable Scrooge is.

So let's check your understanding before we move on.

The repeated comparison of Scrooge to cold weather is an example of what? Is it, A, a semantic field, B, a simile, C, an anaphora, or D, an extended metaphor? And I'm going to invite you to pause the video while you jot your answer down.

And well done to those of you that identified that the comparison of Scrooge to cold weather is in fact an example of an extended metaphor.

So well done.

So back to the same extract, and what I'm going to ask you to do now is get a highlighter and highlight any similes or metaphors that Dickens uses to describe Scrooge.

So I'm going to invite you to pause the video while you complete the activity now.

And well done if you identified any of the similes and metaphors highlighted on screen in purple.

Excellent work.

So now that we've identified our similes and metaphors, what I'd like you to do is think about, well, why are these good similes and metaphors? What do they tell us about Scrooge, okay? So you're gonna start by thinking about what similarities does Scrooge share with the objects of comparison, okay? And therefore, what are these quotes showing us about Scrooge? So again, I'm gonna invite you to pause the video while you have those discussions.

Some fantastic work there, and I could see you all analysing these really closely, so well done.

So let's start with that first metaphor.

He was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone.

Now, this metaphor really effectively illustrates Scrooge's uncharitable and punishing nature, and actually it conveys the strength of Scrooge's frugality and his miserly behaviour, okay? And up until this point, all we've seen of Scrooge is him grieving, okay? Him being quite selfish and harsh during the grieving process for his friend Marley, and this is the first instance that we see Scrooge for who he really is, and we realise that his harshness and his miserly behaviour isn't purely because he's grieving.

It's just the way that he is.

So this is a really important metaphor here, because it shows us Scrooge's true nature.

Now, Scrooge is obviously called tight-fisted, and he's compared to somebody working at a grindstone.

Now, a grindstone is a rotating solid stone wheel, and it's used for sharpening things, so here Scrooge is being portrayed as a man who works really hard, but somebody who forces other people to work really hard as well, with absolutely no concern for their welfare.

So here Dickens is kind of epitomising Scrooge's nature as a really hardworking, but very, very cruel and unforgiving character.

So onto the second simile, okay, hard and sharp as flint.

Now, flint is a very, very hard material that is used to start fires, okay? It's a kind of rock.

Now, this reflects Scrooge's personality because we know that Scrooge is not a loving or caring character, and that he's actually very harsh himself, so the physical characteristics of the flint really well reflects Scrooge's character inside, okay? His inner nature.

It's also really interesting that the purpose of flint is to start fire.

Now, in this novella, Dickens often uses fire to represent generosity.

However, here, he states that from this flint, no steel had ever struck out generous fire, okay? So perhaps in comparing Scrooge to some flint that has never actually managed to ignite any fire, Dickens is suggesting that Scrooge has perhaps failed at his purpose in life, which is to be generous, because Dickens believed that generosity, kindness, and charity were fundamental human values.

So perhaps by suggesting, by comparing Scrooge to a piece of flint that has never managed to ignite any fire, Dickens is suggesting that Scrooge has failed in his humanitarian purpose to be nice to other people.

Now, this similarly could also cleverly foreshadow his transformation, okay? 'Cause as we know, flint has the capability to start fire, which therefore metaphorically means that Scrooge may have the capability to be generous later in the novella.

So this simile is really clever because it functions both literally and metaphorically as an effective piece of figurative language.

So again, let's check for understanding at this point.

Which of these is the most sophisticated explanation of the effects of Dickens' as hard and sharp as flint simile? Is it A, through explicitly outlining the hard and sharp nature of flint, Dickens emphasises Scrooge's dire cruelty and utter lack of generosity.

Furthermore, flint is used to start fires.

As fire in "A Christmas Carol" symbolically represents generosity, Dickens could be suggesting that despite Scrooge's hard exterior, he has the potential for generosity.

Dickens is foreshadowing that his sense of social responsibility will be ignited later in the novella.

Or is it B? Dickens uses the hard and sharp nature of flint to reflect Scrooge's nature.

As flint is used to start fires, Dickens is showing that the ghosts will start the fire of Scrooge's generosity later in the novella.

Dickens is showing us that Scrooge will learn the importance of social responsibility later in the novella, and become more generous.

So I'm going to give you a few moments to pause the video and decide which you think is the more sophisticated explanation.

And well done if you identified that it is in fact A, okay? And what makes this better is the depth of the analysis, okay? It is really interrogates all the different possible options as to why Dickens chose this simile.

I also like that it reflects the figurative language.

So when it says that Dickens is foreshadowing that Scrooge's sense of social responsibility will be ignited, I like that the analysis reflects the simile, so I think that's really cleverly done there.

So yes, A is definitely the better response, and well done if you identified that.

Now onto probably the most famous quotation from this entire novella, "Solitary as an oyster." So what I'd like you to do now is I'd like you to look at this picture of an oyster on screen, and I'd like you to, again, just like we've just done with flint, I'd like you to decide, well, what is it that Scrooge and the oyster have in common? So why is this an effective simile, and what is it telling us about Scrooge? So I'm gonna invite you to pause the video while you jot down your ideas and perhaps have a discussion with the people around you.

Some fantastic ideas.

So I'm going to share the best ones that I heard.

So first of all, I think it's important to note that oysters live in isolation because they actually live within this really hard shell.

Even though oysters live in communities, they are still isolated within themselves, okay? Just like Scrooge.

He lives in London, okay? There's loads of other people in London.

There's lots of different communities in London, and yet Scrooge, much like an oyster, lives on his own, but he chooses to live on his own within that community.

He chooses not to get involved with what's going on around him, okay? So that's why this is a really effective simile.

Oysters live in isolation within a shell.

Scrooge lives in isolation within London.

It's also important to note that actually both Scrooge and the oyster have a really hard exterior that is very difficult to break through, okay? And we see throughout the novella, the ghosts trying to break through that hard exterior to get to the softness that we know is inside Scrooge somewhere.

Now, oysters harbour pearls, which are very, very precious jewels, okay? So here, the pearl that is hidden inside the oyster could represent metaphorically the generosity that lies within Scrooge that needs to be prised out by the ghosts in the same way that a pearl would be prised out of an oyster, okay? So here, that pearl represents that hidden generosity, that hidden kindness, that hidden empathy that we suspect might be in Scrooge somewhere that has been hidden for many, many years.

It's gonna take a lot of work to get that out, but it's not impossible.

There is that potential there.

So again, I really like this element of the simile because it provides us with hope for Scrooge's transformation.

Again, if we're thinking about the pearl, pearls are obviously very expensive and valuable, and in that sense, again, we know that Scrooge is actually quite wealthy.

He has his business in the counting house that him and Marley used to run.

He does have enough wealth to make himself comfortable, and yet he just, he chooses to hoard that wealth and hide it, okay? And squirrel it away, much like an oyster hides its pearl from the outside world.

Okay, so again, another really interesting comparison you can make here.

Now, what is really interesting and possibly my favourite point of comparison here is that actually pearls take seven years to form, okay? And we know that Marley died seven years ago.

So perhaps Dickens is suggesting that now, after the death seven years ago, now is the time for Scrooge's transformation to begin, and his generosity, like a pearl, to emerge from his hard exterior.

So I love this simile.

I just think it says so much in so few words.

So well done if you've got any of those ideas yourself.

We're now going to look at Dickens' use of verbs as adjectives.

So I'd like you to highlight an example of this, and I'm going to ask to pause the video again while you have a go at that activity.

So well done if you identified that Dickens uses verbs as adjectives in this sentence here.

So let's have a look at this in a little bit more detail.

I would like you to analyse each of these verbs used as adjectives, and tell me what they show us about Scrooge, okay? What does each of these verbs used as an adjective tell us about Scrooge's personality? So again, I'd invite you to pause the video while you jot some ideas down.

Well done.

Some great discussions.

Now, before we share our ideas, I'd just like you to do something for me.

So each of these verbs as an adjective, I want you to model for me.

So we've got squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, okay? I want you to perform each of those actions for me now.

And then I want you to think, well, how do those actions reflect what Scrooge is doing here? So again, I'm gonna invite you to pause the video while you have a go at that little bit of activity.

Fantastic work.

So first of all, I'm sure you noticed from modelling those and having a go at it yourself that these imply that something is being grabbed and held onto really tightly.

All of these actions involve the closing of your fist around something, okay? Now, that that shows a refusal to let something go, okay? And in Scrooge's case, this would be money.

So here these verbs imply Scrooge's approach to money.

The fact that he hoards it, the fact that he hides it from other people, he doesn't want to spend it because he's a miser, okay? So here Dickens really cleverly uses these very quite aggressive verbs to mimic what Scrooge does with his money.

If we look at some of these verbs individually, okay, we've got this idea of scraping, and that that implies that Scrooge is trying to preserve every last bit of wealth.

He's so miserly that he won't let any potential wealth slip through his fingers.

You might have also noticed that we have this asyndetic list, okay? Which is without any connectives in it like and or or, and what that does here is it places these sins on an equal playing field of equal harm, okay? And it shows that Scrooge is really capable of viciousness and cruelty.

If we listen to the way these sound as well, we've got squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping.

These are all really harsh consonant sounds, okay? And they reflect scrooge's harsh nature and mimic the actions that he's undertaking with his money, and it almost becomes onomatopoeic because we can hear him scraping, clutching, okay? So those really harsh consonant sounds are really effective in illustrating what Scrooge actually is like as a person and what he does with his money.

So onto our first task of the lesson.

Using the examples that we've worked through as a model, I would now like you to analyse the following section of text, and I want you to look at how Dickens presents Scrooge as greedy and miserly.

So we've got, "The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in a grating voice." So I'd like you to focus your analysis specifically on Dickens' use of verbs and what they suggest about Scrooge.

You could look at nipped, you could look at shrivelled, stiffened, et cetera.

I'd also like you to look at his use of adjectives, so pointed, thin, and grating, and I want you to think about how they show Scrooge's miserliness.

So again, I'm gonna invite you to pause the video for a few moments while you have a go at that activity.

Fantastic effort there, and I could see that all of you have written loads of ideas around this little extract, so well done.

I'm going to go through some of the responses that I saw that I liked the best, and as we're going through them, if you missed any of them or you want to add them onto your annotations, I would encourage you to do so.

So first of all, I really liked that I saw that some people had said that Scrooge's entire appearance is actually economic, okay? It is as stingy as possible.

If you look at these features, the fact that he's got a really pointed nose, okay? Everything is nipped and shrivelled and thin, okay? His features have literally been described to suggest conservation, okay? Nothing about his face or his appearance is generous in any way, okay? And that reflects his personality.

It's almost as if Scrooge's own physical body is conserving its resources by giving him small features, okay? In the same way that he does with his money.

So again, I love this about Dickens because I think his characters' physical appearances are just so reflective of the character's natures.

So, as I said, absolutely no aspect of Scrooge's appearance is generous.

All of his features are small.

Even his skin, if we look at the fact that he's got a shrivelled cheek, okay? It's like all the moisture, all the extra resources have been sucked out of his skin, okay? Leaving him with the bare minimum that he needs to survive, and that is exactly how he lives his life.

We also see that his voice is really unpleasant, okay? And characters' voices do become a really key motif throughout the novella, and we'll look at that later down the line, but it's really important to note here that Scrooge has a very unpleasant voice.

It's grating, okay? It's unpleasant to listen to, and that probably reflects what comes out of his mouth as well, 'cause what comes out of his mouth is deeply unpleasant as well, so here, his voice reflects the things that he says.

And here Dickens really adheres to the conventions of wicked characters' appearances through the use of colour symbolism, those red eyes, okay? Contrasted with the thin lips that are blue, okay? So here red eyes is, you know, it's a classic convention of any wicked character.

So here Dickens is really showing us that Scrooge is miserable, that he's immoral, that he's wicked.

So onto the next section of the lesson where we're going to look in a little bit more detail at Scrooge's interactions with others.

So first of all, I'd like you to discuss how do you think we should treat other people? And how do you expect to be treated by your family, your friends, and strangers? And then finally, what are your values, and how do you think people should behave? So I'm gonna give you a few moments to pause the video while you have those conversations now.

So we're going to look first at this little extract.

I'm going to read it to you, and then you're going to have some points for discussion.

So we've got, "Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with glad some looks, "My dear Scrooge, how are you? When will you come to see me?" No beggars implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it was o'clock, no man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to such and such a place, of Scrooge.

Even the blind men's dogs appeared to know him; and when they saw him coming on, would tug their owners into doorways and up courts; and then would wag their tails as though they said, "No eye at all is better than an evil eye, dark master!" So what I'd like you to do now is discuss what impression do we get of Scrooge from this extract? And why does Dickens specifically mention beggars' children and blind men's dogs here? So again, I'll invite you to pause the video while you have those discussions now.

And well done if you identified that actually it shows that Scrooge is infamously harsh and cruel, okay? And that every single person avoids him because they know that if they bump into him, the interaction won't be pleasant.

In terms of why these people, well, first of all, beggars are desperate for money, okay? And they still won't approach Scrooge, okay? So even despite their desperation, despite their awful living conditions, they still wouldn't dare to approach Scrooge, okay? He's not even the last resort, okay? They just won't approach him.

So again, that characterises him as quite a terrifying character, actually, that lots of people want to avoid.

Again, if we think about blind men's dogs, they are there to protect their owners, okay? They are trained to sense danger, and therefore they can sense the danger in Scrooge, so they pull their masters away to protect them from him.

So again, by choosing these figures for focus, Dickens is really characterising Scrooge through the way that other people interact with him.

So again, I'd like you to have a little bit of a discussion, and I'd like to think, well, how would you expect your family to treat you? So I'm gonna invite you to pause the video for a moment while you have those discussions.

Okay, so we know that Scrooge isn't the nicest to his family, and here we're going to have a look at how Dickens shows us this.

So again, here's another little extract.

I'm going to read it to you, and then I'd like you to answer the questions.

"A merry Christmas, uncle! God save you!" cried a cheerful voice.

It was the voice of Scrooge's nephew, who came upon him so quickly that this was the first intimation he had of his approach.

"Bah!" said Scrooge, "Humbug!" "Christmas a humbug, uncle!" said Scrooge's nephew.

"You don't mean that, I'm sure?" "I do," said Scrooge.

"Merry Christmas! What right have you to be merry? What reason have you to be merry? You're poor enough." So what I'd like you to do now is think about how does Scrooge speak to his nephew here? Why isn't Scrooge's nephew named, and what might Dickens be trying to show us here? And finally, out of all the things that Scrooge has just said, what would you say is the harshest thing that he says to his nephew? So again, I'll invite you to pause the video while you have those conversations before we share our ideas.

Fantastic analysis there.

So first of all, well done, because everybody identified that that Scrooge is very, very rude to his nephew.

So what's really interesting is that in the beginning of the novella, Fred, Scrooge's nephew, is only referred to as his nephew or Scrooge's nephew.

And this shows us that the two are not close, because Dickens doesn't use Fred's name, he just calls him his nephew, and that reflects that Scrooge and Fred are perhaps not close enough to refer to one another by their first names.

I personally would argue that, "You're poor enough," is probably the harshest thing that Scrooge says to his nephew, 'cause it illustrates that Scrooge is acutely aware that Fred's finances are not great, and clearly he's never tried to assist him, even though he definitely could, because we know that Scrooge is actually quite wealthy and that shows his miserliness and his selfishness, especially towards his family, because Fred is actually the only family that Scrooge has, and it's a real shame that he chooses to ignore and neglect him.

So let's check for understanding.

Considering what he says to his nephew, what is Scrooge's key issue with Christmas? What is it that really annoys Scrooge about Christmas? Is it A, that his only friend Marley died on Christmas Eve, so he hates it now? Is it B, that he doesn't have any family to spend Christmas with? Or C, that people spend money they don't have at Christmas? So I'll invite you to pause video while you select your answer.

And well done if you identified that it is C, okay? Scrooge hates Christmas because he thinks that lots of people spend money that they don't have, and if we know one thing about Scrooge, it's that he really hates wasted money.

He hates generosity, he hates displays of wealth, okay? 'Cause he just thinks waste.

So that is Scrooge's very, very key issue with Christmas.

So another section of the text, and this is Scrooge's interaction with his clerk or his employee, Bob Cratchit.

"You'll want all day to-morrow, I suppose?" said Scrooge.

"If quite convenient, sir." "It's not convenient," said Scrooge, "and it's not fair.

If I was to stop half-a-crown for it, you'd think yourself ill-used, I'll be bound?" The clerk smiled faintly.

"And yet," said Scrooge, "you don't think me ill-used when I pay a day's wages for no work." The clerk observed that it was only once a year.

"A poor excuse for picking a man's pocket every 25th of December," said Scrooge." So now I'd like you to discuss how does Dickens characterise Scrooge through his interaction with Bob, and how does Bob respond to Scrooge here? So again, I'll give you a few moments to pause the video while you have those discussions.

And well done if you picked out this really accusatory you pronoun, and those rhetorical questions are absolutely savage, okay? "You'll want all day, I suppose? You don't think me ill-used," is very, very aggressive and accusatory, almost as if Bob's doing something wrong by asking for Christmas Day off, and he makes assumptions about what Bob is thinking before Bob's even had chance to respond, so it's quite difficult for Bob to respond here because whatever he responds with clearly won't be the answer that Scrooge wants or is expecting.

So this aggressive kind of interaction between Bob and Scrooge illustrates Scrooge's kind of wicked and really nasty nature.

And the fact that, despite the fact they work together, it's really interesting to see that all of these pronouns are singular.

We've got you and I.

There's actually no we anywhere in here, despite the fact that they work together, okay? And again, that shows Scrooge's lack of regard for community.

Bob's responses also characterise Scrooge, okay? Because they indicate his fear.

Bob here refers to Scrooge as sir, and smiles faintly, and it's very clear that Bob is just terrified of Scrooge, and he's also terrified of losing his job, because Bob would have been really easily replaceable for Scrooge, and Bob counts on Scrooge for income to support his family.

Scrooge knows this fully well and he takes advantage of this to treat Bob cruelly, and he actually threatens his job at one point in stave one because he disagrees with what Bob said.

So here we see Scrooge is a very harsh employer.

So onto our last task of the lesson, and I'd like you to demonstrate your understanding of everything that we've learnt in today's lesson.

So I'd like you to write me a paragraph of analysis in which you answer the following question.

How does Dickens present Scrooge in stave one of A Christmas Carol? Now, you should be explaining what Scrooge is like using precise vocabulary from the vocabulary bank which I'll show you in a moment.

You should be explaining what methods Dickens is using.

You should be giving a quotation to support your impression of Scrooge, and you should definitely be explaining the effects of the methods and how the reader responds to Scrooge.

So what does this make us think or feel about Scrooge in that moment? And here's the vocabulary bank that I refer to in our first success criteria point.

So I'd like you to think about using the words miserly, greedy, selfish, uncharitable, avaricious, cruel, contempt, and callous.

So what I'd like you to do now is pause the video while you have a go at completing that paragraph of analysis for me.

Fantastic work, and here's an example of something that you might have written.

In stave one of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," Ebenezer Scrooge is presented as the embodiment of greed and willful ignorance.

He's introduced as a character defined by his miserly and callous nature, particularly through Dickens' portrayal of his interactions with others, especially his nephew and his clerk.

When his nephew comes to invite him over for Christmas dinner, Scrooge asks him what reason he has to be merry, stating that he is poor enough.

Dickens' use of the accusatory pronouns you combined with the rhetorical questions reveal his contempt for the joyful spirit of Christmas and his obsession with material wealth.

Scrooge's concern with poverty, particularly when he himself is relatively wealthy, highlights his miserliness and indifference to the suffering of others.

Thus, Scrooge embodies the very attitudes Dickens is criticising, those of the Victorian middle-upper classes.

To summarise today's learning on the characterization of Scrooge, we know that Scrooge is presented as a miserly character whose contempt for other people embodies the ignorance of the upper-middle class Victorian citizens that Dickens is criticising.

Dickens characterises Scrooge through the use of figurative language, using verbs as adjectives, and using accusatory personal pronouns to create a very callous tone.

Scrooge's appearance is economic to reflect his miserly nature.

Nothing about his features is generous, which reflects his character.

Dickens uses an extended metaphor that likens Scrooge to the cold weather, and this reflects his cold-hearted nature.

And finally, Dickens uses other characters' reactions to Scrooge to characterise him as avaricious and callous.

I'd like to take the time to thank you for coming to today's lesson.

I really hope you've enjoyed learning about Scrooge as much as I've enjoyed teaching you about Scrooge, and I can't wait to see you for the next lesson in A Christmas Carol: Scrooge's Redemption.

Have a lovely day and I'll see you later.

Thank you.