Good morning.

It's lovely to see you all again.

My name's Miss Halliday and I will be your teacher for today.

Let's get started.

So in today's lesson, we are still looking at stave two of "A Christmas Carol" and we're gonna be examining the character of Belle in a little bit more detail.

So by the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to explain the significance of the character Belle in "A Christmas Carol," but first, here are some keywords that you'll need in order to access today's lesson.

We've got to corrupt, ethereal, to idolise, willful and fulfilled.

I'm going to put the keyword definitions on screen, so feel free to pause the video if you want to spend a little longer on these.

And here's today's lesson outline.

We're gonna start off by looking at Scrooge and Belle's relationship and why it ended and then we're gonna look at Belle's happily ever after and how her life turned out without Scrooge.

So let's start by looking at their broken engagement.

So we know that in stave two Belle is the last memory that we see from Scrooge's past.

My question to you is, but why? Okay, so I'd like you to discuss now, why does Dickens save Belle for last? So I'm gonna invite you to pause the video while you have those conversations and before we share some ideas.

Fantastic discussions there and here's some of the things you might have said.

So you could have said like Laura, "That Dickens saves Belle for last because her breaking the engagement was the last straw for Scrooge.

She was the last person whom he perceived to have abandoned him as a young man, so she was the deciding factor in his decision to shut society out." So that would make Belle literally the last straw for Scrooge and structurally the last character that we see of his, from his past.

You also might have had some ideas like Sophia's.

So you might have said, "Dickens saves Belle for last because she's the most surprising memory for the reader.

We learn from Belle that Scrooge is capable of not only kindness, but love for another person, so we see his potential to love again here, leaving us with hope." Now we've got to remember that up until this point, all we've seen of Scrooge is what we know of him from stave one, when he's this really miserly, grumpy, and selfish character and it's really surprising for us in this moment that he's actually loved another person.

So perhaps Dickens save this memory for last, because it's the most shocking, but also maybe because it leaves us with hope for Scrooge's transformation, so well done if you've got any of those ideas.

Let's have another quick discussion then.

We're going to read a little bit of an extract from the text and I'd like you to think, well, what do you notice about the physical descriptions of Scrooge versus Belle? So here's our extract.

I'll read it to you now.

"My time grows short," observe the spirit.

"Quick," this was not addressed to Scrooge or to anyone whom he could see, but it produced an immediate effect, for again Scrooge saw himself.

He was older now, a man in the prime of life.

His face had not the harsh and rigid lines of later years, but it had begun to wear the signs of care and avarice.

There was an eager, greedy, restless motion in the eye, which showed the passion that had taken root and where the shadow of the growing tree would fall.

He was not alone, but sat by the side of a fair young girl in a morning dress, in whose eyes there were tears, which sparkled in the light that shone out of the ghost of Christmas past.

So I'm gonna encourage you now to pause the video and have those discussions and I've highlighted some of the key sections that you might want to focus your conversations around.

So pause the video and discuss what do you notice about the physical descriptions of Scrooge versus Belle here? Some fantastic discussions and some really insightful suggestions there, so well done.

Let's have a look at what you could have said.

Let's start first of all with Scrooge.

So we've got this quote here.

His face had not the harsh and rigid lines of later years, but it had begun to wear the signs of care and avarice and here we see that Scrooge's change to the man from stave one has already begun, okay? And Dickens literally uses that word begun to show us that negative transformation or that devolution, that Scrooge's character undertakes between these two moments in his life.

Again, Dickens mentions the words care and avarice and suggests that this is ultimately Scrooge's final destination will be that of avarice and greed.

So let's look at that word care here, okay? And when Dickens says that Scrooge's face had begun to wear the signs of care, it doesn't mean that he was caring for other people, but it actually means about care for himself and that selfishness that we see Scrooge adopting later life, and actually here, that word care could almost be substituted for the word worry, because Dickens is actually suggesting that concerns and care for poverty is actually what has ruined, screwed and corrupted him.

So these worry lines that was face, they are symbolic of his worries about poverty here.

So we see Scrooge starting to care about the wrong things here, instead of caring about his fiance and their life, the life that they're building together, we see him really start to care about money and that pursuit of wealth that he has becomes obsessed with.

So when Dickens describes Scrooge's eyes as eager, greedy, and restless, he's almost describing him like an animal here or in a predatory way and that's symbolic of his relentless pursuit of wealth that we see him undertake in his adult life.

It's almost like he's the predator and the the money and the wealth is the prey and he's so brutal and cruel in his pursuit of wealth, that it almost makes him animalistic and dehumanises him.

So here we start to see the signs of that cruelty in Dickens' description of Scrooge's face, because it's really suggesting that his pursuit of money is utterly savage and finally, what I really love about this description of Scrooge as a young adolescent is the fact that his greed is described almost as being an infection, some kind of illness, okay? Dickens uses this metaphor to establish similarities between greed and like a weeded in a garden that grows and spreads and starves other plants, real, you know, flowers of sunlight and that shows how corruptive greed is and if we're to kind of extend that metaphor a little bit further, if we imagine that Belle here is the beautiful flower and that Scrooge's avarice is the weeded, Dickens is almost suggesting that Scrooge's pursuit of wealth has starved his and Belle's relationship of the things that it needs to thrive and flourish, like, you know, like love and empathy and care and so the beautiful flower that could have been him and Belle's relationship has been starved of the things that it needs because other things have been prioritised in that relationship.

So here this is a really effective use of a metaphor by Dickens, and it illustrates how corruptive and destructive greed and avarice is.

In contrast, if we look at the description of Belle, we see this fair young girl, okay? And Belle is described as an innocent character.

This word fair connotes purity and young shows her innocence, okay? She did not deserve to be treated in this way and actually in her relationship with Scrooge, she had only the purest intentions.

She was a very loyal and committed fiance, and unfortunately, Scrooge wasn't able to reciprocate those qualities.

Similarly, she's described as being in a mourning dress.

Now a mourning dress is typically worn by widows, okay.

And it kind of suggests the grief that she might be feeling for the loss of her relationship with Scrooge, so it's symbolic of her heartache and her grief at the loss of not only her relationship, but the loss of the person that she thought that she knew.

Okay, she thought she knew Scrooge is, you know, a noble person with noble aspirations, but actually he's turned into somebody she doesn't recognise, so she's mourning the loss of the person that she loved.

Again, we see from the fact that she's crying that this has been a really difficult decision for Belle and she feels that she has no choice and that shows us the extent of Scrooge's greed and avarice because she's willing to break off an engagement because she feels that she's not his priority anymore and that she doesn't like the person that he's become and that would've been quite a brave decision for her to make, especially as a woman in a patriarchal Victorian society.

So for her to break that engagement off really shows how passionately she feels Scrooge has changed and finally, the fact that Belle's sparkling eyes are reflected in the Ghost of Christmas Past, it gives her this really ethereal quality and it shows her kind nature and actually here, by suggesting that the tears are sparkling in the light of the Ghost of Christmas Past, Dickens is almost suggesting that Belle has the same level of innocence and purity and goodness that the ghost has.

So she's got this almost angel light quality and this allows Dickens to show what a lost Belle was to Scrooge and how this was a big mistake in Scrooge's past, you know, that has led him to live this really miserly and avaricious lifestyle that we see him lead as an adult.

So he here Dickens is really trying to show us what a mistake Scrooge made here to value money over his love for his fiance Belle.

So let's have a look at another passage from the text now, where we see the breakdown of Scrooge and Belle's relationship.

So we're going to read this passage together, and as I'm reading, I'd like you to follow along.

"What idol has displaced you," he rejoined.

"A golden one." "This is the even-handed dealing of the world," he said.

"There is nothing on which it is so hard as poverty and there is nothing it professes to condemn with such severity as the pursuit of wealth." "You fear the world too much," she answered gently.

"All your other hopes have merged into the hope of being beyond the chance of its sordid reproach.

I've seen your noble aspirations fall off one by one, until the master-passion, gain, engrossed you.

Have I not?" So now that we've read that passage, I'd like you to consider, well what's the effect of that word idol and why might it be capitalised? And also, what does Belle actually mean here when she talks about Scrooge's nobler aspirations and the fact that they've fallen off one by one? And finally, how do we feel for Scrooge here as a reader? So I'm gonna invite you to pause the video while you have those conversations and before we share some of our answers together.

Some fantastic discussions there, really well done.

Let's have a look at some of the answers you might have come up with.

So you might have talked about this word idol, and you might have said that actually, rather than idolising his fiance, so adoring her, loving her, Scrooge idolises money, so this is Dickens really clearly showing us here that Scrooge's priorities are completely wrong.

Now, in many religions, worshipping false idols is actually viewed as a cardinal sin and a form of blasphemy, so a form of going against God and taking the Lord's name in vain.

Now here, this implies that Scrooge has actually violated the sanctity, so the purity of their relationship with his greed, okay? And again here Dickens presents greed as corruptive.

We had this really pure, you know, innocent young love between these two characters that has been ruined and destroyed by Scrooge's pursuit of wealth.

So here Dickens is showing us the corruptive nature of avarice.

So when Belle states that she feels displaced by a golden idol, this word gold could be representative of literal gold, but it could also be representative of other forms of material wealth.

So money, stocks, you know, property.

So she's kind of saying here that he's replaced her and the role that she played in his life as the object of his love and adoration has actually been replaced with money, okay.

And that's the thing that he worships, now that's the thing he idolises, that's the thing that he prioritises and she really disagrees with that.

She thinks his priorities are all in the wrong order.

Now, what's interesting is that Belle isn't against having money, okay? She's not condemning Scrooge for wanting to have money, but she's condemning him for his relentless pursuit of money and the fact that he has prioritised this pursuit of money over her feelings and over their relationship, because Belle actually does want to earn money, but she won't sacrifice her relationships to do so and she actually says at one point in the text that she's willing to wait and work hard with Scrooge to earn money through patient industry and that's a quote that she says.

Okay, which shows that she does want to have you know, money, of course she does, because I don't think anybody in this society would choose to be poor, but the difference between Belle and Scrooge is that she's not willing to sacrifice everything and behave immorally in order to get money, because remember that Scrooge's employment is actually that he loans people money and he profits from others' financial ruin and Belle isn't comfortable with that because she's a much more moral person.

She doesn't want to become rich through others' misfortune.

So here we see a clear difference between these two characters and their morality.

Again, if we look at this phrase, "I've seen your noble aspirations fall off one by one." When she's talking about these noble aspirations, she's implying that his priorities are all wrong, and she's implying that he used to have much more kind of moral and wholesome priorities like marriage and family and being a moral person and that all of these have slid away because of his pursuit of wealth and as we've spoken about before, he has become a person that she doesn't recognise and that's what she can't deal with and that's why she's so upset, because she's not only mourning the loss of the relationship, but she's also mourning the loss of the person that she once loved and knew and in terms of how we feel for Scrooge, this is quite a sad moment really and I actually feel quite sorry for Scrooge in this moment, because it's clear that what has motivated him to become this really avaricious and miserly character is a genuine and deep-rooted fear of poverty.

He actually states that there is nothing on which he sees so hard as poverty.

So he's saying that nothing is harder in this world than being poor, okay? So we can see that everything he has done, all the decisions he has made, even though they've been wronged, have been made out of fear.

So here Scrooge almost becomes an object of pity for us, because we're here, we can really understand how he has become the character he's become and what has led him to turn his back on society in this way and Belle even points this out and she says, you fear the world too much and this is something that frightens her, his fear of the world and his fear of poverty frightens her and that's why she's had to end the relationship, because she can see that this deep rooted fear is going to drive him to a place of real isolation and loneliness.

It's not a place that she wants to go with him.

She does not wish to be dragged down by his greed and pursuit of material good and I think what's really sad and what comes outta this conversation is that actually Scrooge did really love Belle, okay? He doesn't want to end the relationship.

At one point he does try to argue back with her and then he eventually gives up, probably because he knows that her mind's been made up and actually what she's saying is true, but I think it's really sad, because it's so clear from this conversation that he does care very deeply for her and that his priorities have just become really messed up and this was Scrooge's opportunity to fight for Belle, okay.

He could have turned around and said that he would stop being so relentless in his pursuit of wealth and focus more on making Belle happy, but he doesn't, he chooses in this moment to let her end the relationship and to continue his relentless pursuit of wealth.

So let's check for understanding.

True or false, unlike Scrooge Belle does not care for money and that's why she ends the engagement.

So I'm gonna invite you to pause the video now while you decide whether you think that is true or false.

And well done if you answered false, you're absolutely right.

What I'm gonna ask you to do now is read the two justifications on screen and decide which one you think is the reason as to why this statement is in fact false.

So I'm gonna invite you to pause the video while you read the statements and decide which you think is the correct justification.

And well done if you answered A, you are absolutely right.

Belle does understand the value of money.

She does not want to be poor, but the difference between them is that she's willing to wait and earn it patiently, whereas Scrooge is willing to sacrifice everything and is willing to be a lot more relentless and savage in his pursuit of wealth than Belle is.

So well done if you got that right.

Let's have a look at another section of the extract now.

So we're going to read it together and then we're going to have some discussions and this is something that Belle says to Scrooge.

So Belle says, "But if you were free today, tomorrow, yesterday, can I even believe that you would choose a dowerless girl? You, who in your very confidence with her, weigh everything by gain.

Or choosing her, if for a moment you are false enough to your one guiding principle to do so, do I not know that your repentance and regret would surely follow? I do and I release you, with a full heart, for the love of him you once were." Now before we have those discussions, I just want to clarify what a dowerless girl is.

So a dowry was a fee that was paid by the bride's father to the groom at the time of marriage.

Now Belle here is stating that she's a dowerless girl.

So we can infer from this that Belle's family do not have very much money and that if Scrooge was to have married Belle, he wouldn't have been paid any dowry.

So now that you know what a dowerless girl is, I'd like you to think in this section of text, what is it that Belle's saying to Scrooge exactly? And what do you think Dickens wanted us to think of Belle? So I'm gonna invite you to pause the video, while you have those discussions and before we share our ideas, Fantastic work.

So here Belle is basically saying that if Scrooge was single, she doubts that he would choose to marry her, because he won't be paid this dowry.

She states that if he chose to pursue love instead of money, so if he chose to marry her that she feels that he would probably regret that decision later in life.

It's quite a sad moment here for Belle, as she realises that she has no future with Scrooge and that she doesn't trust him even if he was to turn around and state that he still wants to marry her, she doesn't trust him not to regret his decision.

So that's quite a sad moment for Belle.

So onto the last task of the lesson, now Belle's last ever words directly to Scrooge are, "May you be happy in the life you have chosen" and what I'd like you to do is use that quotation to respond to the following questions.

First of all, why do you think Dickens used the word chosen? Secondly, do you think that Scrooge is happy with the life that he chose? Why or why not? And which student do you most agree with and why? So you can choose here between Laura who states that "Dickens saves Belle for last because she was the last draw for Scrooge.

She was the last person whom he perceives to have abandoned him as a young man.

So she was the deciding factor in his decision to shut society out." Or do you agree more with Sophia who states that "Dickens saves Belle for last because she's the most surprising memory for the reader.

We learn that Scrooge is capable of love for another person.

So we see his potential to love again here, leaving us with hope." So here these are the statements from earlier in the lesson where we discussed why Dickens saves Belle for last and now that we've looked at Belle in a little bit more detail and examine the text more closely, I'd like to rethink that again and think, well why did Dickens save Belle for last? And see which student you agree with.

So there's your task.

I'm going to invite you to pause the video while you have a go at it and before we share some ideas.

Fantastic work.

So here's what you could have said.

In terms of why Dickens uses the word chosen, you might have said that actually he chooses it to emphasise that it was Scrooge who isolated himself from society.

This was a conscious choice that he made and therefore Dickens doesn't want us to feel too sorry for him.

Okay, we feel a pang of empathy, but Dickens is kind of reminding us that actually these are the consequences of Scrooge's actions and that this was a choice that he made and that regardless of what's happened to him in his past, he is still a greedy miser who needs to change, so we can't feel too sorry for him.

Dickens is also trying to make us understand, just like Scrooge, that our choices have consequences and if we choose to value money over, you know, human interaction, these will be the consequences of our actions and we will be entirely responsible for them.

Now in terms of whether we think Scrooge is happy with the life he chose, I think that you could say that perhaps he was before he saw this memory, but his tears in this moment suggest that actually perhaps he really realises that he regrets his decision and perhaps he realises the gravity of the decision that he actually made here.

Perhaps he didn't realise at the time how much significance this would hold on the rest of his life and then watching it back, he realises, you know, what a big moment this was and how much he messed it up.

However, okay, we know that Scrooge lived a life of ignorance willfully, he chose that life, okay? And now his eyes have been opened and his true unhappiness has almost been revealed to him, a mirror has almost been held up to him and he understands, you know, actually that he's not very happy and he is not very content, okay? And that's especially true of when he sees Belle as an older woman with her husband, which we'll get onto in a moment and finally, in terms of which student you most agree with, both students raise really valid points and we understand here that Belle's breakup was probably the last straw for Scrooge and he probably did view it as another abandonment, because he tries to speak, but she resumed showing that he tried to argue back with her, but then gave up, because he realised her mind had been made up.

However, you could also say that us seeing Belle's character and seeing the relationship break down does give us hope that he can love again, because it's clear from that conversation that he did really care for her at one point.

So we have that hope that he might care for somebody else at some point again.

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

So onto the second part of our lesson now.

We're going to look at Belle's happily ever after and how her life turned out versus Scrooge's.

So first I've got a little activity for you to do.

I'd like you to rank the values and assets from most important to least important.

Okay, so we've got a a variety of assets here.

We've got things like being loved, place to call home, luxurious clothes, I won't read them all to you, I'll let you read them as part of your task.

So I'm gonna invite you to pause the video while you rank those values from most important to least important to you.

Fantastic, it's really interesting to see what you all value, well done.

Now I'd like you to complete the task again, but this time I'd like you to complete it as if you are Belle.

So what do you think that she would value most and what do you think she would value least? So again, I'd like you to pause the video while you complete the ranking again, but from the perspective of the character Belle and well done.

Okay, in terms of some feedback, I'm hoping that many of you put things like being loved, loving others, having a family, food and water, and a kind partner near the top of your list for things that Belle would value and I'm really hoping that many of you put things like expensive possessions and luxurious clothes at the bottom of Belle's list of priorities, so well done.

So following Belle's last words to Scrooge that we looked at in learning cycle one, we then see the consequences of her decision.

Okay, we already know the consequences of Scrooge's decision because we see in stave one what happened to him, but now we see what happened to Belle and how she turned out, okay and how her decision to prioritise love over money benefited her later in life.

So here's her description of Belle's home.

They were in another scene in place, a room, not very large or handsome, but full of comfort.

Near to the fire sat a beautiful young girl, so like that last that Scrooge believed it was the same, until he saw her, now a comely matron, sitting opposite her daughter.

The noise in this room was perfectly tumultuous for there were more children there than Scrooge in his agitated state of mind could count and unlike the celebrated herd in the poem, they were not 40 children conducting themselves like one, but every child was conducting itself like 40.

The consequences were uproarious beyond belief, but no one seemed to care.

On the contrary, the mother and daughter laughed heartedly and enjoyed it very much enjoyed and the latter soon beginning to mingle in the sports got pillaged by the young brigands most ruthlessly.

So just to check your understanding of that scene, I'd like you to answer this question, what does the winter fire symbolise here? And I'm going to invite you to pause the video while you jot your answer down.

And well done, if you identified that it does in fact symbolise D, Belle's kindness and generosity and we know that fire is a motif throughout "A Christmas Carol" used to symbolise generosity, so well done if you remembered that.

What I'd like you to do now is use the questions in the grid to discuss the impression that Dickens creates of Belle's life as an adult.

So here's an example.

We've got the quote, not very large or handsome, but full of comfort and I'd like you to think, well what is Dickens suggesting here about the value of money to Belle? So I'm gonna put the rest of the quotations and the questions on screen and I'm going to invite you to pause the video now while you have a go looking at the quotations and answering the corresponding questions before we share our ideas together, so off you go.

Some great suggestions.

So here's some of the ideas that I heard that I really liked.

So in this first quote here, Dickens is showing us that Belle's House doesn't need to have expensive things in it to be comfortable and homely.

Okay, we're told it's not that large, it's not that handsome, but it's full of comfort.

So here Belle has that abundance of comfort.

Now the second quote, the fact that she's a comely matron, she sits opposite her daughter.

Dickens is presenting Belle as beautiful, happy, and fulfilled by her role as a mother, so clearly her decision to choose love over money isn't one that she regrets.

Again, the fact that Dickens shows us that there were more children there than Scrooge could even count, shows us that Scrooge looks at the scene in disbelief and he almost cannot believe that anybody could be happy with so many children to feed and so many children to have to pay for.

Okay, but here Scrooge's beliefs are contradicted by the reality that he's presented with of Belle very, very happy at home.

Again, moving on, we see this quote, the consequences were uproarious, but no one seemed to care.

Again, we see Belle's life as a carefree life and again, Dickens is suggesting that money does not buy happiness.

Scrooge with all his money in the world, you know, isn't living a happy life.

Whereas Belle, who has less money, is living a really wholesome and fulfilling life and finally we've got this quote, mother and daughter laughed heartedly and enjoyed it very much and here Dickens is showing us that actually Belle's really satisfied with the decision that she made to choose love over money and that she's been rewarded for this decision with a beautiful family and a very fulfilling life.

So here the difference between Scrooge's life and Belle's life after this decision was made are absolutely worlds apart.

Okay, Scrooge's living a miserly life in isolation from others, not caring about community, with no meaningful relationships at all, whereas Belle is living a much less wealthy life, but a much more fulfilling and wholesome existence.

So here the contrast between the two characters lives after this really important decision was made could not be more distinct.

You know, we've got Belle living a very wholesome and fulfilling life with her family where she's loved and valued, and Scrooge living a life of isolation with absolutely no meaningful relationships with other people at all.

So here Dickens is suggesting that of the two, it was Belle that made the correct decision and Belle that had the correct priorities.

So to look at another extract, we've got "Belle," said the husband turning to his wife with a smile.

"I saw an old friend of yours this afternoon." "Who was it?" "Guess!" "How can I? (smacks lips) Don't I know?" She added in the same breath, laughing as he laughed.

"Mr. Scrooge.

Mr. Scrooge, it was.

I passed his office window and as it was not shut up and he had a candle inside, I could scarcely help seeing him.

His partner lies upon the point of death, I hear and there he sat alone, quite alone in the world I do believe." So what I'd like you to do now is discuss, well why is this a significant moment for Scrooge? So I'm gonna invite you to pause the video while you have those, have those conversations now.

Fantastic work, okay? This is a significant moment for Scrooge here because he sees the life that he leads through somebody else's eyes, okay? Where he's just witnessed the happiness that Bella has found and now in contrast, he's seeing his own isolation and misery through the eyes of somebody else, okay? He was quite content with the life he was living before he saw how other people perceive him and perhaps before he saw how he truly has been living and Dickens establishes a real contrast in the way that these two characters are living.

Belle sitting there laughing with a husband while Scrooge sat there alone, okay? The contrast there is really distinct, okay? And Dickens is using that contrast to show us the consequences of choosing avarice and greed over meaningful human connection.

So what we're going to do next is have a look at how to draw comparisons between the two characters, 'cause at some point we're going to have to compare how Scrooge's life turned out versus how Belle's life turned out.

So one way of comparing two characters is by saying, although X, so although one character this, Y, so that character this.

So for example, we could say, although both Belle and Scrooge seem to value money in their early adulthood, dot, dot, dot, dot, what's the consequence of that? And here it is.

So, although both Belle and Scrooge seem to value money in their early adulthood, Belle chose a life of happiness over a life with abundant wealth.

Now it's your turn to create a sentence that compares Scrooge and Belle.

I'm going to give you a sentence starter and you're going to finish it off for me.

So you've got, whilst Scrooge is X, Belle is Y.

So I'd like you to now pause the video while you have a go at making your comparative sentence.

Fantastic work there and I could see some real efforts, so well done.

You'll need to remember this strategy because you'll need it for the next task.

So here's our final task of the lesson, and I'd like you to complete the three sentences below.

So we've got A, while Scrooge was X, Belle was Y.

Where a Scrooge is X, Belle is Y.

Despite X comma Y.

So I'm gonna invite you to pause the video now while you use these three sentence starters to draw some comparisons between Belle and Scrooge.

Some fantastic work there and here's some of the comparisons that I read that I really liked from you.

We've got, while Scrooge was more concerned about his pursuit of wealth than the happiness of his fiance, Belle was feeling displaced and neglected.

Whereas Scrooge is a miserly character with little empathy for the suffering of others, Belle is a devoted mother who caress deeply for other people, especially her family whom she holds dear and finally, despite Scrooge's willful choice to to spend his life alone, warning all human sympathy away, Belle seems to have chosen the more fulfilling life, one filled with love, respect, and comfort, despite its lack of material wealth.

So to summarise the learning from today, remember that Belle ended her relationship with Scrooge because she recognised that he valued money over human connection and Dickens presents Scrooge's greed as really corruptive and suggests that this kind of greed spreads misery and unhappiness.

Belle's termination of her and Scrooge's engagement is a significant moment in the novella as it's the point at which Scrooge turns his back on society entirely.

Now through the character of Belle, we see Scrooge's capacity for love, and we hope that he might find it within himself to love somebody else again.

So Belle and Scrooge's relationship also represents hope and finally, Dickens presents Belle as a content mother and wife to illustrate that money cannot buy happiness.

I'd like to thank you for joining me today and participating so actively in your learning.

I'm really looking forward to seeing some of you next time, so I'll see you later and I hope you have a fantastic rest of your day.

Thank you.