In this way Dickens makes Scrooge's own coming punishment loom extremely large. not to know, that ages of incessant labour, by immortal creatures, for this earth must pass into eternity before the good of which it is susceptible is all developed. Living conditions there were unpleasant and the work was tough such as 'picking out' old ropes. He stopped at the outer door to bestow the greetings of the season on the clerk, who, cold as he was, was warmer than Scrooge. Marley represents a kind of family for Scrooge, even though they are not blood-related. Learn how your comment data is processed. My partner is letting her friend sleep in her bed, am I overeacting? I will not shut out the lessons that they teach. Oh! In 1861, 35,000 children under 12 lived and worked in workhouses in Britain. Join for Free All rights reserved. The narrator describes Scrooge as "Hard and sharp as flint." His appearance matches his character, with cold-looking, pointy features. Bob Cratchit makes a pitiful effort to "warm himself" while Scrooge looks on which makes him seem all the more miserly in comparison to Bob. Why doesn't Scrooge like Christmas in A Christmas Carol? What to expect as an older masters student? This self-description provides evidence of his transformation. He took us home and hammered us. My students love how organized the handouts are and enjoy tracking the themes as a class., Requesting a new guide requires a free LitCharts account. Scrooge is especially disgruntled when Fred mentions his wife, for example. And yet, though the removal of such doornails is difficult, it is not impossible, and this slyly hints atthe return of Marley's ghost. A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost-Story of Christmas, commonly known as A Christmas Carol. Scrooge had often heard it said that Marley had no bowels, but he had never believed it until now. Browse Library, Teacher Memberships Latest answer posted January 12, 2021 at 5:08:54 PM. Bovey, Lee-James "A Christmas Carol Quotes " Book Analysis, https://bookanalysis.com/charles-dickens/a-christmas-carol/quotes/. ", "Hard and sharp as a flint.solitary as an oyster. Teach your students to analyze literature like LitCharts does. This is another quote where Dickens draws on the semantic field of the cold weather. "Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster" He has the power to render us happy or unhappy; to make our service light or burdensome; a pleasure or a toil. I will not be the man I must have been but for this intercourse! 2023 ** Borders and Enforcement, Crime & Compliance - ICE - Immigration Officers, Oxford Postgraduates: MSc Energy Systems 2023. **Example 1**. This is evident in his early relationship with his nephew Fred. `We have no doubt his liberality is well represented by his surviving partner, said the gentleman, Scrooge frowned, and shook his head, and handed the credentials back, `At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge, said the gentleman, taking up a pen, `it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the Poor and Destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Mind! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grind- stone, Scrooge! `Youll want all day to-morrow, I suppose? said Scrooge. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Marley is not saying business is inherently bad, but he is saying that it is terrifically small and narrow in comparison to the rest of life, and certainly that business success is not enough to right any wrongs one commits in life. Creating notes and highlights requires a free LitCharts account. `I am sorry, with all my heart, to find you so resolute. Genius is the ultimate source of music knowledge, created by scholars like you who share facts and insight about the songs and artists they love. And I know I know my dears, that when we recollect how patient and how mild he was; although he was a little, little child, we shall not quarrel easily among ourselves and forget poor Tiny Tim in doing it. Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and . From the creators of SparkNotes, something better. It was with great astonishment, and with a strange, inexplicable dread, that as he looked, he saw this bell begin to swing. Near the beginning of the book, as we are being introduced to Scrooge, we read, Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks, 'My dear Scrooge, how are you? By showing Marleys face among the faces of legends and saints from scripture, Dickens puts him in a saint-like position, showing Scrooge the light like a religious leader. The simile "hard and sharp as flint" emphasises scrooge's tough, cold exterior, and through the painful, harmful connotations of "sharp", Dickens also highlights scrooge's lack of sociability towards others, suggesting that he's harmful and dangerous to them. Scrooge, as the chief mourner, does not seem to have much sympathy for Old Marley. Scrooge has already, Would not have made it through AP Literature without the printable PDFs. His greed is so extreme that he will not even spend the money to allow Cratchit to be warm in the office. (meaning rubbish or nonsense) suggesting that scrooge is dismissive of Christmas and the values that come with it, and the animalistic onomatopoeia of "bah!" Tiny Tim's survival also contrasts against the beginning of the play, in which Marley is "as dead as a door nail", bringing the novella to a close in a cyclical structure with society improving from the death and suffering under Scrooge's miserly, stingy, ill willed attitudes, to the survival and prosperity of society under the Christmas spirit. Find full texts with expert analysis in our extensive library. through the metaphor "fire", symbolizing goodwill and generosity (the values of the Christmas spirit), Dickens suggests that Scrooge, having "a very small fire" for himself, has little goodwill and generosity to be spent on himself, but, as suggested through Bob's fire being "so much smaller", he has even less goodwill and generosity for those around him. who cold as he was, was warmer than Scrooge; for he returned them cordially. Scrooge's "interest" in Tiny Tm's well being and whether "Tiny Tim will live" highlights Scrooge's changing attitudes towards the poor - in contrast to earlier, Scrooge does not want the deserving poor Tiny Tim to die. Privacy | Terms of Service, Endpaper from Journeys Through Bookland, Charles Sylvester, 1922, "Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster". My students love how organized the handouts are and enjoy tracking the themes as a class., Requesting a new guide requires a free LitCharts account. He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other old city, town, or borough, in the good old world.". 'Oh! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. What reason have you to be morose? The exclamation mark in "Oh!" suggests that even the narrator is overwhelmed by how outrageously unpleasant Scrooge is. To make the comparison, similes most often use the connecting words "like A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two unlike things. No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting rain less open to entreaty." a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! --------------------------------------------------------, "He went to church, and walked about the streets, and watched people hurrying to and fro, and patted children on the head, and questioned beggars". He is cold and greedy, not the kind of man people want to befriend. PDF downloads of all 1699 LitCharts literature guides, and of every new one we publish. Scrooge sat down upon a form, and wept to see his poor forgotten self as he used to be. Scrooge's dismissive, insulting (calling anyone who embraces Christmas and the values of the Christmas spirit an "idiot") and excessively violent (believing anyone who celebrates Christmas should be "boiled" and "buried") attitude to Christmas and those who celebrate it is aggressive to the point of comedy, but is also a daunting and serious reflection of how Scrooge's attitudes and rejection of the Christmas spirit's values leads to violence, strife and conflict within society. Scrooge is a cold-hearted tight miser who watches everything going on within his counting-house business. Which, you see, were a drawback on my learning. This is a great quote for highlighting the sort of character that Scrooge was in ' A Christmas Carol '. `How it is that I appear before you in a shape that you can see, I may not tell. 806 8067 22 Registered Office: Imperial House, 2nd Floor, 40-42 Queens Road, Brighton, East Sussex, BN1 3XB, Taking a break or withdrawing from your course. Discover more quotations from A Christmas Carol. A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two unlike things. Why show me this, if I am past all hope! For the first time, the hand appeared to shake. At the very least, this alone would make him an outsider. Teacher Editions with classroom activities for all 1699 titles we cover. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir., `And the Union workhouses demanded Scrooge. He went the whole length of the expression, and said that he would see him in that extremity first. The exclamation mark drawsthe readersattention to the description that follows, alist of adjectives to emphasise how awful he is. PDFs of modern translations of every Shakespeare play and poem. A solitary child, neglected by his friends, is left there. `A merry Christmas, uncle! I help to support the establishments I have mentioned -- they cost enough; and those who are badly off must go there., `If they would rather die, said Scrooge, `they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population. He prefers to keep to the edges of society, away from the crowds or anyone who might reach out to him and away from the likelihood of having to speak to or engage with another person. This girl is Want. 2023 eNotes.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved, "Secret, And Self-contained, And Solitary As An Oyster". Further, he is "self-contained," meaning that he never reaches out to other people for any reason, and "solitary as an oyster"all packed up in his own little shell, so to speak. Though Fred is poor (though not as poor as Cratchit), his attire is colorful and he is generous and sociable with his Christmas provisions. Accessed 2 March 2023. When Jack Cade leads a rebellion against the king, he declares that "if I do not leave you all as dead as a doornail, I pray God I may never eat grass more." Scrooge is Hard and sharp as flint (p. 2). A squeezing, wrenching, grasping,scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner!" Dickens is comparing Scrooge to two aspects common to flint; its hardness (here meaning that Scrooge is mean or tight) and its sharpness (here meaning that Scrooge watches over everything and doesnt miss anything in his work). Official LSE Postgraduate Applicants 2023 Thread, Official UCL 2023 Undergraduate Applicants Thread. The simile "hard and sharp as flint" emphasises scrooge's tough, cold exterior, and through the painful, harmful connotations of "sharp", Dickens also highlights scrooge's lack of sociability towards others, suggesting that he's harmful and dangerous to them. The passage clearly states that Scrooge is "a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone" and is "hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel struck out a generous fire." Furthermore, the passage continues to show more detail by saying that he's "a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner" and . Here in this quote, one can see Dickens playing with literal and figurative meanings to great effect. What projects have you done related to STEM? Dickens, as Scrooge learns lessons and truths from the ghost of Christmas past, portrays scrooge as beginning to change, breaking away from his miserly attitudes and becoming more generous, wanting to "give" the caroller "something", in contrast to his absolute selfishness, rejection of the Christmas spirit and lack of generosity from earlier. He becomes nearly inebriated with joy. The use of similes helps an author to strengthen a description, and for the reader it helps to better visualize the scene in their heads. Scrooge never painted out Old Marleys name. Is an accounting and finance degree worth it? Oh, tell me I may sponge away the writing on this stone!". "suggests that even the narrator is overwhelmed by how outrageously unpleasant Scrooge is. Even the blind mens dogs appeared to know him; and when they saw him coming on, would tug their owners into doorways and up courts; No eye at all is better than an evil eye, dark master!. Analysis; Cold-hearted: According to Dickens's description, . School Memberships, 2023 OwlEyes.org, Inc. All Rights Reserved. What does the quote hard and sharp as flint mean?Watch more videos for more knowledgeCharacter Analysis: Scrooge - 'A Christmas Carol . 795. The passage precisely states that Scrooge is "a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone" and "hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel struck out a generous fire." Furthermore, the passage shows greater detail by saying that he's "a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner" and "solitary as an . Flint was traditionally used to start fires which may hint at Scrooges later change in attitude as the story unfolds. Now, it is a fact, that there was nothing at all particular about the knocker on the door, except that it was very large. he was all in a glow; his face was ruddy and handsome; his eyes sparkled, and his breath smoked again. How is Scrooge portrayed as an outsider in Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol? Scrooge refuses to believe in Marley, just as he refuses to believe in Christmas. To sit, staring at those fixed glazed eyes, in silence for a moment, would play, Scrooge felt, the very deuce with him. as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. "A merrier Christmas, Bob, my good fellow, than I have given you for many a year! Refine any search. Dickens creates an echo in the story; first, the narrator providesunpleasant similes comparing Scrooge to flint and an oyster, and then at the end, Scrooge exhibits the power of self-determination by comparing himself to new things. Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. This might have lasted half a minute, or a minute, but it seemed an hour. Copyright The Student Room 2023 all rights reserved. Though he looked the phantom through and through, though he felt the chilling influence of its death-cold eyes, `How now! said Scrooge, caustic and cold as ever. Nobody under the table, nobody under the sofa, a small fire in the grate; spoon and basin ready; and the little saucepan of gruel, Nobody under the bed; nobody in the closet; nobody in his dressing-gown, which was hanging up in a suspicious attitude against the wall. Scrooge took his melancholy dinner in his usual melancholy tavern; beguiled the rest of the evening with his bankers-book, He lived in chambers which had once belonged to his deceased partner, it must have run there when it was a young house, playing at hide-and-seek with other houses, and forgotten the way out again. The heaviest rain, and snow, and hail, and sleet, could boast of the advantage over him in only one respect. It was long, and wound about him like a tail; and it was made (for Scrooge observed it closely) of cash-boxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, deeds, and heavy purses wrought in steel. Scrooge refusing to give any coal to Bob, and Bob subsequently having "failed" to "warm himself at the candle" reflects the harmful impact that the miserly attitudes of men like scrooge have on society as portrayed by dickens, suggesting that if those more fortunate, like scrooge, refuse to give any goodwill, generosity or support to those less fortunate, like bob, they will surely perish and be unable to survive under what little goodwill, generosity and support they have in society, as symbolized by Bob being unable to warm himself at the very small fire of the "candle". Complete your free account to access notes and highlights. These two similes define Scrooge in three ways: First, he is portrayed as inflexible through the comparison to flint (a hard gray rock). It was not angry or ferocious, but looked at Scrooge as Marley used to look: with ghostly spectacles turned up on its ghostly forehead. Educators go through a rigorous application process, and every answer they submit is reviewed by our in-house editorial team. Flint is a form of the mineral quartz, which occurs chiefly as nodules and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalk and limestones. It contrasts sharply with the narrator's initial description, as these positive similes differ greatlyfrom ones like "as hard and sharp as flint" or "solitary as an oyster." Many's the hard day's walking in rain and mud, and with never a penny earned. a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Struggling with distance learning? Before telling us the incident with the door knocker, In order to make this night stand out as a unique milestone in Scrooges routine existence, the narrator focuses first on Scrooge's sanity and the usual normality of his world. 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