The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it. We can infer that the only other person he cared for was Marley and even that wasn't really because of a friendship. Only financial gain. A business like tone is established from the beginning After tea they had some music. For they were a musical family, and knew what they were about, when they sung a Glee or Catch, 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. The door of Scrooge’s counting-house was open that he might keep his eye upon his clerk , who in a dismal little cell beyond, a sort of tank, was copying letters . Scrooge had a very small fire, but the clerk’s fire was so very much smaller that it looked like one coal. But he couldn’t replenish it, for Scrooge kept the coal-box in his own room; and so surely as the clerk came in with the shovel, the master predicted that it would be necessary for them to part. Wherefore the clerk put on his white comforter , and tried to warm himself at the candle; in which effort, not being a man of a strong imagination, he failed.

A Christmas Carol: Study Guide | SparkNotes

This was succeeded by a clanking noise, deep down below, as if some person were dragging a heavy chain over the casks in the wine-merchant's cellar. She was very pretty; exceedingly pretty. With a dimpled, surprised-looking, capital face; a ripe little mouth that seemed made to be kissed, -- as no doubt it was; all kinds of good little dots about her chin, that melted into one another when she laughed; and the sunniest pair of eyes you ever saw in any little creature's head. Altogether she was what you would have called provoking, but satisfactory, too. O, perfectly satisfactory. Men's courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead. But if the courses be departed from, the ends will change. Say it is thus with what you show me!" But how much greater was his horror when, the phantom taking off the bandage round its head, as if it were too warm to wear in-doors, its lower jaw dropped down upon its breast!Lead on! Lead on! The night is waning fast, and it is precious time to me, I know. Lead on, Spirit!"

Annotated Christmas Carol – A Christmas Carol in Prose: 0 The Annotated Christmas Carol – A Christmas Carol in Prose: 0

The Spirit dropped beneath it, so that the extinguisher covered its whole form; but though Scrooge pressed it down with all his force, he could not hide the light, which streamed from under it, in an unbroken flood upon the ground Scrooge has spent his entire life trying to suppress his painful memories and this is the symbolism of his 'fight' with the spirit. The light escaping the bottom symbolises that he will never truly succeed. At last the dinner was all done, the cloth was cleared, the hearth swept, and the fire made up. The compound in the jug being tasted, and considered perfect, apples and oranges were put upon the table, and a shovelful of chestnuts on the fire.

Scrooge said that he would see him -- yes, indeed he did. He went the whole length of the expression, and said that he would see him in that extremity first. An intelligent boy!" said Scrooge. "A remarkable boy! The interactions with this boy remind us of the interactions with the carol singer and juxtapose this. This shows Scrooge's willingness to change. Mind! I don’t mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a door-nail. I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the Country’s done for. You will therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as dead as a door-nail. my clerk, with fifteen shillings a week, and a wife and family, talking about a merry Christmas. I’ll retire to Bedlam. The irony being that Scrooge set the clerk's Salary - is he already starting to realise he is being too mean?

A Christmas Carol: Annotation-Friendly Edition (Ideal for A Christmas Carol: Annotation-Friendly Edition (Ideal for

More shame for him, Fred!" said Scrooge's niece, indignantly. Bless those women! they never do anything by halves. They are always in earnest.

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-humor. When Scrooge's nephew laughed, Scrooge's niece by marriage laughed as heartily as he. And their assembled friends, being not a bit behindhand, laughed out lustily. But what did Scrooge care! It was the very thing he liked . To edge his way along the crowded paths of life, warning all human sympathy to keep its distance, was what the knowing ones call `nuts’ to Scrooge. Nay, uncle, but you never came to see me before that happened. Why give it as a reason for not coming now?’ Quiet. Very quiet. The noisy little Cratchits were as still as statues in one corner, and sat looking up at Peter, who had a book before him. The mother and her daughters were engaged in needle-work. But surely they were very quiet! Martha didn't like to see him disappointed, if it were only in joke; so she came out prematurely from behind the closet door, and ran into his arms, while the two young Cratchits hustled Tiny Tim, and bore him off to the wash-house that he might hear the pudding singing in the copper.

A Christmas Carol Fully Annotated | Teaching Resources A Christmas Carol Fully Annotated | Teaching Resources

The scene had changed, and now he almost touched a bare, uncurtained bed. A pale light, rising in the outer air, fell straight upon this bed; and on it, unwatched, unwept, uncared for, was the body of this plundered unknown man. Then, with a rapidity of transition very foreign to his usual character, he said, in pity for his former self, "Poor boy! Scrooge begins to feel pity for his former self and immediately begins to show his changing attitude - he says he wished he gave some money to the Carol singer he encountered earlier in the novel. The sound resounded through the house like thunder . Every room above, and every cask in the wine-merchant’s cellars below, appeared to have a separate peal of echoes of its own. Scrooge was not a man to be frightened by echoes. He fastened the door, and walked across the hall, and up the stairs; slowly too : trimming his candle as he went. Seeing clearly that it would be useless to pursue their point, the gentlemen withdrew. Scrooge returned his labours with an improved opinion of himself, and in a more facetious temper than was usual with him.

Famously grumpy, stingy, and known for his hatred of Christmas, Ebenezer Scrooge inspired the label 'Scrooge'. The word 'Scrooge' has entered common language and is often used to describe people who are bad-tempered around the festive season. They scarcely seemed to enter the city; for the city rather seemed to spring up about them. But there they were in the heart of it; on 'Change, amongst the merchants.