GCSE · English Literature · AQA · Spec 8702

Scrooge

If the poor would rather die, Scrooge says, they 'had better do it'. By the end he's Tiny Tim's second father.

A Christmas Carol · Scrooge's journey

Scrooge, in his own words

Tap each point on the line. You'll see what Scrooge says at that moment and what it shows. Notice that the line climbs in steps, stave by stave: this is a journey, not a switch.

Scrooge

Start at the bottom left and work along. Staves 2 and 3 have no quotation here: those moments are told in the teacher's words.

Moment 1 · Stave 1 · 'Humbug'

“let me keep it in mine”

What to notice

Scrooge tells his nephew that Christmas is humbug, Then he shuts the door on it.

Effect

The neat balance of 'your own way' and 'mine' sounds polite, but it ends the conversation. The nephew keeps Christmas; Scrooge 'keeps' it by keeping it out.

Meaning

Hold on to that word 'keep'. It comes back twice more, and each time it tells you how far he has travelled.

Moment 1 of 10: Stave 1 · 'Humbug'. Scrooge tells his nephew that Christmas is humbug, Then he shuts the door on it.. effect: The neat balance of 'your own way' and 'mine' sounds polite, but it ends the conversation. The nephew keeps Christmas; Scrooge 'keeps' it by keeping it out.. meaning: Hold on to that word 'keep'. It comes back twice more, and each time it tells you how far he has travelled.

Stave 1, to his nephew:
“…keep Christmas in your own way, and let me keep it in mine.”

Stave 1, to the gentlemen collecting for the poor:
“Are there no prisons?” … “they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”

Stave 4, about the dead man nobody mourns:
“The case of this unhappy man might be my own. My life tends that way, now.”

Stave 4, at the neglected grave:
“I am not the man I was.”

Stave 4, his vow:
“I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future.”

Stave 5, waking up:
“I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a schoolboy.”

Stave 5, to Bob Cratchit:
“I'll raise your salary, and endeavour to assist your struggling family”

The novella's last word on Scrooge:
“that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge.”

Back to the start: how Dickens builds a miser in Stave 1

The line started at rock bottom. These are the narrator's words that put him there. Read each quotation, then what to write about it.

The shape of the story

Put Scrooge's journey in order

Scrooge's change can be read as a 'redeemed hero' story. A literary hero is the main character who overcomes challenges. Put the five stages of that story in order.

1 · Happens first5 · Happens last

That which was lost is found
Guidance or intervention is given
A huge celebration follows
Something is lost
A great search occurs

When does he really change?

Overnight miracle, or something more?

Someone in your class says: 'Scrooge doesn't really change. He just wakes up different on Christmas morning.'

Which of these is closest to what you think right now?

He changes overnight. He goes to bed a miser and wakes up a new man on Christmas morning.He only changes because he's scared of his own grave. It's all about saving himself.His change builds across the book. His lost empathy is found in Stave 4, and Stave 5 celebrates it.He was always cold-hearted. The ghosts give him a kindness he never had.

How sure are you?

I'm sureI think soI'm guessing

He changes overnight. He goes to bed a miser and wakes up a new man on Christmas morning.

This is a common misconception

The waking joy of Stave 5 is real, but it's the celebration of a change that has already happened. The change itself is found the stave before, when he looks at the dead man nobody mourns and says 'The case of this unhappy man might be my own.' Christmas morning is the party, not the turning point.

He only changes because he's scared of his own grave. It's all about saving himself.

This is a common misconception

The fear is real: he pleads with the Spirit at the neglected grave. But look at what happens first. He feels for a stranger nobody mourns and sees his own life in that man's. Feeling for someone else is exactly what he had lost, and that is the moment it comes back.

His change builds across the book. His lost empathy is found in Stave 4, and Stave 5 celebrates it.

This matches the evidence

Yes. Empathy is lost in Stave 1, searched for with the spirits, and found in Stave 4 when he can feel for the unmourned dead man. Stave 5 is the celebration: the joy, the salary, Tiny Tim. That's why the change feels earned rather than magic.

He was always cold-hearted. The ghosts give him a kindness he never had.

This is a common misconception

Stave 2 says otherwise. Belle tells him he has changed, which shows he was not always a miser. So this is a story about something lost and then found, not something added from nothing.

Scrooge's empathy is found in Stave 4 and celebrated in Stave 5. He doesn't simply wake up different.

Why write him like this?

Reason it through

Why does Dickens make Scrooge such an extreme miser?

Link 1 of 4

First link · your turn

Scrooge is as cold, mean and grasping as a character can be. Is that an accident?

Locked — reveal the link above first

Your turn

Write it: how does Scrooge change?

How does Dickens present Scrooge's transformation? Write one or two paragraphs using Scrooge's words from the start and the end of the novella. [6 marks]

Your answer

0 words · your answer stays on this page and is not sent anywhere.

The mark scheme

Uses an accurate Stave 1 quotation to show where Scrooge starts, e.g. 'let me keep it in mine' or 'decrease the surplus population'. (1 mark)
Uses an accurate Stave 4 or Stave 5 quotation to show the change, e.g. 'I am not the man I was', 'I will honour Christmas in my heart' or 'light as a feather'. (1 mark)
Analyses a word or method inside a quotation, e.g. the echo of 'keep', the similes of Stave 5, 'surplus' or 'might be my own'. (1 mark)
Shows the change is a staged journey (lost, search, guidance, found, celebration) rather than a sudden switch. (1 mark)
Places the turning point where his lost empathy is found: seeing himself in the dead man nobody mourns in Stave 4. (1 mark)
Links to Dickens's purpose: Scrooge is exaggerated so that anyone can change, as a wake-up call to readers to show empathy and charity. (1 mark)

Model answer

Dickens presents Scrooge's transformation as a slow climb rather than a leap. At the start, Scrooge dismisses the poor as 'surplus population', a word for leftover stock that shows he has stopped seeing the poor as people at all. The climb only reaches its turning point in Stave 4, when he looks at a dead man nobody mourns and admits 'my life tends that way, now'. The verb 'tends' suggests a path he can still step off, and for the first time he feels for someone other than himself. By Stave 5 that feeling becomes action: he promises to 'raise your salary' and turns out 'better than his word'. Because Dickens has made Scrooge so extreme, his redemption is a wake-up call to comfortable readers: if he can learn empathy and charity, so can they.

The strongest answers set the start against the end, name the stave where empathy is found, and say why Dickens wanted readers to watch it happen.

WHAT YOU'VE LEARNED

A quick recap of today's lesson.

Follow him from 'humbug' to 'a second father' to Tiny Tim, and watch Dickens build the change stave by stave.

What you need to know

In Stave 1 Dickens builds Scrooge as an extreme miser: hard, cold, solitary, and happy to keep all human sympathy at a distance.
Scrooge's change follows the redeemed hero story: something is lost, a great search occurs, guidance is given, what was lost is found, and a huge celebration follows.
What Scrooge has lost is empathy. It is found in Stave 4, when he sees himself in the dead man nobody mourns, and Stave 5 celebrates the change.
Dickens exaggerates Scrooge so that if he can change, anyone can. The novella is a wake-up call to the middle and upper classes to show empathy and charity.

The big picture

Scrooge begins A Christmas Carol as a cold, grasping miser who keeps all sympathy at a distance and talks about the poor as 'surplus population'. Across the five staves, Dickens takes him through a redeemed hero story: his lost empathy is searched for with the spirits' guidance, found in Stave 4 and celebrated in Stave 5. Dickens exaggerates Scrooge on purpose, because if he can change, anyone can. The novella was a wake-up call to middle- and upper-class readers, championing empathy and charity.

Key points

1Stave 1 Scrooge is 'Hard and sharp as flint' and 'solitary as an oyster': cold, shut away, and alone by choice.

2'Keep Christmas' echoes three times: refused ('let me keep it in mine'), vowed ('try to keep it all the year') and praised ('knew how to keep Christmas well').

3Belle (Stave 2) shows he was not always a miser. Tiny Tim (Stave 3) makes him openly sympathetic.

4The turning point is Stave 4: 'The case of this unhappy man might be my own.'

5Stave 5 is the celebration: 'light as a feather', a raised salary, and a second father to Tiny Tim.

6Dickens hoped his idea would 'haunt their houses pleasantly'. The message lasts for as long as society stays unfair and unequal.

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Worked example

Problem

Model analysis: how does Dickens use warmth and money to show how much Scrooge changes? Use one detail from Stave 1 and one from Stave 5.

⚠ Watch out

Writing about Scrooge as if he were a real person who just decides to be nicer. He is a character Dickens built, exaggerated on purpose, so that readers would change too. Always ask why Dickens wrote him that way.

🧠

Memory hook

The five stages of Scrooge's journey: Lost Souls Get Found at Christmas. Lost, Search, Guidance, Found, Celebration.

✓

Check yourself

If Scrooge were only a little bit mean at the start, would his change mean as much to Dickens's readers? Why not?

Flashcards

(14)

Which piled-up list introduces Scrooge in Stave 1?

'a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner!' Five of the words are things a grabbing hand does.

Which two similes show Scrooge is hard and shut off in Stave 1?

'Hard and sharp as flint' and 'secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster'.

How does Dickens use cold to describe Scrooge?

'The cold within him froze his old features', and he 'iced his office in the dog-days; and didn't thaw it one degree at Christmas.'

How does Scrooge treat other people's sympathy in Stave 1?

Nobody greets him and he likes it: he goes through life 'warning all human sympathy to keep its distance'.

What does Scrooge say to his nephew about keeping Christmas?

He calls Christmas humbug: 'keep Christmas in your own way, and let me keep it in mine.'

What does Scrooge say when asked to give to the poor?

'Are there no prisons?' If they would rather die, 'they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.'

What are the five stages of the redeemed hero story?

Something is lost; a great search occurs; guidance or intervention is given; that which was lost is found; a huge celebration follows.

What does Belle show us in Stave 2?

Scrooge chose money over her, and she tells him he has changed, so he was not always a miser.

Where is Scrooge's lost empathy found?

Stave 4, when he sees himself in the dead man nobody mourns: 'The case of this unhappy man might be my own. My life tends that way, now.'

What does Scrooge vow in Stave 4?

'I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future.'

How does Scrooge describe himself on waking in Stave 5?

'I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a schoolboy.'

Why does Dickens exaggerate Scrooge's traits?

So that if he is capable of transformation, anyone is. That makes him an example to many.

Which readers was the novella aimed at, and why?

The middle and upper classes. Dickens saw their wilful ignorance of the plight of the poor and wrote it as a wake-up call.

Why is A Christmas Carol called a timeless classic?

Its moral message applies for as long as society remains unfair and unequal.

Tap any card to flip it, or use Study as deck to go through them one at a time. In the full lesson these run as a spaced-repetition deck — you rate each card Hard, Good or Easy and the tricky ones keep coming back until they stick.

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Scrooge, in his own words

Put Scrooge's journey in order

Overnight miracle, or something more?

Write it: how does Scrooge change?

More AQA GCSE English Literature topics