Charles Dickens Group
Question:
yashira17
Student
High School - 12th Grade
What are some of the words Dickens uses to create the mood of the paragraphs 79-83 in Stave 4? What is this mood?
Answers:
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mwestwood Teacher
Community / Jr. CollegeeNotes Editor
Posted by mwestwood on Thursday March 19, 2009 at 7:02 PMThe Phantom, the Ghost "whose province was the Future" allows Scrooge to see his room plundered by the rag pickers; there on the bare, uncurtained bed his body lies "gereft, unwatched, unwept, uncared for." Then, it as though Scrooge hears a message which tells him that the dead man would be untouched by "dreadful Death" if he had been kind and generous, for he would be long remembered by those he loved. These loved ones would "sow the world with life immortal."
Words such as the "loved, revered, and honoured head" suggest that even though dead, the man would not be remembered as "odious." Instead, people would remember that "the hand WAS open, generous, and true; the heat brave, warm, and tender; and the pulse a man's." In other words, the man would live in the hearts of those whom he loved and those who love him. The mood of these words is one of warmth, a warmth that offers consolation.
As Scrooge looks again at the image of his corpse, he perceives a cat scratching and rats gnawing. The miser realizes that his body will be ravaged by scavenger animals if no one cares for him. Shuddering at this thought, Scrooge asks the Spirit to remove him from such a "fearful place." He tells the Phantom that he will leave, but not forgot its lessons.
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