A Christmas Carol Questions and Answers
by Charles Dickens

Recently Answered Questions

• A Christmas Carol
  please list things in part one that prove the setting is in england, in the year 1843:)
  There are many references in "Stave I" that prove that the setting is in England in 1843: The use of candles for light coal-boxes Scrooge's counting-house Union workhouses The Treadmill and the...

  1 Educator Answer

• A Christmas Carol
  What joke did the Cratchit family play on Bob Cratchit when he returned home in A Christmas Carol?
  In stave 3, "The Second of the Three Spirits," of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, the Ghost of Christmas Present has brought Ebenezer Scrooge to the Cratchit's humble home in Camden Town, a...

  1 Educator Answer

• A Christmas Carol
  Why does Dickens use ghosts in A Christmas Carol?
  On Christmas Eve, right before he goes to sleep, Ebeneezer Scrooge is visited by three spirits: The Ghost of Christmas Past, the Ghost of Christmas Present, and the Ghost of Christmas Future or...

  1 Educator Answer

• A Christmas Carol
  Why did Scrooge take one coin from Fred in A Christmas Carol?
  There is no mention of Scrooge taking a coin (or a farthing as Dickens would probably refer to it) from his nephew Fred. Scrooge only meets the happy-go-lucky Fred a few times in the story. He...

  1 Educator Answer

• A Christmas Carol
  From scene 1, what can you infer about Scrooge's attitude toward Christmas in A Christmas Carol? Your response should include evidence of an event or action that supports your claim.
  From the very first page, the reader is led to understand that Ebenezer Scrooge has a disdain for Christmas or indeed any kind of celebration. The author, Charles Dickens, masterfully weaves the...

  1 Educator Answer

• A Christmas Carol
  Why did Scrooge think his nephew and his clerk were fools?
  At the beginning of the story, Scrooge's nephew, Fred, arrives at his counting-house and greets him with a merry Christmas. Scrooge is an extremely misery, angry man, who responds to his nephew's...

  1 Educator Answer

• A Christmas Carol
  What does the light that came above the Spirit of Christmas Past's head represent?
  The light above the Ghost of Christmas Past's head represents revelation and self-discovery. It illuminates Scrooge's past, reminding him of how Christmases used to be in his younger days and how...

  1 Educator Answer

• A Christmas Carol
  Please present the literary device used in part 3 of A Christmas Carol.
  In the following passage, Dickens uses both simile and personification to express a joyous mood for Christmas present. Simile is a comparison using the words like or as, while personification is...

  1 Educator Answer

• A Christmas Carol
  How do the sights into Scrooge's past in A Christmas Carol help you understand why he became a stingy and ill-tempered man?
  When the Ghost of Christmas Past makes the first stop on the journey, Scrooge is reminded of a Christmas when the fields all around his school were "so full of merry music, that the crisp air...

  1 Educator Answer

• A Christmas Carol
  Describe the second spirit physically.
  In Stave 3, we meet the second Spirit: the Ghost of Christmas Present. This Spirit is tasked with teaching Scrooge about the effects of his actions in the present moment. The Spirit is described as...

  1 Educator Answer

• A Christmas Carol
  What does the quote "I wear the chains I forged in life" make the reader feel in A Christmas Carol?
  Charles Dickens presents a number of clear moments of social commentary in A Christmas Carol. The above quote, said by the spirit of Jacob Marley when Scrooge asks why the spirit is "fettered," is...

  1 Educator Answer

• A Christmas Carol
  How does Charles Dickens use the novel’s Christmas setting to shape Scrooge’s development as a character?
  Dickens's classic story is set in London, England, during the nineteenth century and takes place at Christmastime. Dickens depicts Christmas as a naturally festive time of year, when families...

  1 Educator Answer

• A Christmas Carol
  When did Mr. Scrooge give money to the poor?
  When the story begins, Scrooge is a mean old skinflint who hates the very idea of giving money to the poor (or anyone else, for that matter). When two charity collectors ask him for a contribution...

  1 Educator Answer

• A Christmas Carol
  What themes are linked to the ghost of Christmas past in A Christmas Carol?
  In stave 2, "The First of Three Spirits," of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story of Christmas, the Ghost of Christmas Past suddenly reveals itself to Ebenezer Scrooge, and it appears...

  1 Educator Answer

• A Christmas Carol
  Which of the children does the ghost say we should beware the most ?
  In stave 3, "The Second Of The Three Spirits," of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, the Ghost of Christmas Present conducts Ebenezer Scrooge throughout London, showing him vignettes of the...

  1 Educator Answer

• A Christmas Carol
  How do I write a good hook, introduction & thesis statement for the prompt: How does Scrooge's character transform over the course of the play?
  A hook is an opening statement that catches an audience's interest and keeps them reading. An introduction is, in quick strokes, the barebones background readers need to give them a context for...

  1 Educator Answer

• A Christmas Carol
  How does Dickens present the theme of Christmas in the novella A Christmas Carol?
  It's hard to precisely place "Christmas" as a theme. A theme in a work is typically understood as a far more abstract but commonly understood idea that transcends cultural barriers. Christmas is a...

  1 Educator Answer

• A Christmas Carol
  What symbolism might there be to the fact that it is the Bible scenes on Scrooge's mantle that undergo change in A Christmas Carol?
  Scrooge's fireplace appears to be based on the one at 18 St. Mary's Place, The Brook, Chatham, where Dickens lived briefly as a child in 1821–22. This too was surrounded with painted tiles...

  1 Educator Answer

• A Christmas Carol
  How is this experience of reading a dramatization of a Christmas carol different from reading the original story
  The experience will vary depending on the exact dramatization you read, but in general, a dramatization will be shorter and will eliminate many of the details in the interest of condensing the...

  1 Educator Answer

• A Christmas Carol
  How does ignorance relate to Scrooge in Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol?
  In Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, the miserly Scrooge is set upon by spirits who show him the error of his ways. The Ghost of Christmas Present, a rapidly aging, corpulent spirit, opens his...

  1 Educator Answer

• A Christmas Carol
  Scrooge is distressed after seeing Belle with her family. How do you think Dickens wants the reader to feel about Scrooge at this point in the book? Explain your answer
  When we see the scene of Belle with her family, we have only just finished observing a scene wherein Belle breaks off her engagement with Scrooge. She insists that he is not the man that he once...

  1 Educator Answer

• A Christmas Carol
  From where do the characters outside young Scrooge's window come? What is present-day Scrooge's reaction to them?
  In Stave Two, the Ghost of Christmas Past transports Scrooge to the countryside landscape of his youth, where children rejoice, laugh, and play during the Christmas holiday. The Spirit then leads...

  1 Educator Answer

• A Christmas Carol
  Why do you think the Ghost of Christmas past brings Scrooge to see Belle's family?
  Towards the end of Stave Two, the Ghost of Christmas Past brings Scrooge to visit his former fiancé’s home as they celebrate the holidays. Belle's family is depicted as a joyful, boisterous group,...

  1 Educator Answer

• A Christmas Carol
  Why does Bob Cratchit not hate Scrooge in A Christmas Carol?
  The reader learns about Bob Cratchit in stave 1, "Marley's Ghost," of Charles Dickens's novella A Christmas Carol: The door of Scrooge’s counting-house was open that he might keep his eye upon his...

  1 Educator Answer

• A Christmas Carol
  What is an analysis of Dickens's description of the Ghost of Christmas Present?
  The narrator provides a lengthy description of the Ghost of Christmas Present in the third stave (or chapter) of the novel. It wears a "deep green robe," and the walls are all hung with "living...

  1 Educator Answer

• A Christmas Carol
  In stave 3, Dickens writes, "'Are there no prisons?' said the Spirit, turning on him for the last time with his own words. 'Are there no workhouses?'" Who is the spirit quoting? Why would the spirit say these words to Scrooge? What literary...
  When the Ghost of Christmas Present says these words to Scrooge in stave 3, he is actually quoting Scrooge himself from earlier in the novel, in stave 1. When the two gentlemen came to Scrooge's...

  1 Educator Answer

• A Christmas Carol
  What part includes the line "Scrooge wept to see his poor forgotten self"?
  In A Christmas Carol, the classic novella by Charles Dickens, an old miser named Ebenezer Scrooge must confront himself and make a decision about what kind of person he will be. A series of ghosts...

  1 Educator Answer

• A Christmas Carol
  Which terms and sentences tell us about the economic conditions of the family in A Christmas Carol? Discuss these terms and conditions.
  When Martha, the eldest Cratchit child, arrives at home for Christmas dinner, she is late because, as she says, she had a "deal of work to finish up last night [...] and had to clear away this...

  1 Educator Answer

• A Christmas Carol
  What are the effects and meaning of the phrase "upon its coming in the dying flame leaped up" from A Christmas Carol?
  The quote in question appears in stave 1 and is found on page 18 of my edition. The quote comes just as Scrooge sees Jacob Marley's ghost come up the stairs and enter the room that Scrooge is...

  1 Educator Answer

• A Christmas Carol
  The cellar door flew open with a booming sound ,and then heard the noise much louder identify distinctive features of the extract ,how do they contribute to meaning and effect.
  When Scrooge is at home, upstairs in his dark suite of rooms, he hears a "clanking noise, deep down below; as if some person were dragging a heavy chain over the casks in the wine-merchant's...

  1 Educator Answer

• A Christmas Carol
  Summary of stave 4 in A Christmas Carol
  The hooded phantom who appeared at the end of stave 3 approaches Scrooge. It is cloaked in deep black, and it does not speak; it only points in the direction it would have Scrooge go. Scrooge fears...

  2 Educator Answers

• A Christmas Carol
  Please give more details on Want as she appears in Dickens's A Christmas Carol.
  The girl symbolically named "Want" and the boy named "Ignorance" appear in stave 3, "The Second of the Three Spirits," of Charles Dickens's novella A Christmas Carol. Dickens published the novella...

  1 Educator Answer

• A Christmas Carol
  What is the author's likely purpose for the figurative language used in paragraph 6 of A Christmas Carol? Cite at least two pieces of evidence from the paragraph in your response.
  In paragraph 6 of the first stave, "Marley's Ghost," Dickens uses a figure of speech called simile to describe Scrooge's character. In a simile two different things are compared using the words...

  1 Educator Answer

• A Christmas Carol
  Why does Scrooge feel justified in turning down the visitors' request for a donation?
  In stave 1 of A Christmas Carol, Scrooge is approached by a couple of gentleman out collecting for charity on Christmas Eve. As Scrooge is such a wealthy individual, they assume that he'll be more...

  1 Educator Answer

• A Christmas Carol
  What is the relationship between Scrooge and Marley in A Christmas Carol?
  Scrooge and Marley were former business partners until Marley's death, some seven years before the beginning of the book. According to the narrator, Scrooge was the executor of Marley's will, his...

  1 Educator Answer

• A Christmas Carol
  Why is the little girl with the doll important in A Christmas Carol?
  The Ghost of Christmas Past shows Scrooge his former girlfriend, Belle, as she looked many years after their relationship ended, about seven years prior to the start of the text. Belle has married,...

  1 Educator Answer

• A Christmas Carol
  What is a summary of stave 5 of A Christmas Carol?
  The famous novella A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens tells of an old miser named Ebenezer Scrooge who is visited by various spirits on Christmas Eve. A brief summary of the previous staves is...

  1 Educator Answer

• A Christmas Carol
  How does Dickens’s description of the shop add to the element of horror in stave 4?
  In stave 4, Scrooge has died (although he doesn't know it yet), and he witnesses an interaction among some individuals who have stolen from him and the man to whom they pawn his goods, Old Joe....

  1 Educator Answer

• A Christmas Carol
  What does Scrooge say that he vows to do if he can continue living?
  After surveying several frightening scenes with the Spirit of Christmas Yet to Come, Scrooge finally arrives at his own grave. Horrified, Scrooge begins begging the Spirit for a different outcome....

  1 Educator Answer

• A Christmas Carol
  Why is Scrooge so hesitant to depart from his nephew's house in "A Christmas Carol"?
  To be sure, Scrooge isn't hesitant to depart from his nephew Fred's house, but he's certainly hesitant in approaching it. After attending church on Christmas morning, Scrooge, now a changed man,...

  1 Educator Answer

• A Christmas Carol
  What effect does the simile "It wound about him like a tail" in "A Christmas Carol" have?
  This elaborate simile refers to the chain that the ghost of Jacob Marley wears about his middle. Because of the greedy, grasping behavior Marley displayed when he was alive, his unquiet spirit has...

  1 Educator Answer

• A Christmas Carol
  Why does Dickens use the term "stave" for his chapters?
  The term "stave" ("staff" in American English) refers to the set of five lines separated by four spaces within musical notation. Every line represents a different pitch in the music. Dickens likely...

  1 Educator Answer

• A Christmas Carol
  Where’s the last place the Ghost of Christmas Present takes Scrooge?
  The last place the Ghost of Christmas Present takes Scrooge is to a "children's Twelfth Night party," a party that would be thrown on the last day of Christmas—which, according to the Christian...

  1 Educator Answer

• A Christmas Carol
  Why doesn't Scrooge start a large fire in the office or repaint the sign outside his business? What does this say about him?
  At the beginning of the classic novel A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, Scrooge is the sole proprietor of a counting-house, which today would be like a bookkeeper’s or an accountant’s office....

  1 Educator Answer

• A Christmas Carol
  What year does the Ghost of Christmas Past take Scrooge to when he goes back to his old boarding school?
  While we do not get references to exact dates in the novella, it is possible to make some guesses. Let's begin by assuming the text is set in 1843, which is the year it was published (and seems...

  1 Educator Answer

• A Christmas Carol
  Why is Scrooge powerless to lift the veil from the man who died? Why does he long to do so?
  Scrooge cannot bring himself to lift the veil from the man who died because he fears that the dead man is in fact future Scrooge, whom the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is presenting to him....

  1 Educator Answer

• A Christmas Carol
  What reason does Scrooge give for not making donation to the poor?
  When the two gentlemen come to collect donations for the poor, Scrooge tells them that he would like to be left alone. Further, he says that he does not "make merry" at Christmas and that he cannot...

  1 Educator Answer

• A Christmas Carol
  Why would Scrooge envy the Cratchits in "A Christmas Carol"?
  Here are some reasons why Ebenezer Scrooge, the "squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner" of Charles Dickens's Christmas novella, A Christmas Carol, might have...

  1 Educator Answer

• A Christmas Carol
  What changes do we see in Scrooge in stave 4?
  In stave 4, Scrooge is visited by the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. It is through this visit that Scrooge finally grasps how his greediness and oppressive behaviors affect other people and,...

  1 Educator Answer

• A Christmas Carol
  Which group of businessmen do you think Scrooge was most interested in impressing?
  When Scrooge has his interaction with the final ghost, the frightening phantom of all the Christmases yet to come, he sees and overhears a group of fat businessmen talking about a dead man. He has...

  1 Educator Answer