{"id":154,"date":"2014-06-16T18:17:24","date_gmt":"2014-06-16T18:17:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/englishliterature\/?post_type=chapter&p=154"},"modified":"2019-07-04T22:48:52","modified_gmt":"2019-07-04T22:48:52","slug":"charles-dickens-1812-1870","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/englishliterature\/chapter\/charles-dickens-1812-1870\/","title":{"raw":"Study Questions, Activities, and Resources","rendered":"Study Questions, Activities, and Resources"},"content":{"raw":"
\r\n

Study Questions and Activities<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

\r\n

Stave 1<\/h1>\r\n
    \r\n \t
  1. If the purpose of the ghost of Hamlet\u2019s father is to incite revenge, what is the purpose of Marley\u2019s ghost?<\/li>\r\n \t
  2. What is the thematic significance of the narrator\u2019s early insistence on certainty and proof?<\/li>\r\n \t
  3. How is his nephew Fred a foil to Scrooge?<\/li>\r\n \t
  4. How does Scrooge justify his refusal to donate money to the two canvassers?<\/li>\r\n \t
  5. Give some examples of humour in Stave 1.<\/li>\r\n \t
  6. Why is Bob Cratchit expected to show up for work on December 26? In what year did it become a statutory holiday in Britain?<\/li>\r\n \t
  7. Give some examples to demonstrate Scrooge\u2019s avarice.<\/li>\r\n \t
  8. What does Scrooge mean when he remarks to Marley\u2019s ghost, \u201cYou\u2019re particular for a shade\u201d?<\/li>\r\n \t
  9. How do the ghost and Scrooge hold opposing views on\u00a0the purpose of life?<\/li>\r\n \t
  10. At what different times does Marley tell Scrooge the three ghosts will arrive?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n

    Stave 2<\/h1>\r\n
      \r\n \t
    1. Give an example or two of the ghost\u2019s playing devil\u2019s advocate and Scrooge correcting him.<\/li>\r\n \t
    2. Why does Scrooge resent Fred?<\/li>\r\n \t
    3. Why does Scrooge\u2019s fianc\u00e9e release him from the engagement?<\/li>\r\n \t
    4. What do the child-man images, especially with the Ghost of Christmas Past, symbolize? See especially, \u201cI should have liked...to have had the lightest licence of a child, and yet been man enough to know its value.\u201d [cf. Wordsworth, \u201cThe child is father of the man...Matthew 18:3.]<\/li>\r\n \t
    5. Who is Belle? You might use the word search function if you are using an e-text.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n

      Stave 3<\/h1>\r\n
        \r\n \t
      1. What is the autobiographical connection to the Cratchit family\u2019s living in Camden Town? (See the brief biography that precedes the text of A Christmas Carol<\/em>.)<\/li>\r\n \t
      2. Describe the Ghost of Christmas Present. How does he differ from the first spirit?<\/li>\r\n \t
      3. How does Scrooge reproach this spirit before they visit the Cratchit home?<\/li>\r\n \t
      4. Under what condition will the prophecy of Tiny Tim\u2019s death come to pass?<\/li>\r\n \t
      5. What is ironic about the ghost\u2019s words to Scrooge regarding the surplus population?<\/li>\r\n \t
      6. What is the effect of the short descriptions of the miners and the sailors?<\/li>\r\n \t
      7. How does the scene at Fred\u2019s party echo the scene at the Cratchit family dinner?<\/li>\r\n \t
      8. Whose offspring are the boy Ignorance and the girl Want?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n

        Stave 4<\/h1>\r\n
          \r\n \t
        1. How does the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come differ in appearance from the two other ghosts?<\/li>\r\n \t
        2. What do the charwoman, the laundress, and the undertaker\u2019s man have in common with Scrooge?<\/li>\r\n \t
        3. Why is the charwoman Mrs. Dilber\u2019s role expanded in the 1951 film?<\/li>\r\n \t
        4. What is the ironic purpose of the scene with Caroline and her husband?<\/li>\r\n \t
        5. What is the green place to which Bob refers?<\/li>\r\n \t
        6. What lines in this scene strike you as overly sentimental? (cf. Oscar Wilde\u2019s apocryphal aphorism, \u201c'One would have to have a heart of stone to read the death of little Nell without dissolving into tears...of laughter.\u201d Little Nell is the impossibly good child in Dickens\u2019s novel The Old Curiosity Shop<\/em> (1841).<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n

          Stave 5<\/h1>\r\n
            \r\n \t
          1. Does the subtitle of Stave 5 have a double meaning?<\/li>\r\n \t
          2. How is the apparent contradiction in the last question of Stanza 1 resolved after Scrooge learns what day it is?<\/li>\r\n \t
          3. Does the reborn Scrooge hesitate to spend on himself as well as on others?<\/li>\r\n \t
          4. What does Scrooge say to the canvasser that he rebuffed in his counting house?<\/li>\r\n \t
          5. What does Scrooge fear when he asks to be admitted to Fred\u2019s party?<\/li>\r\n \t
          6. What is the first kindness that Scrooge shows to Bob Cratchit on Boxing Day?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n

            Essay Topics and Activities<\/h1>\r\n