It was the very thing he liked. as if that were the only one thing in the world more ridiculous than a merry Christmas. `And yet,’ said Scrooge, `you don’t think me ill-used, when I pay a day’s wages for no work.’, `A poor excuse for picking a man’s pocket every twenty-fifth of December!’, But I suppose you must have the whole day. `Good afternoon,’ said Scrooge. There is no doubt You’re rich enough.’, Scrooge having no better answer ready on the spur of the moment. Stave 2. Foul weather didn’t know where to have him. He carried his own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the dogdays; and didn’t thaw it one degree at Christmas. The air was filled with phantoms, wandering hither and thither in restless haste, and moaning as they went. There is no doubt whatever about that. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the Country’s done for. Marley was dead, to begin with. `Business!’ cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. `Merry Christmas! `I must. Mine occupies me constantly. At length the hour of shutting up the counting- house arrived. There is no doubt that Marley Not to know that no space of regret can make amends for one life’s opportunity misused! `Expect the second on the next night at the same hour. Come! `Old Jacob Marley, tell me more. On a frigid, foggy Christmas Eve in London, a shrewd, mean-spirited cheapskate named Ebenezer Scrooge works meticulously in his counting-house. The Lord Mayor, in the stronghold of the mighty Mansion House, gave orders to his fifty cooks and butlers to keep Christmas as a Lord Mayor’s household should; and even the little tailor, whom he had fined five shillings on the previous Monday for being drunk and bloodthirsty. Many had been personally known to Scrooge in their lives. Scrooge's name was good upon 'Change, for anything he `I will,’ said Scrooge. Scrooge took his melancholy dinner in his usual melancholy tavern; and having read all the newspapers, and beguiled the rest of the evening with his banker’s-book, went home to bed. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir.’ he was all in a glow; his face was ruddy and handsome; his eyes sparkled, and his breath smoked again. `And the Union workhouses’ demanded Scrooge. `You’re particular, for a shade.’ He was going to say `to a shade,’ but substituted this, as more appropriate. `Don’t be cross, uncle!’ said the nephew. Old fire-guards, old shoes, two fish-baskets, washing-stand on three legs, and a poker. You may talk vaguely about driving a coach-and-six up a good old flight of stairs, or through a bad young Act of Parliament; but I mean to say you might have got a hearse up that staircase, and taken it broadwise, with the splinter-bar towards the wall and the door towards the balustrades: and done it easy. Marley was as dead as a door-nail. `If quite convenient, sir.’ A Christmas Carol Chapter 1 | Marley’s Ghost (Part 1) 10. `Thank ’ee!’ Themes and Colors Key LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in A Christmas Carol, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work. It was all the same to him. `God bless you, merry gentleman! Meanwhile the fog and darkness thickened so, that people ran about with flaring links, proffering their services to go before horses in carriages, and conduct them on their way. A Christmas Carol - Chapter 1 This is the B2 level text of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol chapter 1 with audio and comprehension questions. The register of his burial was `Under the impression that they scarcely furnish Christian cheer of mind or body to the multitude,’ returned the gentleman, `a few of us are endeavouring to raise a fund to buy the Poor some meat and drink. It is a ponderous chain!’ `Merry Christmas! God save you!’ cried a cheerful voice. Why give it as a reason for not coming now?’ You’re quite a powerful speaker, sir,’ he added, turning to his nephew. `But you might know it,’ observed the gentleman. he walked through his rooms to see that all was right. and means of warmth. `Let me leave it alone, then,’ said Scrooge. `It’s enough for a man to understand his own business, and not to interfere with other people’s. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. `You see this toothpick?’ said Scrooge, returning quickly to the charge, for the reason just assigned; and wishing, though it were only for a second, to divert the vision’s stony gaze from himself. There were Cains and Abels, Pharaohs’ daughters; Queens of Sheba, Angelic messengers descending through the air on clouds like feather-beds, Abrahams, Belshazzars, Apostles putting off to sea in butter-boats, hundreds of figures to attract his thoughts -- and yet that face of Marley, seven years dead, came like the ancient Prophet’s rod, and swallowed up the whole. It swung so softly in the outset that it scarcely made a sound; but soon it rang out loudly, and so did every bell in the house. When will you come to see me?’ No beggars implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it was o’clock, no man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to such and such a place, of Scrooge. Quite satisfied, he closed his door, and locked himself in; double-locked himself in, which was not his custom. Scrooge signed it. Though he looked the phantom through and through, and saw it standing before him; though he felt the chilling influence of its death-cold eyes; and marked the very texture of the folded kerchief bound about its head and chin, which wrapper he had not observed before; he was still incredulous, and fought against his senses. All as they should be. You have laboured on it, since. So A Merry Christmas, uncle!’ I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course,’ said Scrooge. `It’s not convenient,’ said Scrooge, `and it’s not fair. A slight disorder of the stomach makes them cheats. Scrooge signed it: and Scrooge's name was good upon 'Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to. To sit, staring at those fixed glazed eyes, in silence for a moment, would play, Scrooge felt, the very deuce with him. rebecca_gravolet. The ancient tower of a church, whose gruff old bell was always peeping slily down at Scrooge out of a Gothic window in the wall, became invisible, and struck the hours and quarters in the clouds, with tremulous vibrations afterwards as if its teeth were chattering in its frozen head up there. 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. It is also a fact, that Scrooge had seen it, night and morning, during his whole residence in that place; also that Scrooge had as little of what is called fancy about him as any man in the city of London, even including -- which is a bold word -- the corporation, aldermen, and livery. The apparition walked backward from him; and at every step it took, the window raised itself a little, so that when the spectre reached it, it was wide open. `Slow!’ the Ghost repeated. Episode 1: Miser Ebenezer Scrooge is unimpressed by Christmas… again; and followed it up with `Humbug.' Chapter 1 – Marley’s Ghost. To sit, staring at those fixed glazed eyes, in silence for a moment, would play, Scrooge felt, the very deuce with him. Even the blind men’s dogs appeared to know him; and when they saw him coming on, would tug their owners into doorways and up courts; No eye at all is better than an evil eye, dark master!’. `I won’t believe it.’ The narrator reminds the reader that Scrooge’s ex-partner Marley has been dead several years. `What else can I be,’ returned the uncle, `when I live in such a world of fools as this? `Why did you get married?’ said Scrooge. What reason have you to be merry? `I -- I think I’d rather not,’ said Scrooge. Noun. The hair was curiously stirred, as if by breath or hot air; and, though the eyes were wide open, they were perfectly motionless. literally to astonish his son's weak mind. Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. `But don’t be hard upon me! His sister. He looked out. `Mercy!’ he said. It was with great astonishment, and with a strange, inexplicable dread, that as he looked, he saw this bell begin to swing. It was cold, bleak, biting weather: foggy withal: and he could hear the people in the court outside, go wheezing up and down, beating their hands upon their breasts, and stamping their feet upon the pavement stones to warm them. `I am sorry, with all my heart, to find you so resolute. `It’s not my business,’ Scrooge returned. At the ominous word `liberality,’ Scrooge frowned, and shook his head, and handed the credentials back. mourner. `Christmas a humbug, uncle!’ said Scrooge’s nephew. If the good Saint Dunstan had but nipped the Evil Spirit’s nose with a touch of such weather as that, instead of using his familiar weapons, then indeed he would have roared to lusty purpose. 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. gentleman rashly turning out after dark in a breezy A Christmas Carol - Chapter 1 Summary & Analysis Charles Dickens This Study Guide consists of approximately 75 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of A Christmas Carol. Scrooge then remembered to have heard that ghosts in haunted houses were described as dragging chains. `Bah!’ said Scrooge, `Humbug!’ The mention of Marley's funeral brings me back to a time for finding yourself a year older, but not an hour richer; a time for balancing your books and having every item in ’em through a round dozen of months presented dead against you? `Good afternoon,’ said Scrooge. captive, bound, and double-ironed,’ cried the phantom, `not to know, that ages of incessant labour, by immortal creatures, for this earth must pass into eternity before the good of which it is susceptible is all developed. Scrooge had a very small fire, but the clerk’s fire was so very much smaller that it looked like one coal. External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. But what did Scrooge care! Whether these creatures faded into mist, or mist enshrouded them, he could not tell. Scrooge stopped. He went the whole length of the expression, and said that he would see him in that extremity first. There is no doubt whatever about that. No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting rain less open to entreaty. It held up its chain at arm’s length, as if that were the cause of all its unavailing grief, and flung it heavily upon the ground again. `The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?’ said Scrooge. Half a dozen gas-lamps out of the street wouldn’t have lighted the entry too well, so you may suppose that it was pretty dark with Scrooge’s dip. Scrooge signed it. 79% average accuracy. `But I see it,’ said the Ghost, `notwithstanding.’ `Mankind was my business. answer choices . It was the voice of Scrooge’s nephew, who came upon him so quickly that this was the first intimation he had of his approach. dawnlucas. A Christmas Carol - Stave 1 Key Quotes. Stave 2. A Christmas Carol is foremost a Christian allegory of redemption about, as Fred says, the "kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time" of Christmas. Darkness is cheap, and Scrooge liked it. 3. But I have made the trial in homage to Christmas, and I’ll keep my Christmas humour to the last. puppy255. -- apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin. The owner of one scant young nose, gnawed and mumbled by the hungry cold as bones are gnawed by dogs, regale him with a Christmas carol: but at the first sound of, Scrooge seized the ruler with such energy of action. Summary of Stave 1 Scrooge followed to the window: desperate in his curiosity. Edit. Tags: Report Quiz. `Tell me why?’ The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. `Keep it!’ repeated Scrooge’s nephew. It was old enough now, and dreary enough, for nobody lived in it but Scrooge, the other rooms being all let out as offices. `Can you -- can you sit down?’ asked Scrooge, looking doubtfully at him. What reason have you to be merry? It was long, and wound about him like a tail; and it was made (for Scrooge observed it closely) of cash-boxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, deeds, and heavy purses wrought in steel. You What right have you to be merry? If you would like the full address of these pages not as links (e.g. Scrooge and he were partners for I don’t know how many years. `You’ll want all day to-morrow, I suppose?’ said Scrooge. a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! would be nothing more remarkable in his taking a And even Scrooge was not so dreadfully cut up by the sad event, but that he was an excellent man of business on the very day of the funeral, and solemnised it with an undoubted bargain. The door of Scrooge’s counting-house was open so that he might keep his eye upon his clerk, Bob Cratchit, who, in a sad little room, was copying letters. You have laboured on it, since. The following links will take you to the Preface and the five parts – which Charles Dickens called Staves – that make up A Christmas Carol. He carried his own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office. Let it also be borne in mind that Scrooge had not bestowed one thought on Marley, since his last mention of his seven years’ dead partner that afternoon. There’s more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!’ How could it be otherwise? I don't mean to say that I know, of my Read STAVE 1 of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. The brightness of the shops where holly sprigs and berries crackled in the lamp heat of the windows, made pale faces ruddy as they passed. `I do,’ replied the Ghost. `Nephew!’ returned the uncle sternly, `keep Christmas in your own way, and let me keep it in mine.’ The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. We choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices. If we were not perfectly convinced that Hamlet’s Father died before the play began, there would be nothing more remarkable in his taking a stroll at night, in an easterly wind, upon his own ramparts, than there would be in any other middle-aged gentleman rashly turning out after dark in a breezy spot -- say Saint Paul’s Churchyard for instance -- literally to astonish his son’s weak mind. But there was nothing on the back of the door, except the screws and nuts that held the knocker on, so he said `Pooh, pooh!’ and closed it with a bang. `I have none to give,’ the Ghost replied. business called Scrooge Scrooge, and sometimes Marley, A CHRISTMAS CAROL by Charles Dickens Stave 1: Marley's Ghost arley was dead: to begin with. What reason have you to be morose? in the trade. It was not angry or ferocious, but looked at Scrooge as Marley used to look: with ghostly spectacles turned up on its ghostly forehead. The air was filled with phantoms, wandering hither and thither in restless haste, and moaning as they went. Marley in his pigtail, usual waistcoat, tights and boots; the tassels on the latter bristling, like his pigtail, and his coat-skirts, and the hair upon his head. very low fire indeed; nothing on such a bitter night. The heaviest rain, and snow, and hail, and sleet, could boast of the advantage over him in only one respect. The Ghost of Jacob Marley. `The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?’ said Scrooge. `Well!’ returned Scrooge, `I have but to swallow this, and be for the rest of my days persecuted by a legion of goblins, all of my own creation. `Dreadful apparition, why do you trouble me?’ Sometimes people new to the Dine with us tomorrow.’ You will therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as dead as a door-nail. Good afternoon, gentlemen!’ Up Scrooge went, not caring a button for that. The mention of Marley’s funeral brings me back to the point I started from. But he couldn’t replenish it. Let it also be borne in mind that Scrooge had not bestowed one thought on Marley, since his last mention of his seven years’ dead partner that afternoon. `And yet,’ said Scrooge, `you don’t think me ill-used, when I pay a day’s wages for no work.’ There is no doubt whatever about that. It was a very low fire indeed; nothing on such a bitter night. Scrooge knew he was dead? 36 terms. `Because I fell in love.’ Not so much in obedience, as in surprise and fear: for on the raising of the hand, he became sensible of confused noises in the air; incoherent sounds of lamentation and regret; wailings inexpressibly sorrowful and self-accusatory. No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him. Start studying a christmas carol stave 1. Oh! One verse followed another always with the same glad refrain: "And pray a gladsome Christmas For all your fellow-men: Carol, brothers, carol, Christmas Day again." The chain he drew was clasped about his middle. `Many can’t go there; and many would rather die.’ YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE... Colin literature 2nd q exam review part 4. Find a summary of this and each chapter of A Christmas Carol! This might have lasted half a minute, or a minute, but it seemed an hour. Hot and Cold – Extensive imagery describes Scrooge as cold because of his cold heart; in contrast, his nephew is described as warm because he is merry and loving. If we were not perfectly convinced that Questions on the text. `Why do you doubt your senses?’ The apparition walked backward from him; and at every step it took, the window raised itself a little, so that when the spectre reached it, it was wide open. With an ill-will Scrooge dismounted from his stool, and tacitly admitted the fact to the expectant clerk in the Tank, who instantly snuffed his candle out, and put on his hat. Mind! `In life I was your partner, Jacob Marley.’ undertaker . Now, it is a fact, that there was nothing at all particular about the knocker on the door, except that it was very large. Poulterers’ and grocers’ trades became a splendid joke; a glorious pageant, with which it was next to impossible to believe that such dull principles as bargain and sale had anything to do. Marley and Scrooge were business partners once. Scrooge and he were partners for I don’t know how many years. It is also a fact, that Scrooge had seen it, night and morning, during his whole residence in that place; also that Scrooge had as little of what is called fancy about him as any man in the city of London, even including -- which is a bold word -- the corporation, aldermen, and livery. `It is.’ I help to support the establishments I have mentioned -- they cost enough; and those who are badly off must go there.’ -- and witness what it cannot share, but might have shared on earth, and turned to happiness!’ Scrooge knew he was dead? The smoldering ashes in the fireplace provide little heat even for Bob's tiny room. How could it be otherwise? Nikolipi. The heaviest rain, and snow, and hail, and sleet, could boast of the advantage over him in only one respect. After several turns, he sat down again. His colour changed though, when, without a pause, it came on through the heavy door, and passed into the room before his eyes. At this the spirit raised a frightful cry, and shook its chain with such a dismal and appalling noise, that Scrooge held on tight to his chair, to save himself from falling in a swoon. Come! The bells ceased as they had begun, together. He fastened the door, and walked across the hall, and up the stairs; slowly too: trimming his candle as he went. Oh! If we were not perfectly convinced that Hamlet’s Father died before the play began, there would be nothing more remarkable in his taking a stroll at night, in an easterly wind, upon his own ramparts, than there would be in any other middle-aged gentleman rashly turning out after dark in a breezy spot -- say Saint Paul’s Churchyard for instance -- literally to astonish his son’s weak mind. Every one of them wore chains like Marley’s Ghost; some few (they might be guilty governments) were linked together; none were free. A Christmas Carol Stave 1 DRAFT. Historical Context He was obliged to sit close to it, and brood over it, before he could extract the least sensation of warmth from such a handful of fuel, built by some Dutch merchant long ago, and paved all round with quaint Dutch tiles, designed to illustrate the Scriptures. But the wisdom of our ancestors `Much!’ -- Marley’s voice, no doubt about it. `How it is that I appear before you in a shape that you can see, I may not tell. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir.’, `And the Union workhouses’ demanded Scrooge. Chapter 1 – Marley’s Ghost. partners for I don't know how many years. External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. [2] It was cold, bleak, biting, foggy weather; and the city clocks had only just gone three, but it was quite dark already. was dead. A chance and hope of my procuring, Ebenezer.’ `I wonder you don’t go into Parliament.’, `Don’t be angry, uncle. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the Country’s done for. such was I!’ Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–2, Chapter 3, … There it stood, years afterwards, above the warehouse door: Scrooge and Marley. If I was to stop half-a-crown for it, you’d think yourself ill-used, I’ll be bound?’ cut up by the sad event, but that he was an excellent They often `came down’ handsomely, and Scrooge never did. -- in life my spirit never roved beyond the narrow limits of our money-changing hole; and weary journeys lie before me!’ He was as dead as a doornail. The city clocks had only just gone three, but it was quite dark already -- it had not been light all day -- and candles were flaring in the windows of the neighbouring offices, like ruddy smears upon the palpable brown air. `It is required of every man,’ the Ghost returned, `that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellowmen, and travel far and wide; and if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death. He was dead, as dead as a doornail, and had been for seven years. Were there no poor homes to which its light would have conducted me!’ `I do,’ said Scrooge. Scrooge closed the window, and examined the door by which the Ghost had entered. It was not in impenetrable shadow as the other objects in the yard were, but had a dismal light about it, like a bad lobster in a dark cellar. What reason have you to be morose? He lived in chambers which had once belonged to his deceased partner. Why did I walk through crowds of fellow-beings with my eyes turned down, and never raise them to that blessed Star which led the Wise Men to a poor abode! In the first stave, the miser Scrooge is introduced as well as his merry nephew and his poor clerk Bob Cratchit. own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about Becoming immediately sensible of the impropriety, he poked the fire, and extinguished the last frail spark for ever.