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Christmas carol grade 9 analysis

Does anyone have any grade 9 analysis or just analysis for christmas carol cos i'm really struggling to find good analysis. If you do that would be so helpful.
I recommend Stacey Reay on Youtube. Her analysis helped me a grade 9 in English Literature.

If you have any other questions I'd be happy to answer the best I can :smile:
(edited 5 months ago)
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Original post by always-anxious
I recommend Stacey Reay on Youtube. Her analysis helped me a grade 9 in English Literature.
If you have any other questions I'd be happy to answer the best I can :smile:

Hi, I do GCSE AQA English literature and have a christmas carol exam. This is the question, and the extract is from the very opening of Stave 1 when we first meet Scrooge. It's

"Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A frosty rime was on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the dog- days; and didn’t thaw it one degree at Christmas. External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting rain less open to entreaty. Foul weather didn’t know where to have him. The heaviest rain, and snow, and hail, and sleet, could boast of the advantage over him in only one respect. They often “came down” handsomely, and Scrooge never did. Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks, “My dear Scrooge, how are you? 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. 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; and then would wag their tails as though they said, “No eye at all is better than an evil eye, dark master!”
Starting with this extract, to what extent does Dickens present Scrooge as a mean character. (30 marks).

Pls tell me which quotations are good to use from this extract and from the novella to show Scrooge is mean, and any grade 9 ideas as well please. This is my first gcse assessment, so i have never done this. Also my class has only read stave 1 and stave 2 till now, so the elsewhere bit can't come outside those 2 staves.
Original post by revision52
Hi, I do GCSE AQA English literature and have a christmas carol exam. This is the question, and the extract is from the very opening of Stave 1 when we first meet Scrooge. It's
"Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A frosty rime was on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the dog- days; and didn’t thaw it one degree at Christmas. External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting rain less open to entreaty. Foul weather didn’t know where to have him. The heaviest rain, and snow, and hail, and sleet, could boast of the advantage over him in only one respect. They often “came down” handsomely, and Scrooge never did. Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks, “My dear Scrooge, how are you? 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. 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; and then would wag their tails as though they said, “No eye at all is better than an evil eye, dark master!”
Starting with this extract, to what extent does Dickens present Scrooge as a mean character. (30 marks).
Pls tell me which quotations are good to use from this extract and from the novella to show Scrooge is mean, and any grade 9 ideas as well please. This is my first gcse assessment, so i have never done this. Also my class has only read stave 1 and stave 2 till now, so the elsewhere bit can't come outside those 2 staves.

Hello, it's been a while since I've did GCSE English Literature so I don't want to give you any incorrect answers! Instead I'll point you to resources that can explain things better than me, if that's okay :smile:

I recommend Stacey Reay's video on Scrooge, some of the quotes from that video are from the extract you have quoted so you can skip ahead on this video to get an idea of how to analyse the quotes. There's also a channel called DystopiaJunkie who has a video dedicated to Scrooge in Stave 1 so this could be of help as well. Physics and Math Tutor also has detailed notes on Scrooge and it goes quite in depth with the analysis of the quotes. You could also use some of your own ideas which would make your answer more 'unique' and it shows you're thinking deeply about the text. Hope this helps :smile:

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