A Christmas Carol: Language Techniques and Themes

LEARN IT: “Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grind- stone, Scrooge!” Technique:METAPHOR(AO2 Language) From:Narrator, Stave One

LEARN IT: “a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner!” Technique:DYNAMIC VERBS, PRESENT PARTICIPLE(AO2 Language) From:Narrator, Stave One

LEARN IT: “Hardand sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster.” Technique:DYNAMIC VERBS, PRESENT PARTICIPLE(AO2 Language) From:Narrator, Stave One

LEARN IT: “No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting rain less open to entreaty.” Technique:PATHETIC FALLACY (AO2 Language) From:Narrator, Stave One

LEARN IT: “Every idiot who goes about with “Merry Christmas” on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding and buried with a stake of holly through his heart.” Technique:EMOTIVE Language, HYPERBOLE (AO2 Language) From:Scrooge, Stave One

LEARN IT: “Are there no prisons?” Technique:INTERROGATIVE (AO2 Language) FORESHADOWING (AO2 Structure) From:Scrooge, Stave One

LEARN IT: “I can’t afford to make idle people merry.” Technique:JUXTAPOSITION (AO2 Structure) From:Scrooge, Stave One

LEARN IT: “A poor excuse for picking a man’s pocket every twenty-fifth of December.” Technique:METAPHOR (AO2 Language) From:Scrooge, Stave One

LEARN IT: “The chain he drew was claspedabout his middle. It was long, and wound about him like a tail” Technique:DYNAMIC VERB, SIMILE (AO2 Language) From:Narrator, Stave One

LEARN IT: “I am here tonight to warn you that you have yet a chance and hope of escaping my fate” Technique:EMOTIVE Language (AO2 Language) JUXTAPOSITION (AO2 Structure) From:Marley’s Ghost, Stave One

LEARN IT: “It was a strange figure - like a child: yet not so like a child as like an old man” Technique:SIMILE (AO2 Language) JUXTAPOSITION (AO2 Structure) From:Narrator, Stave Two

LEARN IT: "A solitary child, neglected by his friends, is left there still." Technique:EMOTIVE Language (AO2 Language) From:The Ghost of Christmas Past, Stave Two

LEARN IT: "Father is so much kinder than he used to be, that home’s like Heaven! " Technique:SIMILE (AO2 Language) DIALOGUE (AO2 Form) From:Fan, Stave Two

LEARN IT: " There was a boy singing a Christmas Carol at my door last night, I should have given him something that’s all” Technique:EXCLAMATION (AO2 Language) REFERENCE TO STAVE ONE (AO2 Structure) DIALOGUE (AO2 Form) From:Scrooge, Stave Two

LEARN IT: " Another idol has displaced me...Agolden one” Technique:METAPHOR (AO2 Language) DIALOGUE (AO2 Form) From:Belle, Stave Two

LEARN IT: “free as its genial face, its sparkling eye, its open hand, its cheery voice, its unconstrained demeanour, and its joyfulair”. Technique:POSITIVEADJECTIVES (AO2 Language) From:Narrator, Stave Two

LEARN IT: “Nobody said or thought it was at all a small pudding for a large family.It would have been flat heresy to do so.” Technique:JUXTAPOSITION (AO2 Structure) From:Narrator, Stave Three

LEARN IT: “If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, the childwilldie.” Technique:EMOTIVE Language (AO2 Language) JUXTAPOSITION (AO2 Structure) DIALOGUE (AO2 Form) From:The Ghost of Christmas Present, Stave Three

LEARN IT: “I’ll give you Mr Scrooge, the Founder of the Feast” Technique:ALLITERATION (AO2 Language) DIALOGUE (AO2 Form) From:Bob Cratchit, Stave Three

LEARN IT: “They were happy, grateful, pleased with one another and contented with the time.” Technique:POSITIVE SEMANTIC FIELD (AO2 Language) From:Narrator, Stave Three

LEARN IT: “I mean to give him the same chance every year whether he likes it or not” Technique:ADJECTIVE, DETERMINER (AO2 Language) DIALOGUE (AO2 Form) From:Fred, Stave Three

LEARN IT: “Two children; wretched, abject, frightful, hideous, miserable” Technique:NEGATIVE ADJECTIVES (AO2 Language) From:The Ghost of Christmas Present, Stave Three

LEARN IT: “This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both” Technique:PERSONIFICATION, IMPERATIVE (AO2 Language) DIALOGUE (AO2 Form) From:The Ghost of Christmas Present, Stave Three

LEARN IT: “The Phantom slowly, gravely, silently approached” Technique:ADVERBS (AO2 Language) FORESHADOWING (AO2 Structure) From:Narrator, Stave Four

LEARN IT: "Scrooge listened to this dialogue with horror” Technique:NEGATIVE ADJECTIVE (AO2 Language) From:Narrator, Stave Four

LEARN IT: “On it, plundered and bereft, unwatched, unwept, uncared for, was the body of this man” Technique:NEGATIVE SEMANTIC FILED (AO2 Language) From:Narrator, Stave Four

LEARN IT: “Are these the shadows of the things that Will be or are they shadows of things that May be, only?” Technique:ADVERBS (AO2 Language) FORESHADOWING (AO2 Structure) DIALOGUE (AO2 Form) From:Scrooge, Stave Four

LEARN IT: “I am not the man I was!” Technique: REFERENCE TO START OF NOVEL (AO2 Structure) DIALOGUE (AO2 Form) From:Scrooge, Stave Four

LEARN IT: “I willhonour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present and the Future” Technique:METAPHOR, RULE OF THREE (AO2 Language) FORESHADOWING (AO2 Structure) From:Scrooge, Stave Four

LEARN IT: “I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a schoolboy, I am as giddy as a drunken man” Technique: SIMILE (AO2 Language) DIALOGUE (AO2 Form) From:Scrooge, Stave Five

LEARN IT: “I’ll raise your salary, and endeavour to assist your struggling family” Technique: POSITIVE VERB CHOICE (AO2 Language) DIALOGUE (AO2 Form) From:Scrooge, Stave Five

LEARN IT: “And so as Tiny Tim observed “God bless Us. Every One!” Technique: IMPERATIVE (AO2 Language) From:Narrator, Stave Five

A Christmas Carol: Language Techniques and Themes