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A Christmas Carol Practice Questions

Question 1

30 marks

Read the following extract from Stave 1 of A Christmas Carol and then answer the question that follows.

At this point in the novel the narrator introduces Scrooge, whose business partner Marley has been dead for seven years.

1Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grind-stone, 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
5oyster. 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;
10he 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,
15no 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,
20“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
25tug 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!”
But what did Scrooge care! It was the very thing he liked. To edge
his way along the crowded paths of life, warning all human sympathy
30to keep its distance, was what the knowing ones call “nuts” to
Scrooge.

From A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, Stave 1.

Starting with this extract, explore how Dickens presents Scrooge as a cold and isolated character.

Write about:

  • how Dickens presents Scrooge in this extract
  • how Dickens presents Scrooge as a cold and isolated character in the novel as a whole.

[30 marks]

Question 2

30 marks

Read the following extract from Stave 2 of A Christmas Carol and then answer the question that follows.

At this point in the novel the Ghost of Christmas Past shows Scrooge a scene from his early adult life, with the young woman he was engaged to marry.

1“My time grows short,” observed the Spirit. “Quick!”
This was not addressed to Scrooge, or to any one whom he could see,
but it produced an immediate effect. For again Scrooge saw himself.
He was older now; a man in the prime of life. His face had not the
5harsh and rigid lines of later years; but it had begun to wear the
signs of care and avarice. There was an eager, greedy, restless
motion in the eye, which showed the passion that had taken root, and
where the shadow of the growing tree would fall.
He was not alone, but sat by the side of a fair young girl in a
10mourning-dress: in whose eyes there were tears, which sparkled in
the light that shone out of the Ghost of Christmas Past.
“It matters little,” she said, softly. “To you, very little. Another
idol has displaced me; and if it can cheer and comfort you in time
to come, as I would have tried to do, I have no just cause to
15grieve.”
“What Idol has displaced you?” he rejoined.
“A golden one.”
“This is the even-handed dealing of the world!” he said. “There is
nothing on which it is so hard as poverty; and there is nothing it
20professes to condemn with such severity as the pursuit of wealth!”
“You fear the world too much,” she answered, gently. “All your other
hopes have merged into the hope of being beyond the chance of its
sordid reproach. I have seen your nobler aspirations fall off one by
one, until the master-passion, Gain, engrosses you. Have I not?”
25“What then?” he retorted. “Even if I have grown so much wiser, what
then? I am not changed towards you.”
She shook her head.
“Am I?”
“Our contract is an old one. It was made when we were both poor and
30content to be so, until, in good season, we could improve our
worldly fortune by our patient industry. You are changed. When it
was made, you were another man.”
“I was a boy,” he said impatiently.
“Your own feeling tells you that you were not what you are,” she
35returned. “I am. That which promised happiness when we were one in
heart, is fraught with misery now that we are two. How often and how
keenly I have thought of this, I will not say. It is enough that I
have thought of it, and can release you.”

From A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, Stave 2.

Starting with this extract, explore how far Dickens presents greed as the cause of Scrooge’s unhappiness.

Write about:

  • how Dickens presents Scrooge’s greed in this extract
  • how far Dickens presents greed as the cause of Scrooge’s unhappiness in the novel as a whole.

[30 marks]

Question 3

30 marks

Read the following extract from Stave 1 of A Christmas Carol and then answer the question that follows.

At this point in the novel two gentlemen have come to Scrooge’s counting-house on Christmas Eve to collect money for the poor.

1“At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge,” said the
gentleman, taking up a pen, “it is more than usually desirable that
we should make some slight provision for the Poor and destitute, who
suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of
5common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common
comforts, sir.”
“Are there no prisons?” asked Scrooge.
“Plenty of prisons,” said the gentleman, laying down the pen again.
“And the Union workhouses?” demanded Scrooge. “Are they still in
10operation?”
“They are. Still,” returned the gentleman, “I wish I could say they
were not.”
“The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?” said
Scrooge.
15“Both very busy, sir.”
“Oh! I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had
occurred to stop them in their useful course,” said Scrooge. “I’m
very glad to hear it.”
“Under the impression that they scarcely furnish Christian cheer of
20mind 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, and means of warmth. We choose this time, because it is a
time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance
rejoices. What shall I put you down for?”
25“Nothing!” Scrooge replied.
“You wish to be anonymous?”
“I wish to be left alone,” said Scrooge. “Since you ask me what I
wish, gentlemen, that is my answer. I don’t make merry myself at
Christmas and I can’t afford to make idle people merry. I help to
30support the establishments I have mentioned—they cost enough; and
those who are badly off must go there.”
“Many can’t go there; and many would rather die.”
“If they would rather die,” said Scrooge, “they had better do it,
and decrease the surplus population. Besides—excuse me—I don’t know
35that.”
“But you might know it,” observed the gentleman.
“It’s not my business,” Scrooge returned. “It’s enough for a man to
understand his own business, and not to interfere with other
people’s. Mine occupies me constantly. Good afternoon, gentlemen!”

From A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, Stave 1.

Starting with this extract, explore how Dickens presents ideas about responsibility for others.

Write about:

  • how Dickens presents ideas about responsibility for others in this extract
  • how Dickens presents ideas about responsibility for others in the novel as a whole.

[30 marks]

Question 4

30 marks

Read the following extract from Stave 3 of A Christmas Carol and then answer the question that follows.

At this point in the novel the Ghost of Christmas Present has taken Scrooge to the Cratchits’ home on Christmas Day, where Martha has hidden to play a joke on her father.

1So Martha hid herself, and in came little Bob, the father, with at
least three feet of comforter exclusive of the fringe, hanging down
before him; and his threadbare clothes darned up and brushed, to
look seasonable; and Tiny Tim upon his shoulder. Alas for Tiny Tim,
5he bore a little crutch, and had his limbs supported by an iron
frame!
“Why, where’s our Martha?” cried Bob Cratchit, looking round.
“Not coming,” said Mrs. Cratchit.
“Not coming!” said Bob, with a sudden declension in his high
10spirits; for he had been Tim’s blood horse all the way from church,
and had come home rampant. “Not coming upon Christmas Day!”
Martha didn’t like to see him disappointed, if it were only in joke;
so she came out prematurely from behind the closet door, and ran
into his arms, while the two young Cratchits hustled Tiny Tim, and
15bore him off into the wash-house, that he might hear the pudding
singing in the copper.
“And how did little Tim behave?” asked Mrs. Cratchit, when she had
rallied Bob on his credulity, and Bob had hugged his daughter to his
heart’s content.
20“As good as gold,” said Bob, “and better. Somehow he gets
thoughtful, sitting by himself so much, and thinks the strangest
things you ever heard. He told me, coming home, that he hoped the
people saw him in the church, because he was a cripple, and it might
be pleasant to them to remember upon Christmas Day, who made lame
25beggars walk, and blind men see.”
Bob’s voice was tremulous when he told them this, and trembled more
when he said that Tiny Tim was growing strong and hearty.
His active little crutch was heard upon the floor, and back came
Tiny Tim before another word was spoken, escorted by his brother and
30sister to his stool before the fire; and while Bob, turning up his
cuffs—as if, poor fellow, they were capable of being made more
shabby—compounded some hot mixture in a jug with gin and lemons, and
stirred it round and round and put it on the hob to simmer; Master
Peter, and the two ubiquitous young Cratchits went to fetch the
35goose, with which they soon returned in high procession.

From A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, Stave 3.

Starting with this extract, explore how Dickens presents the Cratchit family.

Write about:

  • how Dickens presents the Cratchit family in this extract
  • how Dickens presents the Cratchit family in the novel as a whole.

[30 marks]

Question 5

30 marks

Read the following extract from Stave 2 of A Christmas Carol and then answer the question that follows.

At this point in the novel the clock has struck one, and the first of the three spirits has drawn back the curtains of Scrooge’s bed.

1It was a strange figure—like a child: yet not so like a child as
like an old man, viewed through some supernatural medium, which gave
him the appearance of having receded from the view, and being
diminished to a child’s proportions. Its hair, which hung about its
5neck and down its back, was white as if with age; and yet the face
had not a wrinkle in it, and the tenderest bloom was on the skin.
The arms were very long and muscular; the hands the same, as if its
hold were of uncommon strength. Its legs and feet, most delicately
formed, were, like those upper members, bare. It wore a tunic of the
10purest white; and round its waist was bound a lustrous belt, the
sheen of which was beautiful. It held a branch of fresh green holly
in its hand; and, in singular contradiction of that wintry emblem,
had its dress trimmed with summer flowers. But the strangest thing
about it was, that from the crown of its head there sprung a bright
15clear jet of light, by which all this was visible; and which was
doubtless the occasion of its using, in its duller moments, a great
extinguisher for a cap, which it now held under its arm.
Even this, though, when Scrooge looked at it with increasing
steadiness, was not its strangest quality. For as its belt sparkled
20and glittered now in one part and now in another, and what was light
one instant, at another time was dark, so the figure itself
fluctuated in its distinctness: being now a thing with one arm, now
with one leg, now with twenty legs, now a pair of legs without a
head, now a head without a body: of which dissolving parts, no
25outline would be visible in the dense gloom wherein they melted
away. And in the very wonder of this, it would be itself again;
distinct and clear as ever.
“Are you the Spirit, sir, whose coming was foretold to me?” asked
Scrooge.
30“I am!”
The voice was soft and gentle. Singularly low, as if instead of
being so close beside him, it were at a distance.
“Who, and what are you?” Scrooge demanded.
“I am the Ghost of Christmas Past.”
35“Long Past?” inquired Scrooge: observant of its dwarfish stature.

From A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, Stave 2.

Starting with this extract, explore how Dickens presents the Ghost of Christmas Past.

Write about:

  • how Dickens presents the Ghost of Christmas Past in this extract
  • how Dickens presents the Ghost of Christmas Past in the novel as a whole.

[30 marks]

Question 6

30 marks

Read the following extract from Stave 2 of A Christmas Carol and then answer the question that follows.

At this point in the novel the Ghost of Christmas Past has shown Scrooge the Christmas Eve ball held by Fezziwig, the master he was apprenticed to as a young man.

1When the clock struck eleven, this domestic ball broke up. Mr. and
Mrs. Fezziwig took their stations, one on either side of the door,
and shaking hands with every person individually as he or she went
out, wished him or her a Merry Christmas. When everybody had retired
5but the two ’prentices, they did the same to them; and thus the
cheerful voices died away, and the lads were left to their beds;
which were under a counter in the back-shop.
During the whole of this time, Scrooge had acted like a man out of
his wits. His heart and soul were in the scene, and with his former
10self. He corroborated everything, remembered everything, enjoyed
everything, and underwent the strangest agitation. It was not until
now, when the bright faces of his former self and Dick were turned
from them, that he remembered the Ghost, and became conscious that
it was looking full upon him, while the light upon its head burnt
15very clear.
“A small matter,” said the Ghost, “to make these silly folks so full
of gratitude.”
“Small!” echoed Scrooge.
The Spirit signed to him to listen to the two apprentices, who were
20pouring out their hearts in praise of Fezziwig: and when he had done
so, said,
“Why! Is it not? He has spent but a few pounds of your mortal money:
three or four perhaps. Is that so much that he deserves this
praise?”
25“It isn’t that,” said Scrooge, heated by the remark, and speaking
unconsciously like his former, not his latter, self. “It isn’t that,
Spirit. He has the power to render us happy or unhappy; to make our
service light or burdensome; a pleasure or a toil. Say that his
power lies in words and looks; in things so slight and insignificant
30that it is impossible to add and count ’em up: what then? The
happiness he gives, is quite as great as if it cost a fortune.”
He felt the Spirit’s glance, and stopped.
“What is the matter?” asked the Ghost.
“Nothing particular,” said Scrooge.
35“Something, I think?” the Ghost insisted.
“No,” said Scrooge, “No. I should like to be able to say a word or
two to my clerk just now. That’s all.”

From A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, Stave 2.

Starting with this extract, explore how Dickens presents the importance of celebrating Christmas.

Write about:

  • how Dickens presents the importance of celebrating Christmas in this extract
  • how Dickens presents the importance of celebrating Christmas in the novel as a whole.

[30 marks]

Question 7

30 marks

Read the following extract from Stave 3 of A Christmas Carol and then answer the question that follows.

At this point in the novel it is nearly midnight, and the Ghost of Christmas Present’s time with Scrooge is coming to an end.

1“Forgive me if I am not justified in what I ask,” said Scrooge,
looking intently at the Spirit’s robe, “but I see something strange,
and not belonging to yourself, protruding from your skirts. Is it a
foot or a claw?”
5“It might be a claw, for the flesh there is upon it,” was the
Spirit’s sorrowful reply. “Look here.”
From the foldings of its robe, it brought two children; wretched,
abject, frightful, hideous, miserable. They knelt down at its feet,
and clung upon the outside of its garment.
10“Oh, Man! look here. Look, look, down here!” exclaimed the Ghost.
They were a boy and girl. Yellow, meagre, ragged, scowling, wolfish;
but prostrate, too, in their humility. Where graceful youth should
have filled their features out, and touched them with its freshest
tints, a stale and shrivelled hand, like that of age, had pinched,
15and twisted them, and pulled them into shreds. Where angels might
have sat enthroned, devils lurked, and glared out menacing. No
change, no degradation, no perversion of humanity, in any grade,
through all the mysteries of wonderful creation, has monsters half
so horrible and dread.
20Scrooge started back, appalled. Having them shown to him in this
way, he tried to say they were fine children, but the words choked
themselves, rather than be parties to a lie of such enormous
magnitude.
“Spirit! are they yours?” Scrooge could say no more.
25“They are Man’s,” said the Spirit, looking down upon them. “And they
cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance.
This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but
most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written
which is Doom, unless the writing be erased. Deny it!” cried the
30Spirit, stretching out its hand towards the city. “Slander those who
tell it ye! Admit it for your factious purposes, and make it worse.
And bide the end!”
“Have they no refuge or resource?” cried Scrooge.
“Are there no prisons?” said the Spirit, turning on him for the last
35time with his own words. “Are there no workhouses?”
The bell struck twelve.

From A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, Stave 3.

‘In A Christmas Carol, Dickens shows that society is to blame for the suffering of the poor.’

Starting with this extract, explore how far you agree with this view.

Write about:

  • how Dickens presents the suffering of the poor in this extract
  • how far Dickens shows that society is to blame for the suffering of the poor in the novel as a whole.

[30 marks]

Question 8

30 marks

Read the following extract from Stave 5 of A Christmas Carol and then answer the question that follows.

At this point in the novel it is the morning after Christmas Day, and Bob Cratchit has arrived late for work.

1“Hallo!” growled Scrooge, in his accustomed voice, as near as he
could feign it. “What do you mean by coming here at this time of
day?”
“I am very sorry, sir,” said Bob. “I am behind my time.”
5“You are?” repeated Scrooge. “Yes. I think you are. Step this way,
sir, if you please.”
“It’s only once a year, sir,” pleaded Bob, appearing from the Tank.
“It shall not be repeated. I was making rather merry yesterday,
sir.”
10“Now, I’ll tell you what, my friend,” said Scrooge, “I am not going
to stand this sort of thing any longer. And therefore,” he
continued, leaping from his stool, and giving Bob such a dig in the
waistcoat that he staggered back into the Tank again; “and therefore
I am about to raise your salary!”
15Bob trembled, and got a little nearer to the ruler. He had a
momentary idea of knocking Scrooge down with it, holding him, and
calling to the people in the court for help and a strait-waistcoat.
“A merry Christmas, Bob!” said Scrooge, with an earnestness that
could not be mistaken, as he clapped him on the back. “A merrier
20Christmas, Bob, my good fellow, than I have given you, for many a
year! I’ll raise your salary, and endeavour to assist your
struggling family, and we will discuss your affairs this very
afternoon, over a Christmas bowl of smoking bishop, Bob! Make up the
fires, and buy another coal-scuttle before you dot another i, Bob
25Cratchit!”
Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely
more; and to Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, he was a second father. He
became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the
good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in
30the good old world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in
him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise
enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good,
at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the
outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he
35thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in
grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart
laughed: and that was quite enough for him.

From A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, Stave 5.

‘By the end of the novel, Scrooge has become a completely different man.’

Starting with this extract, explore how far you agree with this view.

Write about:

  • how Dickens presents Scrooge in this extract
  • how far Dickens presents Scrooge as a completely different man in the novel as a whole.

[30 marks]