A Christmas Carol Stave Two Notes

Stave Two: (The Ghost Of Christmas Past)

• The ghost is shown partly like a child - showing scrooges past and foreshadowing events
• Yet also like a man, to symbolise Scrooge's forgetfulness of his childhood as he's grown
• Light symbolises clarity and making something clear - Scrooge asking the spirit to cover his head (where the light is coming from) shows his inability to see things clearly
• Scrooge grows excited as he begins to remember his childhood countryside, described as an idyllic scene - juxtaposition to the harshness and greed of London, exploring the loss of innocence
• Scrooge opens up about being left alone at Xmas, showing genuine sadness - Free will is a key theme as this isolated childhood was not his choice but as a man he has the ability to change his lifestyle
• Scrooge used to read to feel less lonely, creating his own friendships in fictional worlds because he lacked them in real life
• We meet Fran, who has lots of good connotations as she brings him home and we see that Scrooge genuinly cares for her
• Dickens makes clear that Scrooge's cold-hearted dad had the ability to change, so mankind and Scrooge can too
• Dickens relationship with his dad shows that he has first hand experience of the workhouses and an unstable family life
• They discuss Frans death, and how her only physical link left to Scrooge is Fred, Scrooge seems uneasy because he's starting to realise how he treats Fred
• Fezziwigs party…