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A Christmas Carol - Language

Explore how Dickens uses language in A Christmas Carol, from sharp contrasts and vivid imagery to repetition that drives home his message about generosity and change.

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Fascinating Fact:

Contrasts power the message, cold versus warmth, silence versus laughter, counting-house versus Cratchit home.

In GCSE English Literature, close language analysis of A Christmas Carol helps you move into higher bands. Examiners look for comments on word choices, imagery, sentence patterns and contrast, all linked clearly to Dickens’s themes of social responsibility and personal change. Practising how to zoom in on key phrases and then connect them to the bigger ideas will make your exam paragraphs sharper and more convincing.

Key Terms

Contrast: A deliberate difference between two ideas, images or settings to highlight a message.
Imagery: Descriptive language that appeals to the senses, helping the reader picture the scene.
Pathetic fallacy: When weather or setting seems to reflect a character’s mood or the story’s tone.

Frequently Asked Questions (Click to see answers)

How does Dickens use language to present Scrooge at the start?

Dickens uses harsh nouns and metaphors like “covetous old sinner” and “solitary as an oyster”, plus cold imagery, to make Scrooge seem closed-off, selfish and emotionally frozen.

What language contrasts are important in A Christmas Carol?

Key contrasts include cold, dark business spaces versus warm, lively family scenes, harsh dialogue versus cheerful laughter, and tight, cramped rooms versus generous descriptions of food and celebration.

How do I analyse language for GCSE English Literature?

Choose a short quotation, pick out one or two key words, explain their effect on the reader and then link that effect directly to the character, theme or exam question.

Try These Related Quizzes

1 .

"The curtains of his bed were drawn aside; and Scrooge, starting up into a half-recumbent attitude, found himself face to face with the unearthly visitor who drew them: as close to it as I am now to you, and I am standing in the spirit at your elbow." What effect is created by the use of the first person pronoun?

It compares the reader to the "unearthly visitor"

All nineteenth-century authors used first-person narration

It brings the author closer to Scrooge

The reader is being "haunted" by the author

The use of the first person throughout the text reminds us that we, like Scrooge, might need to change our ways

2 .

"The kind hand trembled." Why is the word "kind" surprising in this description of Scrooge's last sight of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come?

The hand is all Scrooge can see of this Spirit and its actions have until the last moment been foreboding

None of the Spirits have been kind

The hand is all Scrooge can see of this Spirit and all of its gestures have been friendly and kind

The Spirit offers no hope to Scrooge

Scrooge views the foreboding hand as kind once he realises that he still has the opportunity to change the future

3 .

"External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth could warm, nor 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." What is the simile implied here? Choose the best answer.

Scrooge is like a thermometer

Scrooge is like a weathervane

Scrooge is like the temperature

Scrooge is like bad weather

Like bad weather, Scrooge is not open to persuasion. He will not change his mind whatever approach another human being might take in attempting to encourage more kindness in him

4 .

"'I hope he didn't die of anything catching? Eh?' said old Joe, stopping in his work, and looking up. 'Don't you be afraid of that,' returned the woman. 'I ain't so fond of his company that I'd loiter about him for such things, if he did.'" To what does "things" refer here?

Ghosts

The curtains from Scrooge's bed

Contagious diseases

None of the above

The woman has taken the shirt off Scrooge's corpse and the blankets from his bed in order to make a profit from the fine quality materials. Old Joe's only concern is that they will not get sick from the theft

5 .

"Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that." What effect does the use of the word "doubt" have here?

It reassures the reader, who before this sentence naturally assumes that Marley is alive

It immediately introduces an element of doubt

It informs the reader that the book will not be about Marley, because he is already dead

It informs the reader that the story to follow will be realistic

Just by reassuring the reader that Marley is certainly dead, the first sentence of the novel introduces the idea that there is reason to doubt this certainty

6 .

"The customers were all so hurried and so eager in the hopeful promise of the day, that they tumbled up against each other at the door, clashing their wicker baskets wildly, and left their purchases upon the counter, and came running back to fetch them, and committed hundreds of the like mistakes in the best humour possible." Which language choices create an impression of jolly chaos?

Eager, hopeful, promise, purchases, humour, possible

Hurried, eager, tumbled, clashing, wildly, running

Customers, day, door, counter, fetch, mistakes

Customers, hurried, hopeful, other, baskets, humour

This is a marvellously chaotic scene, with its customers running and bumping into each other repeatedly

7 .

"It was succeeded by a breathless pause, as Mrs. Cratchit, looking slowly all along the carving-knife, prepared to plunge it in the breast; but when she did, and when the long expected gush of stuffing issued forth, one murmur of delight arose all round the board." In this sentence, "plunge", "gush" and "murmur" are examples of which type of imagery?

Alliteration

Simile

Metaphor

Onomatopoeia

The reader can almost hear the sound of the stuffing and of the appreciative family ("issued" also mimics the sound of the stuffing oozing out of the goose)

8 .

What is the term used by the Ghost of Christmas Past for the visions which he shows to Scrooge?

Facts

Dreams

Shadows

Echoes

The Ghost tells Scrooge that he shows him "but shadows of the things that have been"

9 .

When the Ghost of Christmas Present orders Scrooge to look upon him, Scrooge is described as doing so "reverently". What does the use of this word tell the reader?

Scrooge has always worshipped Christmas

Scrooge has already begun to change after experiencing the first ghostly visitor

The word reminds us that Scrooge is a deeply respectful person

Scrooge's negative ideas about Christmas have only intensified

Reverence is similar to worship. Scrooge has already revised his contemptuous attitude towards Christmas

10 .

"The walls and ceiling were so hung with living green, that it looked a perfect grove, from every part of which bright gleaming berries glistened. The crisp leaves of holly, mistletoe and ivy reflected back the light, as if so many little mirrors had been scattered there." Which language choices create the impression of brightness in Scrooge's formerly dim room?

Living, green, bright, crisp, reflected, scattered

Living, green, grove, berries, leaves, holly

Bright, gleaming, glistened, reflected, light, mirrors

Walls, ceiling, reflected, ivy, mirrors, scattered

The brightness contrasts sharply with the crispness of the abundant greenery

You can find more about this topic by visiting BBC Bitesize - Form, structure and language

Author: Sheri Smith (PhD English Literature, English Teacher & Quiz Writer)