A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

GENERAL
1. A Christmas Carol is about Ebenezer Scrooge, a nasty older gentleman, who gets a second chance to turn his life around after a supernatural intervention at Christmas time.

2. The theme of the novel is the theme of Christmas time. “Good will to all men.” Except, in this case, the notion of good will to all men is carried over all throughout the year. That is what makes a decent human being.

3. The tone of this book is one of hopefulness. Even the most nasty of sinners can turn their life around if given the correct perspective change. This was one of many Christmas themed books at it’s time period and the reason we still read it is because of its universal message. The tone is also similar to how someone would tell a story to a child, so it has a very simple pattern.

4. The name “Ebenezer” in itself is a symbol. An Ebenezer is a turning point in someone’s life, and Scrooge’s character has the biggest 180 turn in literary history. Also, the narrator’s diction is personal because it sounds like a person talking to you. They even use “As I was saying…” as part of the storytelling technique.

CHARACTERIZATION
1. The characterization in this book is very direct. One of the first quotes about Scrooge is he is “squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner!...self-contained, and solitary as an oyster.” That does not leave a lot of characterization to be desired as the campy character is displayed right from the get-go.

2. The diction and syntax is the same whilst talking about characters.

3. Ebenezer Scrooge is a dynamic character because the whole point of the story is that he changes his evil ways and carries the spirit of Christmas with him all year round.