A Christmas Carol
Stave Three
Discussion Questions
1. What is the one thing for which Scrooge is not prepared as he wakes up the second time?
2. As you read the description of the transformation of Scrooge’s living room, what pictures go through your mind? What smells do you imagine? In one word, how would you describe the atmosphere of the room?
3. How does Scrooge treat the second spirit differently from the first one?
4. What is the “personality” of this spirit? Why does it wear a rusty sheath with no sword?
5. How does the climate of the city street contrast with the air it has about it?
6. What examples of personification do you find on pages 65-66?
7. To what purpose does the spirit put its torch?
8. What is Dickens getting at when he has Scrooge question the spirit about the bakeries being closed on Sunday, thus depriving the poor of access to the ovens and a decent meal?
9. What play on words does the spirit use to point out to Scrooge that Cratchit is poor but still joyful?
10. Who are the children in the Cratchit family? What are they so excited about this Christmas Day?
11. Of what does the Cratchits’ Christmas dinner consist? How does it compare to holiday dinners at your house? How does Dickens describe the size of the goose and the pudding?
12. What famous line is uttered by Tiny Tim on page 76? How do we know how much the little boy means to Bob Cratchit?
13. How does Tiny Tim affect Scrooge? How does the spirit humiliate Scrooge where Tiny Tim is concerned?
14. What is meant by, “…to hear the Insect on the leaf pronouncing on the too much life among his hungry brothers in the dust!”?
A Christmas Carol
Stave Three
Discussion Questions
Page two
15. What does Bob Cratchit’s toast to Scrooge tell you about him? How do you suppose Scrooge felt as he listened to Cratchit defend him?
16. Why did Dickens include the brief scenes on the moor, at the lighthouse, and on the ship?
17. As the scene at Fred’s opens, why is everyone laughing? Why does Fred say he has nothing to say against Scrooge?
18. In spite of Scrooge’s attitude toward Christmas, what has his nephew resolved to do? What do you think about Fred? Is he foolish to persist with his uncle?
19. What is funny about the game of Blind-Man’s Bluff?
20. How is Scrooge’s name brought into one of the games played at the party? Does this seem to make Scrooge feel bad?
21. What happens to the spirit as the night wears on? Why?
22. What two children does the spirit show to Scrooge? Why does the spirit say, “They are Man’s”? What warning does the spirit issue? Have any of the spirit’s (Dickens’) predictions come true?
23. What words of Scrooge’s are once again echoed by the spirit? How do you think Scrooge feels, hearing himself?
Lit term: pathos: the quality in literature which stimulates pity or sorrow in the reader.
Identify a scene in this stave in which Dickens used pathos.