Posted in A Christmas Carol

I hope you are all enjoying the book so far!  Though I’ve never read it before, it’s been a family tradition to watch the movie every December, so I am very familiar with the story. 

**Please read Stave I before you read the discussion notes and questions (they will contain spoilers).  Come back and post your own discussion when you're done.**

Discussion Notes

There are so many things that we could talk about, even in this first stave!  Basically, what we've read so far, though, is development of Scrooge's character.  Dickens does this masterfully. 

"Oh!  But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, 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 oyster."

I'll have to restrain myself from quoting every single sentence from the book.  Dickens is absolutely brilliant.  I know few authors that affect me the way that he does! 

Okay, so what do we think of Scrooge?  Well, he's obviously the greediest miser that ever walked the planet.  Can you even imagine more of a grouch?  What a pitiful character!  His absolute misery is even more evident when contrasted with the jolly disposition of his nephew.  Here's a character that will make a good redemption story. ;-)

I think this is one of the most interesting quotes from Jacob Marley (who, you must remember, was dead as a doornail):

"'At this time of the rolling year,' the spectre said, 'I suffer most.  Why did I walk through the crowds of fellow-beings with my eyes turned down, and never raise them to that blessed Star which led the Wise Men to a poor abode?  Were there no poor homes to which its light would have conducted me!'"

Why did Marley suffer?  Because he had ignored his fellow men.  His interest had been all to himself, and his efforts for his own comfort. 

Then He [the Son of Man] will also say to those on His left hand, 'Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.'  Then they also will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?'  Then He will answer them, saying, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.'  And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. ~ Matthew 25:41-46 NKJV

We should take Marley's warning to ourselves.  What compassion have we had on our fellow men?  Have we passed them up with our "eyes turned down" like Marley and Scrooge? 

"He had been quite familiar with one old ghost, in a white waistcoat, with a monstrous iron safe attached to its ankle, who cried piteously at being unable to assist a wretched woman with an infant, whom it saw below, upon a doorstep.  The misery with them all was, clearly, that they sought to interfere, for good, in human matters, and had lost the power for ever."

We only have one life to live!  We won't get a chance to help others after we die.  We have to take advantage of the time that is given to us. 

Discussion Questions

1. Why is Scrooge so "scroogy?"
2. What do you think Marley meant when he said that he "girded it [his chain] on of [his] own free will?"
3. What is your favorite descriptive passage from the reading?

Tomorrow we will read Stave II: "The First of the Three Spirits," and on Sunday I will post a discussion. 

Happy reading,
Sylvia