Page 29 - Year 11 Spring 2026 Knowledge Organiser

English Literature: ’A Christmas Carol’ 4 of 5

1. You need to learn each quote. How does Dickens present the importance of family in ‘A Christmas
2. Label each with the techniques it contains
3. Circle and label the words you could use for single word analysis. Carol?’
4. Consider why Dickens has used these words/ techniques and the effect The importance of family is best presented through contrasts
they have on the reader.
5. Create revision cards so that you can test yourself. Put the quotes on the throughout the novella. By juxtaposing the positive family men
front, the techniques and effects on the back. Bob Cratchit and Fred with Scrooge, the reader is left in doubt
about the connection between family and happiness.
“Hard and sharp as flint​

“Solitary as an oyster”​ At the start of the novella Scrooge, who rejects his family, is,

presented as being “as solitary as an oyster”. On the surface this
“I wear the chain I forged in life”​ simile suggests that Scrooge is lonely and unhappy. The adjective

“he could not hide the light” “solitary” shows that Scrooge is used to being alone and also that
he keeps himself locked away from family as if he is solitary
“Are there no prisons…are there no workhouses?”​ confinement in a prison. This links to what Marley’s ghost says at
the start of the novella when he says: “I wear the chains I forged in
“twice-turned gown, but brave in ribbons”​ life” because Scrooge is metaphorically forging a prison cell around
himself so he is left alone. Metaphorically, “oyster” represents
Tiny Tim: “good as gold”​ Scrooge as a character because although he is covered by a hard,

sharp, and un-aesthetically pleasing shell, deep within him there is
“Scrooge was the ogre of the family”​ the potential of a pearl of happiness and love – but only if he

“I am not the man I was. I will not be the man I must have been”​ reconnects with family. Scrooge becomes a symbol for people who
keep themselves confined from others and are therefore unhappy.
“how green a place it is”​ Dickens makes Scrooge so lonely, miserable and greedy at the start
to try and portray how much of a difference family makes to one’s
“overrun by grass and weeds”​ happiness. Dickens does this so that when Scrooge finds
happiness, in the way of family; it symbolises just how powerful
“I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry and important family is.

as a schoolboy. I am as giddy as a drunken man.”​