A Christmas Carol quotes

Last updated: 15/11/2023
Contributor: Teachit Author
Grouping quotations into themes
Main Subject
Key stage
Category
Prose: 19th-century prose
Resource type
Exam preparation
Revision
Author
Charles Dickens
Title
A Christmas Carol

This fabulous GCSE revision task encourages students to group quotations from each of the five staves of Charles Dickens' novella A Christmas Carol into themes.

KS4 English Literature students are asked to colour code the quotations to decide if they are quotations about Mr Scrooge, Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim, Jacob Marley, the ghosts of Christmas or other characters neglected by Ebenezer Scrooge (Belle, Fred, Fezziwig). Students also consider whether the quotes show Dickens’ feelings about society, wealth and poverty, the redemptive qualities of Christmas or how weather and nature are used to create atmosphere in the novella.

There are 120 quotations to support your class reading of the text or for exam preparation and recall, including from iconic quotations like ‘Bah! Humbug!’, ‘They had better [die] and decrease the surplus population’ and the Ghost of Christmas present’s warning, ‘This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware of them both’. Students will also find heartwarming reminders of the powerful ending of the novella such as ‘Merry Christmas, Bob’.

Example activities from the downloadable worksheet:

1.    Using a dictionary, find the meaning of five words you don’t understand in these quotations and write out the definition.

2.    Using another key of your own design, identify Dickens’ use of techniques in the following quotations. For example, you could draw a small star in all of the boxes where pathetic fallacy or similes are used.

3.    Select three of the quotations which use a language technique and explain their effect e.g. ‘The phantom slowly, gravely, silently approached.’ The use of the rule of three emphasises the sinister and morbid nature of the final Spirit.  

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