Blog 01: A Christmas Carol

In this series, I’ll be giving regular short introductions to GCSE and A Level English Literature texts, in the run-up to mock exams, structured around 3 key pointers to help you with your revision.

Today’s focus will be on A Christmas Carol.

With all of these blog posts, I’ll be highlighting three important things to consider to elevate your exam responses.

Key Character

It has to be Scrooge himself. Make sure your essay response considers the development of Scrooge as a character over the course of the narrative: how does he change? To what extent is this story — a ‘Carol’, remember — a performance about the Christmas-time redemption of the protagonist? (From the Greek for ‘first’ or ‘principal’ — nothing to do with being good or bad.)

Key Theme

Light. Is this whole story about Scrooge metaphorically ‘moving into the light’? At the beginning, he says ‘darkness is cheap’ — his financial ethos (his miserliness) is linked to an absence of light. The spirits, though, bring him light, often literally: a ‘bright clear jet of light’ emanates from the Ghost of Christmas Past. And scenes of happiness are often associated with well-lit rooms.

Key Quotation

From the Ghost of Christmas Past: ‘would you so soon put out, with worldly hands, the light I give!’ This links to the first two points, and gives you something to talk about that links the theme of light, or enlightenment, with the supernatural. Think about the language used, in particular: why is Scrooge described as ‘worldly’?

📌 If you want more of this focus on character, theme, and language to prepare you for your exams, get in touch.