A Christmas Carol - Scrooge: Grade 9 Analysis & Essay Plan, With Points & Quotes

welcome to another video you've got Mr

Everything English

today guys our focus is Shifting our

focus is Shifting to the English

Literature exam and we are looking at

probably one of the most popular taught

texts at GCSE and this is a Christmas

carol guys in the English Literature

Exam you are given 45 minutes to answer

one question on A Christmas Carol and

for the Christmas carol question you are

given an extract and you are expected to

talk about the extract and the whole

text now in your 45 minutes you were

expected to write anywhere between three

to five paragraphs I advise four

paragraphs so in 45 minutes you are

doing four paragraphs you are doing four

paragraphs sorry two paragraphs on the

extract two paragraphs on the whole text

that's how I teach students to answer

this question however guys in this video

we are going to imagine that there is no

extract so what we're going to do guys

is we're gonna think of a question for

example it could be how a scrooge

presented had a screw change

imagine you were given a question around

the character of Scrooge I'm gonna give

you four points that you can use as the

basis of four paragraphs for this essay

I will then give you four quotes that

you can use to support these four points

and then guys I will show you my

analysis of these four quotes So

essentially guys by the end of this

video you will have four paragraphs

built up for a question on Scrooge

now some of the quotes that we're going

to cover guys some of them are

complicated some of them are basic now

remember one thing guys a quote is just

a quote how you make a quote good is

through your analysis what do you say

about that quote

okay so guys hopefully by the end of

this video you have a good amount that

you can use for an essay on the

character of Scrooge and even if you

can't use all four points you might be

able to use three or two depending upon

what particular question you are given

on the day all right guys let's now

switch to the board and we shall go over

all of the four quotes four points and

the different analysis that you can make

for these calls hey guys so the first

quote that we will be using is the quote

solitary as an oyster which is a very

very very popular code when it comes to

the play A Christmas Carol now what can

I say as my point imagine guys the

question was in the text Christmas Carol

how is Scrooge presented what could I

use as my point for this question I'm

gonna say guys that in this quote

Scrooge is presented as being lonely

that's correct but at the moment it's a

little bit too basic I'm gonna then take

it further and talk about how this is a

forced loneliness it's not voluntary

I'll explain how in a second so my point

guys is something about the idea that

Scrooge is a character who's a very

lonely character but he's not lonely

because he wants to be lonely he's

forced to be lonely

and then I'm gonna explain how now guys

this here would count as ao1 because

this would be my point this quote over

here guys this will also count as ao1

because this is my reference to the text

now let's analyze and talk about the

quote specifically

we were analyzing this quote guys let's

start off by talking about the word

solitary

guys yes you are lonely however this

word guys it has connotations of being

locked up

because it links to the idea of prison

somebody who is in solitary confinement

they are almost being put into prison so

Scrooge is lonely Scrooge is lonely

because he feels as though or he's

presented as though he's locked up like

somebody in prison

now how can I prove that even further

then we have to look at the noun oyster

guys a noun oyster is hard on the

outside soft on the inside and on the

soft is where the is where the important

part of the oyster lies now we want to

get an even higher grade now

oyster

this hard shell on the outside

it's a thinly right guys we all know

this is a simile right it's saying that

Scrooge is lonely Scrooge is confined

Scrooge is locked up Scrooge is shut off

from the rest of the world just the way

the oyster is why is an oyster shut off

and left the world it's because it has a

hard outer shell it's because it has a

hard outer shell now we can't say that

Scrooge has a literal hard outer shell

it doesn't make sense it's not correct

so what could be this outer shell

thus confining Scrooge that's

controlling Scrooge that's making

Scrooge behave in a particular way

I would argue that a very good point to

make here is that the hard shell that is

controlling Scrooge guys I would make an

AO3 point for me guys it is capitalism

guys for me it is capitalism capitalism

is the belief

that the only thing that matters in life

is yourself and money profit

You could argue here guys that this hard

outer shell is the belief that a scrooge

has been indoctrinated to believe

he's lonely he's locked up

metaphorically because he begins to put

things as being important that shouldn't

really be important

all he cares about is work and money

work and money himself work money

himself

and therefore without realizing

capitalism has created a hard outer

shell where other people don't want to

know him

where he's put off so many other

relationships because he's become locked

up in the Shell of capitalism he's

become he's become almost immersed in

the pursuit of making money and only

taking care of himself

guys this is a profound point you can

make let's recap so we don't get lost

the quote solitary as an oyster it

doesn't say lonely as an oyster the

writer uses the language specifically

the word solitary yes it means you're

lonely but it doesn't mean you're lonely

as in I'm sitting at home and my friend

don't reply to me on Whatsapp it means

you're lonely because you've almost been

knocked up you've almost been forced to

be lonely however in this text we can't

physically see what or who has locked up

Scrooge so we're gonna use our grade 9

inference and we're gonna say that

because the writer chooses the noun

oyster oyster hard on the outside soft

on the inside this hard outer layer that

controls Scrooge that doesn't show us

the real Scrooge is capitalism

because he's been indoctrinated into the

belief that the only thing that he

should care about is money and himself

all right guys that is our AO3 link now

we gotta take it further

an oyster guys an oyster is soft on the

inside so now we bring in the the other

characters now we bring in the ghosts or

the spirits and we talk about the idea

how they crack the shell

guys they crack the hard outer layer

that is what these characters do they

chip and they chip and they chip and

they chip away but don't say they crack

the shell of the oyster

because remember that shell is a symbol

of capitalism they chip away at the

belief of capitalism that Scrooge holds

by the end of the text

he's not in love with money

he is not obsessed with working

he's not even obsessed with himself

he cares about other people he cares

about uh Tiny Tim and he cares about his

friends and his family

because they've broken that shell of the

oyster

which represented capitalism

now I am not saying this is the only way

you can analyze this quote but it's a

very good way of analyzing the quote