"It's enough for a man to understand his own business, and not to interfere with other people's. It was not in impenetrable shadow as the other objects in the yard were, but had a dismal light about it, like a bad lobster in a dark cellar. "Have they no refuge or resource?" At the dinner, Mrs. Cratchit curses Scrooge, but her husband reminds her that it is Christmas. Whether these creatures faded into mist, or mist enshrouded them, he could not tell. God save you! cried a cheerful voice. WebAre there no prisons? asked Scrooge. Marley's Ghost! and fell again. This hyperbolic statement underlines Scrooges dramatic refusal to join his nephews family for Christmas celebrations, and again shows Scrooge choosing isolation over togetherness, loneliness over family. and refused to share Fred's Christmas joy. What evidence would you have of my reality beyond that of your senses?, Because, said Scrooge, a little thing affects them. It was full as heavy and as long as this, seven Christmas Eves ago. He says this in the first stave of the story. Scrooge knew he was dead? Scrooge is okay with the maltreatment of the poor because hes unaffected by it. Pray!, How it is that I appear before you in a shape that you can see, I may not tell. Marley likely wouldn't have been liberal with his money, and so the two gentlemen are simply using this phrasing to encourage Scrooge to donate. Scrooge, ever the pragmatist, questions why the Ghost hasn't already travelled to all the places it should have, given the span of seven years and its ability to travel "on the wings of the wind." He lived in chambers which had once belonged to his deceased partner. Basically most prisoners are unemployable before they go inside, and they are doubly unemployable when they come out with a criminal record. He ventured to raise his eyes again, and found his supernatural visitor confronting him in an erect attitude, with its chain wound over and about its arm. such was I!. Marley's face. 5 What did Scrooge really mean when he said, are there no prisons? This might have lasted half a minute, or a minute, but it seemed an hour. In came a fiddler with a music-book, and went up to the lofty desk, and made an orchestra of it, and tuned like fifty stomach-aches. Having told the two gentlemen to leave and not given them any money, Scrooge's mood improves, further illustrating how much he prefers to hoard his money and not help others. This page was last edited on 20 February 2023, at 16:54. Scrooge is then taken to his nephew Fred's house, where Fred tells his pretty wife and his sisters he feels sorry for Scrooge, since his miserly, hateful nature deprives him of pleasure in life. Dickens repeats the word "sole" here for a very particular purpose. Nor can I tell you what I would. In the fifth chapter of the book of Daniel, Belshazzar holds a grand feast during which he sees the writing on the wall that Daniel interprets for him to be predicting the coming fall of Babylon. There's another fellow, muttered Scrooge; who overheard him: my clerk, with fifteen shillings a week, and a wife and family, talking about a merry Christmas. He tells Scrooge that he has more than 1800 brothers and his lifespan is a mere single day. Abel chooses to sacrifice his very best lamb, but Cain gave God an offering of fruit. The bell's watching Scrooge, and its connection to the passing of time, suggests that Scrooge's time may be running out, foreshadowing future events. Workhouses were where you ended up