Why I love…A Christmas Carol: Stave 2 Family & Redemption & the Supernatural (2024)

As I have written before, this year I’m teaching A Christmas Carol through the themes: Why I love… Teaching through themes: A Christmas Carol

As well as this, I really want to explore how students can use pre-prepared models to help them consolidate their knowledge and understanding of how to write about themes. Also, to help them understand different ways to write about the text. I’ve previously shared a high level stave one essay:Why I love…Supernatural in Stave 1: A Christmas Carol. This worked well with them as we talked it through and explored different aspects of the essay, thinking about new knowledge and what they were learning or consolidating as well as the way the essay was made up.

This blog is about two things: using an essay question as a plan and then using that plan to write an introduction and also the essay at a mid level on family and redemption. The planning part was a quick five minute exercise that we did as a class on the board at the end of a double lesson.

During the lesson, we had finished the reading and note making on stave two, completed the quote analysis individually in books, through discussion with each other and myself and our brilliant teaching assistant circulating and supporting them (some students used the slide below and did the quote selecting completely independently) other students used the pre-selected quotes to support and guide them.

Copy of the independent learning slide: ACC – Stave 2 – Independent Work

I wrote the question on the board and then we unpicked it looking at how we could use the question as a springboard to plan an answer. I explained that we were only focusing on stave 2 at the moment but the question will always look for their understanding beyond the extract that they are given. I’ve typed it up below, as I want to revisit it and go through the introduction with the class on Friday and then work with them on the pre-planned essay below.

A copy of the PowerPoint above is here: Using the question as a plan

The example below is what we will work on next. It is not as high level, deliberately as the first one, to show a different type of response. The stave 3 response will be a no quotes analytical essay, to again give a different example.

With this example, I’ll ask students to choose key phrases that they could use in their own writing about Dickens and to make a note of anything that they find interesting about the theme with a reason why?

Stave Two

How does Dickens develop the theme of family and redemption in Stave Two?

Dickens has introduced us to the solitary character of Scrooge in the first stave, as well as his love of money, at the expense of all other human relationships. However, in stave two we are shown through the Ghost of the Past how Scrooge had been treated and behaved in his past. We see the lonely, isolated Scrooge as a school boy, the joy and then grief of Scrooge with his sister Fan, his capacity for enjoying life with the Fezziwig’s and finally how he once had a fiancé Belle. All of these encounters suggest that Scrooge once had a family that he was capable of loving and his reactions to these events suggest that he does deserve redemption, although perhaps not yet.

When the candle shaped Ghost of the Past takes Scrooge back to his school days, we are confronted with a lonely, solitary and isolated boy, who appears to have been left alone in the school house reading during the Christmas holidays. We realise it is Scrooge and this makes the reader feel some sympathy for him as it would be a horrible time of the year to be alone. His sister “Little Fan” who he describes as “Quite a woman, little Fan!” arrives at the school to take him home and shows that she cares for Scrooge and he for her, however we do learn that his father is responsible for Scrooge being left behind and we recognise that this must have been extremely upsetting for Scrooge, as being rejected by your father is very hurtful. This shows that Scrooge’s family life as a child was not perfect. Then, we learn that Fan died and that this meant Scrooge felt grief over the death of his sister, in childbirth. Maybe Dickens was commenting on the frequency of death for females in childbirth and the mortality rates in the Victorian era. Dickens highlights that Scrooge is capable of emotion when he saw a carol singer in the past and reflects “I would have liked to give him something” when thinking of the carol singers he had rejected the day before. This may mean that Scrooge is beginning to understand that his miserly ways are upsetting to others. This slight show of emotion is the first flickering of humanity from Scrooge and shows that he may deserve redemption.

Further into stave two, Dickens introduces the jolly, happy and good employer Fezziwig. Scrooge looks back fondly on his days as an apprentice and seems happy to have been part of the fun and celebrations. Fezziwig shouts “Hilli Ho” and insists that there is no work on Christmas Eve and Dickens appears to show that employers can be good, cheerful and benevolent with the Fezziwig’s throwing a party for all their employees. Scrooge is overjoyed to see his old friend “Dick” and exclaims to the Ghost that he would like to speak to his clerk. This shows a change in Scrooge as he has not previously suggested that he would like “a word or two” with “his clerk” and this shows another glimmer of kindness or recognition from Scrooge. Showing his previous employer and friends to Scrooge, is a good way of helping Scrooge recognise he was not always a miser. Dickens shows that not all employers are bad and some do want to make things better for their employees.

Finally, in Stave 2 we see the pain and suffering and misery that Scrooge feels emotionally when he is reminded of his broken engagement. The Ghost of the Past reveals Belle to him and the long forgotten conversation where she “release(d)” Scrooge as “an “idol has replaced me” a “golden idol” which shows that she understands the once loving, but poor Scrooge has been changed by his desire to get more and more money and that he no longer has time for her. In rejecting an opportunity for love in his life, we see that Scrooge might have had a different future if he had not been blinded by wealth. When he sees Belle in later life as a “comely matron” with lots of children and a happy future, Scrooge is upset and asks to see “no more” as emotionally he seems distressed. This distress suggests that he is deserving of redemption, because he has not always been so “grasping” and “covetous” and in the past he did have the capacity for human kindness and emotions. Dickens may highlight these elements in Scrooge to show that slowly he will be able to recognise his own wrongdoing and change and that this may be true of elements of society too. As a Christian society, the possibility of change and redemption should always be available and it should never be too late to repent sins and this may be what Dickens is trying to tell the reader.

Family is shown in the way Fan, the Fezziwig family and Belle behave towards each other in this stave. All show kindness towards other, are happy to see each other and enjoy spending time together. These are all examples of family life that Scrooge has rejected over time and we see through the Ghost of the Past, symbolically lighting the events in Scrooge’s past that he does have potential for change and that he may be worth saving. Redemption although not yet deserved by Scrooge, does appear more likely in stave two, than it had previously in the novella. Dickens message could therefore be to show that the actions you take and words you speak are important and will have a lasting impact on others.

A copy of the essay: Stave Two – Family & Redemption