A Christmas Carol Stave 1 Summary (2023)

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What happens in Stave 1 of A Christmas Carol summary? ›

What happens in Stave 1 of A Christmas Carol? In Stave 1, Ebenezer Scrooge is introduced as a cantankerous old money-lender. The ghost of his long-dead partner, Jacob Marley, appears and tells him that he will be haunted by three ghosts.

Scrooge is working at his counting house while keeping a gimlet eye on his clerk, Bob Cratchit. Scrooge's nephew, Fred, breezes into the office, wishing Scrooge a merry Christmas. Scrooge dismisses him contemptuously with the pronouncement that Christmas has never done anybody any good or put money in anybody's pocket.

If I could work my will," said Scrooge indignantly, "every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart.

Stave One. Notice what makes up Marley's chain; it is not typical metal, but instead symbolically comprised of what Marley valued in life. Now, in the afterlife, his material assets trap and bind him. This serves as a warning to Scrooge, suggesting a potential fate for the greedy man.

Stave 1: Marley's Ghost

Scrooge is visited by his nephew, Fred, who invites him to dine with him on Christmas Day. Scrooge refuses. He also refuses to donate any money to charity. Scrooge returns to his home.

The first Stave centers on the visitation from Marley's ghost, the middle three present the tales of the three Christmas spirits, and the last concludes the story, showing how Scrooge has changed from an inflexible curmudgeon to a warm and joyful benefactor.

Someone comes by to try to carol and Scrooge almost hits him in the face with a ruler. Scrooge then turns on the clerk and grudgingly gives him Christmas Day off with half pay—or as he calls it, the one day a year when the clerk is allowed to rob him. Finally, the day is done, and Scrooge goes home to his apartment.

Marley is Scrooge's old business partner, a miserly man whom Scrooge first sees as an apparition on a door knocker at his house. Marley returns as a ghost who must drag heavy chains connected to mortgages, padlocks, and other items associated with his old business and his greed.

"Bah!" Said Scrooge, "humbug!" "Every idiot who goes about with 'merry Christmas' oh his lips should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!" Shows how cold and stone hearted he is.

Scrooge represents selfish members of victorian upper and middle classes. He refuses to give to charity. Dickens establishes Scrooge as an unsympathetic figure to make his transformation more powerful.

What is the quote from stave 1? ›

If I could work my will,” said Scrooge indignantly, “every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!”

Scrooge is a cold person and the air describes him perfectly. Scrooge is cold hearted, and selfish. The cold air is bitter to anyone besides Scrooge because he can handle it but noone else can.

In this module, we continue to read Stave One as Scrooge finally comes face to face with the ghost of his old friend, Jacob Marley.

His presence in the story is to provide a warning in Stave One concerning the miserliness and misanthropy of Scrooge and to act as a herald for the three Ghosts of Christmas who are to come.

The Staves follow the action of the story with the first stave setting the scene, the middle stave showing the turning point for Scrooge and the final stave concluding the story by presenting him as a changed man.

How did people react to Scrooge? They avoided him because he was always in a foul mood. Even the blind man's dog knew to avoid Scrooge. Why does Scrooge's nephew visit?