A Christmas Carol Figurative Language

Payton Albanese

Carey, Per 1

English 1H

O4 January 2016

Scrooge: The Spoilsport of Christmas Authors are always trying to paint images into the reader’s mind and help understand the story better by using figurative language. In “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens, Scrooge is portrayed as greedy, bitter and isolated man. Dickens wants to enable the readers to build up an image of Scrooge and does that by using repetition and imagery. Scrooge is a cold-hearted and selfish character; I know this because Charles Dickens uses repetition throughout the short story. Repetition is the action of repeating something that has already been said or written. Repetition is used by authors to give emphasis to particular word, phrase or idea; for example, "No warmth could warm him, no wintry weather chills him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he; no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose…" (Stanza 2). That specific quote is not repeating the exact words over again, but it is repeating the same idea over and over while continuously using the word “no.” Charles Dickens uses repetition as a way to further give us detail about

One way he does this is by using imagery. Imagery is when the author uses words and phrases to create “mental images” for the reader. Imagery is used as a visual affect: it’s to help the reader visualize more realistically the author’s vision of the setting or character. Scrooge is described using imagery such as: “the cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, and shrivelled his cheek… made his eyes red, his thin lips blue…” (Stanza 1) this helps the reader visualize what Scrooge looks like so that the reader and the author are on somewhat on the same page. Dickens uses literary devices to benefit his audience by giving a better understanding of what is happening in that point of