a christmas carol:scrooge and marley By: Israel Horovitz from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Strategies for reading drama The story is told mostly through what actors say (dialogue) and what they do (action). Use the stage directions to understand what is happening while the characters are talking or while they are silent. 1. Picture the action: Stage directions will help you picture the action of a play. 2. Ask questions. 3. Predict what is going to happen: when reading drama, novels, novellas, short stories and narrative nonfiction, make predictions – educated guesses

background A Christmas Carol is set in 19th century England, a time of rapid industrial growth. In this booming economy, the wealthy lived in luxury, but the poor and the working class suffered. Workers put in long hours, endured brutal working conditions, and earned low wages. Dickens’s great sympathy for the poor and working classes is evident in A Christmas Carol

Connecting Literary Elements Literary analysis Elements of Drama Connecting Literary Elements A drama is a story written to be performed. A drama has characters, a setting, and a plot. Drama has: Presentation of Dialogue - conversations between characters. Characters names are written before the words they speak. Stage Directions – words not spoken by characters. Describe the set, special effects, and the way characters look and move. Dramatic adaptation – Horovitz’s play makes use of the plot, characters, and setting of Charles Dickens’s novel A Christmas Carol on which it is based.

Literary analysis continued Characterization Motives The act of creating and developing a character. In drama, character traits – the qualities of characters – are revealed through what characters say, what is said about them, and their own actions. A character’s motives are the reasons for his or her actions. Motives are usually related to what a character wants, needs, or feels. Common general motives are: fear, greed, love, honor

Reading strategy Picturing the Action Asking Questions To picture in your mind what a performance of A Christmas Carol might be like, use the details the playwright provides in the stage directions. Asking Questions To understand the traits, actions, and motives of characters, ask yourself questions: Why did the character do that? What did the character mean by that comment? How is the character feeling?