1. Oh but he was tight fisted!
Slide 1
Teaching prompts
Look at the picture. What can you see?
Where are we? (London) When? (1840s)
Describe the man.
What time of year is it?

2. Slide 3
Audio Script:
Marley was dead. There was no doubt about that. Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.
Did Scrooge know he was dead? Of course he did. Scrooge and he were partners for many years. Scrooge was his only friend and only mourner. And even Scrooge did not mourn much when he died.
Scrooge never painted out Old Marley’s name. There it stood, years afterwards, above the door: Scrooge and Marley.
Sometimes people new to the business called him Scrooge, and sometimes Marley. He answered to both names: it was all the same to him.
Oh! But he was tight-fisted!
The cold within him froze his old features. He carried his own low temperature always about with him; and didn’t thaw it one degree at Christmas.
Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, ‘My dear Scrooge, how are you? When will you come to see me?’
But what did Scrooge care?

3. Oh! But he was tight-fisted!
Scrooge
Oh! But he was tight-fisted!
Slide 3
Read from slide
‘Tight fisted’ is still used in modern English. It’s slang for ungenerous with money
Here Dickens means it more generally to describe the character of Scrooge

4. Marley Scrooge was his only friend and only mourner. Slide 4
Read from slide
‘What is a ‘mourner’. Explain that to mourn is to feel sadness about a death of someone close to you.
Scrooge was Marley’s ‘only friend and only mourner’. But he does not ‘mourn much’’ about the death of his friend. What does this tell us about Scrooge?

5. Marley And even Scrooge did not mourn much when he died. Slide 5
Read from slide
Scrooge does not ‘mourn much’’ about the death of his friend.
What does this tell us about Scrooge?

6. Fred Visits Scrooge Slide 4 Listen to audio
Fred is the nephew of Scrooge – his only close relative. Explain that to mourn is to feel sadness about a death of someone close to you.
Does Fred share his Uncle’s view of Christmas?
Script:
‘A Merry Christmas, Uncle! God save you!’ cried a cheerful voice. It was Scrooge’s nephew, Fred.
‘Bah!’ said Scrooge, ‘Humbug!’
‘Christmas a humbug, uncle!’ said Fred. ‘You don’t mean that, I am sure.’
‘I do,’ said Scrooge. ‘Merry Christmas! What reason have you to be merry? You’re poor enough.’
‘Come, then,’ said the nephew. ‘What reason have you to be morose? You’re rich enough.’
‘Don’t be cross, uncle!’ said the nephew.
‘What else can I be,’ said the uncle, ‘when I live in such a world of fools as this?
‘Merry Christmas! Out upon merry Christmas! What’s Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money? For finding yourself a year older, but not an hour richer?’
‘Uncle!’ said the nephew.
‘Nephew!’ replied the uncle. ‘Keep Christmas in your own way, and let me keep it in mine.’
‘Keep it!’ repeated Scrooge’s nephew. ‘But you don’t keep it.’
‘Let me leave it, then,’ said Scrooge. ‘Much good may it do you! Much good it has ever done you!’
‘I have always thought of Christmas time as a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable time.
‘I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good. I say, God bless it!’

7. ‘Bah! Humbug!’ Slide 4 Read from slide
This is the most famous phrase Scrooge uses?
What do you think he means?.

8. What does Scrooge mean? Definition of humbug
language or behaviour that is false or meant to deceive people
someone or something that is not honest or true
a hard peppermint candy
Source: Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary
Slide 8
Read from slide
Which one of these definitions best matches what Scrooge means? 1st though the 2nd also applies.
What do you think he means?.

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