“A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens
Response Log
Setting the Tone
Life is full of Change and Choices. The way people lead their lives depends partly on
the choices they make, especially when dealing with change. Respond to each of the
questions below in complete sentences.
1. How or in what way do choices a person makes affect that person?
2. How do these choices affect the other people in their lives?
3. Can a person change just through simple choices? Or is change more difficult
than simple choices? Explain.
4. What type of choices might create change in a person’s attitudes and/or
behavior? Why?
Prologue/Scene 1
1. Visualize: Write a brief paragraph describing the inside of Scrooge’s shop using
descriptive words and images.
2. How does Scrooge’s nephew’s character (Fred) contrast with Scrooge’s?
3. Why do you think Fred invites his Uncle Scrooge to dinner every year, even
through Scrooge always turns down the invitation?
4. How does Scrooge’s attitude contrast with the feelings and actions normally
associated with the holidays?
5. Describe how Bob Cratchit’s behavior is different from Scrooge’s? Provide one
example from this scene that supports your opinion.
6. Reread the stage directions. How is the mood – the feeling conveyed to the
reader – outside Scrooge’s office different from the mood within the office?
7. Provide 2-3 sentences describing the character of Scrooge in this Scene. Use
language that includes precise, descriptive adjectives and character traits.
Scene 2
1. It is customary to give servants a gift of extra money at the holidays. What
does Scrooge’s reaction to Cook and Sparsit waiting for their gifts on page 258
reveal about his character?
2. Visualize the ghost of Jacob Marley. Draw a detailed drawing of Marley’s ghost
and write a brief explanation of what each detail represents.
3. Why does Marley visit Scrooge? What message does he convey to Scrooge?
4. A symbol is a person, a place, an object, or an action that stands for something
beyond itself. What does the funeral procession symbolize at the bottom of page
259? Explain your response.
5. Look at View and Compare on page 261. Each interpretation of Scrooge reveals
something about his character. List each actor’s name and describe what is
revealed about Scrooge’s character from the way the actor looks. Which
interpretation is closest to your own; explain why?
Scene 3
1. Visualize the First Spirit. Draw a detailed drawing of the Spirit and write a brief
explanation of what each detail represents.
2. What does the reader learn about Scrooge from each of the following scenes:
a) as a child from what Scrooge says and how he speaks
b) his happy days with his first master, Fezziwig
c) with Scrooge’s Sweetheart and his engagement ring
3. What happened in Scrooge’s early life to cause him to change into such a hardhearted, bitter man?
4. What is the Spirit trying to teach Scrooge by showing him each of the scenes in
#2 above? Write 1-2 sentences of explanation for each of the three scenes.
5. As Scrooge views his past with Fezziwig, what do you think he would like to say
to Cratchit at this time? What does this reveal about the change that is beginning
with Scrooge?
5. When the Spirit says, “I am always with you” on page 264, what does he mean?
6. How and in what ways is Scrooge beginning to change in this scene?
Scene 4
1. Visualize the Second Spirit. Draw a detailed drawing of the Spirit and write a
brief explanation of what each detail represents.
2. The Second Spirit tells Scrooge that Cratchit’s home is “A world away. . . at
least that far.”(page 265) What does this mean symbolically?
3. What is significant about the Spirit and Scrooge entering the Cratchit home like
a draft of cold air?
4. Why do you think Scrooge can’t bear to hear the children sing?
5. On page 266, at the bottom of the right hand column, the Spirit says, “If he be
like to die, he had better do it and decrease the surplus population.” Why does the
Spirit say this?
6. Why did the Spirit bring Scrooge to the Cratchit household?
7. Use the details you’ve learned about Scrooge’s character so far and infer from
them why you believe he refuses to go to his nephew’s house?
8. The two beggar children represent Hunger and Ignorance. Why are they shown
as children? What does the Spirit mean by this sentence: “They will grow and
multiply, and they will not remain children”?
9. What does Scrooge learn from the Second Spirit?
Scene 5
1. Visualize: Describe this scene and tell how it makes you feel?
2. Why are the servants laughing and taking Scrooge’s possessions on page 270?
How does Scrooge feel about this?
3. Why are Mrs. Cratchit’s eyes tired by the light? Why doesn’t she want her
husband to see her reddened eyes?
4. Use the details from pages 269-270 to infer what is going to happen on Sunday
and where Bob Cratchit just came from?
5. What is revealed about the changes in Scrooge’s character by his reaction to
the news of Tiny Tim’s death?
Scene 6
1. Summarize Scrooge’s promises made in the beginning of scene.
2. Reread the stage directions (in parentheses) with Scrooge and the Gentleman
Visitor. What is the Gentleman Visitor’s reaction to being summoned by Scrooge?
Explain your response.
3. Make a generalization (general statement) about how Scrooge has changed from
the beginning of the play until the end. (Only one sentence that is concise and
focused)
4. Do you believe that Scrooge has truly changed? Why or why not? You need to
use specific reasoning based within the play to support your thinking.(2+ sentences)
After reading the play
1. What is the climax or turning point of the play? Why?
2. The resolution is the part of the plot in which loose ends are tied up and the
story is brought to a close. List the loose ends that are resolved in scene 6?
3. How did the stage directions play an important part in helping the reader to
visualize while reading this play?
4. Which Spirit do you think had the greatest influence in motivating Scrooge to
change? Explain your response using specific reasoning based within the play to
support your thinking.