Charles Dickenss A Christmas Carol

Name: ___________________________________ Date: __________________

STAVE 1: Setting & Mood - Text Marking Exercise for Close Reading Ms. Brown Grade 7

Setting Analysis: London Town

DIRECTIONS: To understand how imagery and mood
interact in Dickenss description of the setting which is an
1800s London town - annotate the excerpt using specific
text marking symbols and answer the questions below.

Once upon a time -- of all the good days in the year, on Christmas Eve -- old Scrooge sat busy in his counting-
house. It was cold, bleak, biting weather: foggy withal: and he could hear the people in the court outside, go
wheezing up and down, beating their hands upon their breasts, and stamping their feet upon the pavement stones
to warm them. The city clocks had only just gone three, but it was quite dark already -- it had not been light all day -
- and candles were flaring in the windows of the neighbouring offices, like ruddy smears upon the palpable brown
air. The fog came pouring in at every chink and keyhole, and was so dense without, that although the court was of
the narrowest, the houses opposite were mere phantoms. To see the dingy cloud come drooping down, obscuring
everything, one might have thought that Nature lived hard by, and was brewing on a large scale (p. 4).

TEXT MARKING:
VOCABULARY:
CIRCLE the provided vocabulary.
1. WITHAL: In addition; as a further factor or consideration.
2. RUDDY: Having a healthy red color. BOX the adjectives and verbs
3. PALPABLE: So intense as to be almost touched or felt. associated with the fog.
4. CHINK: A narrow opening or crack, typically one that admits light. UNDERLINE the effect of the
5. PHANTOM: A ghost. weather on villagers/architecture.
HIGHLIGHT descriptive language
(imagery) that appeals to your
sense of hearing.
1. List three adjectives that capture the main idea of the setting.

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2. What does the series of adjectives in the second line emphasize?

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 Charles Dickenss A Christmas Carol

3. What effect does the use of wheezing, beating and stamping have on the description of the people outside
Scrooges office?

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3. What image does the description of the candles create?

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4. What effect does the use of the word phantom have?

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5. What is the mood of the excerpt? (Mood: A literary element that evokes certain feelings or vibes in a reader; the

atmosphere of a literary text, as it often creates an emotional situation that surrounds the reader).

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6. Based on this excerpt from A Christmas Carol, would you want to live in this London town?

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