on this cheat sheet
Everything on the GCSE English Literature A Christmas Carol: Plot Summary by Stave poster is written out below, section by section. Use it to search the sheet, copy parts into your own notes, or check a fact quickly.
Stave I: Marley's ghost
- On a freezing Christmas Eve, the miser Ebenezer Scrooge sits in his counting-house, grudging his clerk Bob Cratchit any coal for the fire. "Bah!" "Humbug!" he says of Christmas.
- He turns down his nephew Fred's dinner invitation, and refuses two gentlemen collecting for the poor, snapping that the needy can go to the prisons and workhouses.
- That night the ghost of his dead business partner, Jacob Marley, appears, dragging heavy chains forged by his greed.
- Marley warns that the same fate awaits Scrooge unless he changes, and tells him three spirits will visit that night.
Stave II: Ghost of Christmas Past
- The Ghost of Christmas Past leads Scrooge back through scenes from his own earlier life.
- First, he sees himself as a lonely schoolboy left at boarding school over Christmas while other boys go home.
- Then a happier memory: his little sister Fan arriving to take him home, their father having softened towards him.
- He then sees a warm memory of Fezziwig's (his kind employer when he was a young man) Christmas party.
- Lastly, a painful one, Belle ending their engagement due to his growing love of money pushing her aside.
Stave III: Ghost of Christmas Present
- The Ghost of Christmas Present, a jolly giant at a feast, shows Scrooge how others are celebrating Christmas now.
- He watches the poor but happy Cratchits enjoy their modest dinner and sickly Tiny Tim says, "God bless us every one!"
- The spirit warns that Tiny Tim will die unless things change, and repeats Scrooge's own heartless words about the poor.
- He looks in on Fred's lively party, then, before he leaves, reveals two starved children hidden beneath his robe: Ignorance and Want.
Stave IV: Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come
- The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come shows Scrooge a future.
- He sees businessmen joke about a dead man's funeral, and thieves selling the bedclothes and curtains from the deceased.
- The spirit takes him to the Cratchits' home, where the family is grieving: Tiny Tim has died.
- Finally shown his own neglected grave, a terrified Scrooge pleads for another chance:
"I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year."
Stave V: The end
- Scrooge wakes on Christmas morning, overjoyed that the spirits all came in one night and the future is still up to him.
- He sends a giant prize turkey to the Cratchits, and makes a donation to the charity collector he turned away yesterday.
- He spends the day at Fred's Christmas dinner, then startles Bob Cratchit the next morning by raising his wages and promising to help his family.
- Scrooge keeps his word, growing kind, and becomes a second father to Tiny Tim, who does not die.