Dickens uses alliteration to embellish his descriptions of Scrooge and to make them more memorable. One example occurs in Stave 1:
No warmth could warm, nor wintry weather chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he [...]
The repetition of the /w/ sound and the /b/ sound makes this passage almost poetic. Here, alliteration infuses the prose with a lyricism that draws attention to the language, making the text sound musical and thus contributing to the feeling that A Christmas Carol is, in some ways, like a fairy tale or an old folk tale that might be told to children at bedtime. Scrooge seems larger than life, just like the heroes and villains in old stories and epic poems. In his own story, he is essentially an anti-hero that transforms into a hero.
When the Ghost of Christmas Present comes to visit Scrooge in Stave 3, his dingy room is transformed into a festive abode:
Heaped up on the floor, to form a kind of throne, were turkeys, geese, game, poultry, brawn, great joints of meat, sucking-pigs, long wreaths of sausages, mince-pies, plum-puddings, barrels of oysters, red-hot chestnuts, cherry-cheeked apples, juicy oranges, luscious pears, immense twelfth-cakes, and seething bowls of punch, that made the chamber dim with their delicious steam.
Dickens employs alliteration to great effect in this catalog. Examples include "geese" and
game," plum-puddings," and—most memorably—"chestnuts" and "cherry-cheeked" apples. The device is more subtle here but still very much present. It conveys a sense of lyrical plenty and makes the list flow with ease and grace.
Dickens uses alliteration to embellish his descriptions of Scrooge and to make them more memorable. One example occurs in Stave 1:
No warmth could warm, nor wintry weather chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he [...]
The repetition of the /w/ sound and the /b/ sound makes this passage almost poetic. Here, alliteration infuses the prose with a lyricism that draws attention to the language, making the text sound musical and thus contributing to the feeling that A Christmas Carol is, in some ways, like a fairy tale or an old folk tale that might be told to children at bedtime. Scrooge seems larger than life, just like the heroes and villains in old stories and epic poems. In his own story, he is essentially an anti-hero that transforms into a hero.
When the Ghost of Christmas Present comes to visit Scrooge in Stave 3, his dingy room is transformed into a festive abode:
Heaped up on the floor, to form a kind of throne, were turkeys, geese, game, poultry, brawn, great joints of meat, sucking-pigs, long wreaths of sausages, mince-pies, plum-puddings, barrels of oysters, red-hot chestnuts, cherry-cheeked apples, juicy oranges, luscious pears, immense twelfth-cakes, and seething bowls of punch, that made the chamber dim with their delicious steam.
Dickens employs alliteration to great effect in this catalog. Examples include "geese" and
game," plum-puddings," and—most memorably—"chestnuts" and "cherry-cheeked" apples. The device is more subtle here but still very much present. It conveys a sense of lyrical plenty and makes the list flow with ease and grace.
