On pages 6-7 of A Christmas Carol Dickens uses many rhetorical strategies to enhance the setting. He does this through rich detail and various uses of parallel structure. Dickens uses adjectives such as “gruff,” “glorious,” “ruddy” and “splendid” to contrast the conditions of the London streets versus the people upon them. The physical setting for Christmas is generally dirty yet Christmas spirit still prospers. Dickens utilizes parallel structure when comparing the biting cold to the warmth of a fire at the top of page seven. He uses words like “blaze” and “misanthropic ice” to demonstrate to the reader much warmth in the cold. It becomes clear to the reader that though it is chillingly cold and dirty Christmas’ metaphoric warmth is still present on the London streets nearly everywhere except for within Scrooge. WHAT Dickens uses WHEREDickens uses it embedded WHY Dickens uses it

On pages 6-7 of A Christmas Carol, Dickens uses many rhetorical techniques in order to describe the odd weather England was experiencing and how it did nothing to dampen their spirits. To describe the gloominess of the day, Dickens personified an old church clock, saying that it “was always peeping slyly down at Scrooge” and that it acted as if “its teeth were chattering in its frozen head up there.” Dickens chose to personify the clock because clocks are often portrayed as having an attitude and Dickens wanted to emphasize that something as strong and solid as a clock quailed in this weather. Dickens the portrayed the spirits of the population through solid auditory and visual imagery, saying such things as “pale faces ruddy,” “crackled,” “…winking their eyes before the blaze in rapture” and “a glorious joke.” Dickens does this to contrast the environmental conditions – grim and unforgiving, with the exultant and joyful populace, emphasizing the fact that Christmas makes anything delightful. Finally, to stress a sense of unity among every single person, Dickens relates the experiences of a poor tailor who was “fined five schillings on the previous Monday” to the Lord Mayor who was “in the stronghold of the mighty mansion house.” He uses this contrast to emphasize unity: even the poor and rich are together high in spirits, as he goes on to state this as the Lord Mayor “gave orders to his fifty cooks and butlers to keep Christmas,” the poor man “stirred up to-morrow’s pudding in his garret, while his lean wife and baby sallied out to buy the beef.”

on page 6-7 of “A Christmas Carol,” Charles Dickens uses literary and rhetorical techniques in order to create atmosphere and highlight his theme of the redemptive power of a giving spirit. In a paragraph devoted to description of the immediate setting, Dickens utilizes bright visual imagery, detailing “the brightness of the shops” and the “ruddy” faces of passersby. He also uses vigorous auditory images, employing active verbs like “crackled” and “roared.” Through this positive imagery, Dickens backs his scene with a merry feel, which accentuates the festive atmosphere. However, he contrasts this atmosphere with darker descriptions, setting the joy of London’s inhabitants against a “piercing, searching, biting cold.” This contrast is adroitly established through the second paragraph’s exclamatory beginning, “Foggier yet, and colder!” Notice the cold is not the only concern in this scene. The “fog and darkness” that Dickens describes add an obscurity to the surroundings, “[thickening]” so that the tower of the church, neatly personified, becomes “invisible,” until all readers can discern are its “teeth…chattering” through the gloom. In this manner, Dickens is able to foreshadow the coming of Marley by adding a sense of mystery to the passage, all the while demonstrating to his readers that Christmas is such a powerful season that it can bring a sense of cheer even to this dismal weather.