A Christmas Carol GCSE practice question: ghosts and the supernatural

Last updated: 15/11/2023
Contributor: Ted Underwood-Webb
AQA exam style question: ghosts and the supernatural
Main Subject
Key stage
Category
Prose: 19th-century prose
Resource type
Exam preparation
Revision
Author
Charles Dickens
Title
A Christmas Carol

This supportive resource is ideal for students who are preparing for AQA GCSE English Literature and are studying A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. The resource uses an appropriate extract from Stave 4 with a focused accompanying question in the style of the exam.

The extract and question help students to explore the presentation of ghosts and the supernatural in the text, both in the extract supplied and in the whole novella. The extract enables students to consider the role of the ghosts in the text, while analysing wider contextual issues, such as social responsibility, Victorian society and the role of workhouses in oppressing the poor.

The resource guides students to think about the characters and how Scrooge behaves and changes throughout the novella. Students can also explore the nature of the ghosts, such as the Ghost of Christmas Present and the ghost of Jacob Marley, and how Dickens uses them to present ideas about London in the 19th century.

The resource can be used in class to strengthen students’ analytical skills and to help them prepare for the GCSE English Literature exam.

Browse additional resources in the A Christmas Carol section.

A sample extract from the resource:

Read the following extract from Stave 4 and then answer the question that follows.

In this extract Scrooge meets the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come.

Starting with this extract, how does Dickens present the theme of ghosts and the supernatural?

Write about:

  • how Dickens presents the ghost in this extract
  • how Dickens presents ghosts and the supernatural in the novel as a whole.

 

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