The Most Chilling Line in A Christmas Carol

Added: 2026-05-16

[00:00:00]The first quote that fits every essay.

[00:00:03]If they would rather die, they had better do it and decrease the surplus population. With every quote, I'm going to tell you the most important words to zoom in on for your AO2 analysis. And here, it's decrease the surplus population. This is an economic argument, and it is expressed in economic language. This is the language of numbers.

[00:00:29]Surplus population is a way of glossing over the fact that these are real people. They are the poor, and Scrooge is saying, "We should just let them die. They are a drain on society. You, me, we would all be better off if they were dead." And you can see that callousness in the language that he uses. Now, why does he use that language? With Scrooge,