More notes and musings on A Christmas Carol A Christmas Carol First sentence in the text is about death – introduces a negative atmosphere and the theme of death. A negative beginning. In the first page there are many words in the lexical field of death. There are multiple references to death. Repetition of Marley was dead. Dead as a doornail – simile. Repetition of dead occurs often in the first page, even including the superlative "deadest". This highlights the presence of death and further the morbid atmosphere. Dickens is highlighting the current awful situation Scrooge is in, also is he suggesting that the Victorian era is morbid and depressing. The word choice of "unhallowed" suggests sinful but also links to the theme of religion. Repetition of sole, sole = only. Introduces the theme of loneliness. In the first page alone the word dead is included 6 times. Furthermore the word "sole" is repeated five times furtheri