Name: Date:

TEXT STRUCTURE: DIALOGUE IN DRAMA

A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley, Act 1

Israel Horovitz

Dialogue is a conversation between characters. In a play, dialogue serves several key functions.
• In a performance, dialogue helps the audience understand what the characters
feel and think.
• Characters’ words and speech patterns give clues to their personalities.
• Dialogue advances the plot and develops the conflict, or struggle between
opposing forces.
• In a dramatic script, a character’s name appears before the dialogue he or she
speaks.
Example: Isaac: Where are my glasses?
Mari: They’re on the side table, just where you left them.

DIRECTIONS: Answer these questions about A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley. Use
textual evidence from the play to support your responses.

1. In Scene 2, paragraphs 15—23, Scrooge is speaking to his nephew, who invites Scrooge to
his home for Christmas dinner. What does Scrooge’s line I’d rather see myself dead than see
myself with your family! reveal about his personality and character?
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2. Scene 3, is a conversation between Marley and Scrooge. What happens in this part of the
drama to reveal the conflict?
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3. In Scene 5, paragraphs 1-10, what change in Scrooge is revealed by the dialogue?
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