Overview

A Christmas Carol is divided into five ‘staves,’ which can be considered as chapters. The fact that Dickens chose to label these as ‘staves’ is significant, and bears a strong relationship with the meaning conveyed by the title. A Christmas Carol, as the name suggests, refers to a Christmas song with lyrics, often religious in nature and sung in groups. Moreover, a stave is in fact a musical term (also known as a staff). It is defined as a set of five parallel lines on which musical notes are written in order to indicate their pitch. As such, Dickens establishes a parallel between his novella and a literal Christmas carol, whereby each of the chapters acts as a part of the song.