Date of completion - Feb. 14th, 2022
In a Christmas Carol, the classic novel written by Charles Dickens and set in the Victorian Era, portrays the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, a man who has a deep hatred for Christmas. At the beginning of the novel, readers glimpse the man Scrooge is when he refuses to give his clerk, Bob, any coal. His greed is so extreme that he will not even spend the money to allow Bob to be warm in the office. It is Christmas Eve, and with the approach of Christmas Day, Scrooge’s nephew, Fred, approaches Scrooge to invite Scrooge to his Christmas dinner. Scrooge refuses in a rude way. They go on to argue about the meaning of Christmas. Scrooge holds strong opinions about how the poor should live. He argues, as donation men come to ask him for donations to help the poor, that poor people should either work or die. At closing time, Scrooge taunts Bob for wanting a day off on Christmas day. By not understanding why he should pay Bob if he is not working, Scrooge shows readers how mean he is. The main character finally agrees grudgingly, on the condition that Bob will come to work early the next day. As Scrooge heads home, he sees the face of Marley, Scrooge’s only friend and partner who died seven years ago, as a ghost on his door knocker. Marley’s ghost, carrying a huge chain, turns up to warn Scrooge that if he does not change his ways and attitude, he will end up with a chain of regrets even longer than his. This is when Marley tells Scrooge that three spirits will visit him. Throughout the story, Scrooge is visited by three spirits, and by learning the lessons from all three, he changes his cold-hearted ways to become a compassionate, generous, and warm-hearted man.
Scrooge nearly believes that the spirit will not show up, and when the spirit does, he is reluctant, insisting to be left alone; however, the spirit takes him by the arm and shows Scrooge his past. The spirit first takes Scrooge to his childhood house and school. Scrooge is walking on a road in his childhood town when he sees some travelers that are not strangers to him. “Why was he filled with gladness when he heard them give each other Merry Christmas, as they parted at cross-roads and bye-ways, for their several homes!” (Dickens, 30). Those people are Scrooge’s childhood friends. In stave 1, it is impossible for Scrooge to feel anything except hate when he heard anything related to Christmas. However, as soon as Scrooge steps upon his childhood home, Scrooge starts to feel happiness and gladness toward other people. Seeing his younger self seems to unlock another side of Scrooge, a side that Scrooge has forgotten. He has forgotten what it feels like to be excited about Christmas. This enthusiasm seems to give Scrooge a lot more emotions. He undergoes and gives in to these emotions as he visits many moments from the past. After that, the spirit and Scrooge leaves Scrooge’s childhood town. They travel through time to another Christmas when Scrooge is under Fezziwig’s apprenticeship. Fezziwig is a kind boss, willingly giving his apprentices a day off on Christmas day without them even having to ask. Scrooge’s old boss even throws a party to celebrate. Scrooge feels the happiness radiating from everyone, including himself: “The happiness he gives, is quite as great as if it cost a fortune” (39). Scrooge sees Fezziwig again and starts to analyze the actions of his boss. Scrooge starts to compare his own actions as boss to Fezziwig’s. Scrooge thinks back to how he treated Bob. Bob is so scared of Scrooge that the clerk is afraid to ask for a day off. Scrooge thinks of how happy he felt under Fezziwig’s employment and realizes how Bob must be feeling. Scrooge therefore regrets how he treats Bob. The Ghost of Christmas Past and Scrooge then arrive upon the scene of Belle taking with a younger Scrooge. Belle starts to argue with Scrooge. She is breaking up with him. They are talking about the contract they made: “It was made when we were both poor and content to be so, until, in good season, we could improve our worldly fortune by our patient industry. You are changed. When it was made, you were another man” (40). This quote shows how Belle thinks of Scrooge’s behavior before he became rich. It indicates how much he changed because of money. Hence, Scrooge is a greedy man who values money more than Belle. The scene ends with Belle leaving Scrooge. Scrooge is visibly hurt from seeing the argument he had with Belle. He questions the spirit, “Why do you delight to torture me?” (41). He thinks that seeing his interactions with Belle again is torture. It reveals that Scrooge regrets how he treated Belle and that he is sad and heart-broken – emotions he will not have felt before he met Marley’s ghost and the spirit. The vital lesson that Scrooge learned is that he has to reflect on the past to be a better person.
Scrooge tries, but fails, to prepare for the arrival of the second spirit, and when he finally meets the spirit, Scrooge stops resisting the lessons of the spirit, instead inviting the spirit to teach and show him whatever the Ghost of Christmas Present deems appropriate. “‘Spirit," said Scrooge submissively, "conduct me where you will. I went forth last night on compulsion, and I learnt a lesson which is working now. To-night, if you have aught to teach me, let me profit by it’” (Dickens, 48). Scrooge is polite and apologetic to the spirit and tells him that the previous spirit’s lesson is “working now”. This suggests that he is finding some value to these visions, and that he is learning from them, even though they are painful. His definition of “profit” is beginning to change. In stave 1, Scrooge thinks that profit is money and money only, but in stave 3, Scrooge is beginning to think that “profit” is not only money but lessons as well. The spirit first takes Scrooge to the streets, where everyone is celebrating, and then to Scrooge’s clerk’s house. The Cratchit family is feasting. There, Scrooge discovers that Bob’s son, Tiny Tim, is crippled. He walks with a crutch and has an iron frame supporting his limbs. Scrooge asks the spirit whether Tiny Tim will live. To answer his question, the spirit says, “If he be like to die, he had better do it, and decrease the surplus population” (58). The Ghost of Christmas present tells Scrooge that Tiny Tim will die before next Christmas. It is unlike Scrooge’s character to question the fate of someone else, proving that he has changed. Thus, the ghost, for emphasis, uses one of Scrooge’s earlier quotes about what poor people should do. This makes Scrooge ashamed, something he has never felt before. The family continues to feast, and it is time for the toast. “I’ll give you Mr. Scrooge, the Founder of the Feast!” (59). Scrooge is the reason why Bob is poor. However, in Bob’s point of view, Christmas is a time of forgiveness, and he will not allow anyone to be blamed or talked badly on that day. He keeps reminding his wife that it is Christmas after she said she wants to give Scrooge “a piece of her mind”. Bob is even generous enough to be grateful to his boss. Through Bob showing gratitude to Scrooge is a perfect example of what Scrooge is not. After that, on their way to Fred’s Christmas dinner, the spirit shows Scrooge different people celebrating Christmas. This includes miners sitting beside a fire singing a song with women and children, two men celebrating Christmas in a lighthouse, and the crew of a ship celebrating Christmas. The spirit and Scrooge stumble into Fred’s house as Fred is laughing at Scrooge saying “Humbug!” to Christmas. When the others at the party asks him why Fred keeps trying to invite Scrooge every year, Fred explains, “I mean to give him the same chance every year, whether he likes it or not, for I pity him” (66). Fred is persistent and refuses to let go of his connection with Scrooge. Even though Scrooge is mean to Fred, Fred still tries to change Scrooge’s ways. Fred is everything that Scrooge is not, providing a clear contrast between the two characters. Throughout the story, Scrooge gradually becomes the man Fred is. The Ghost of Christmas Present brings to light everyone’s opinions on Scrooge, making Scrooge register the fact that the way he acts affect how people around him thinks of him.
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come approaches Scrooge silently, but carrying a frightening and mysterious presence, making Scrooge fear this spirit more than any other one. Despite the fear, Scrooge says, “But as I know your purpose is to do me good, and as I hope to live to be another man from what I was, I am prepared to bear you company, and do it with a thankful heart” (Dickens, 74). Scrooge is already scared of this spirit. However, even when he is intimidated, he is prepared to bear the company of the spirit as he knows that he will learn something from the spirit. Scrooge realizes that the spirits are to do him good, and he is thankful. He wants to be a better man, so he willingly approaches the ghost in spite of his fear. He is changing even before the spirit shows him the future. As Scrooge follows in the wake of the spirit, he is led to the center of the city, and upon the conversation of two businessmen. They are gossiping about the long-awaited death of a rich man, whom they say is bound to have a cheap funeral. One of the men comments that he will only go to the funeral if lunch is provided. Scrooge is considering the conversation: “Scrooge was at first inclined to be surprised that the Spirit should attach importance to conversation apparently so trivial; but feeling assured that they must have some hidden purpose, he set himself to consider what it was likely to be” (76). As Scrooge is listening to the conversation of the businessmen, he fails to notice why it is important. However, instead of being annoyed and dismissing the conversation, he takes his time to consider the purpose of the discussion, hinting that Scrooge is more thoughtful and calmer than he is before. The spirit then takes Scrooge to various places, all the while saying nothing. First to a pawn shop, where people are selling the things of a dead man, then to a place where he is shown a body of a dead man, after that to the house of a husband and wife, who are expressing relief to the death of the man they own money to, and finally to a cemetery. At the graveyard, Scrooge finally realizes that the dead man he saw is himself. After this realization, he expresses, “Are these shadows of the things that Will be, or are they shadows of things that May be, only?” (90). Scrooge is clearly scared of the things he was presented with. He is now considering the idea that fate is not predetermined and that it can be changed. He is thinking about this as he wants to change. He wants to avoid the fate that he had been presented with. Scrooge finally realizes the complete, horrible outcome that his actions might lead to. This motivates him to change. Scrooge’s guess that the dead man is himself is confirmed when he sees his own gravestone. In response to this, Scrooge promises, “I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach. Oh, tell me that I may sponge away the writing on this stone!” (91). Scrooge changed from a man who hates Christmas to a man who will honor it. He learned the lessons that the Three Spirits taught him. This quote further proves that Scrooge is unwavering that he will change his ways. This is shown since Scrooge says, “I will”, and the verb “will” is used to express complete certainty. This means that he will certainly change his attitude, remember the spirits and learn his lessons. He then asks the spirit if he may “sponge away the writing on this stone”, implying that he does not want to die the way he was shown. He does not want people to act the way they did in the visions after he died. Scrooge wants to change his ways so that people will care about him once he has died. All of this proves his willingness to change. The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come teaches Scrooge that the way he behaves in the present will have consequences later on in time.
After being visited by the three spirit, it is clear that he learned the lessons from all three and completely changed his ways and attitude. Stave five completely contrasts stave one. On Christmas day, Scrooge wakes up joyful, generous, and somewhat relieved. He replaces his “Bah Humbug” for Merry Christmas. He pays the first boy he met a huge sum to get the prize turkey and deliver it to the Cratchits. As Scrooge comes upon the donation men he met in stave one, he politely offers to donate a huge sum to the poor, while stave one he made himself clear that he does not want to donate anything and pushed their offer away rudely. He had told Fred that he would see Fred in hell before coming to Fred’s Christmas party while in stave five, Scrooge happily attends Fred's party. The next day, he gives Bob a raise, and asks Bob to order more heating coals where, in Stave One, he forced Bob to suffer in the cold. As time passes, Scrooge greatly helps the Cratchits and becomes a second father to Tiny Tim who does not die. The lessons of the spirits motivate him to change, while at the beginning of the story, money and work were his biggest motivation. A Christmas Carol shows readers that everyone has a chance of redemption, even a bitter man like Scrooge.
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