The theme is Christmas, which is a time in the year of great excitement, and people enjoy the ideas of love, happiness and atmosphere that Dickens displays in the book, “merry bells”. These images bring familiar memories to the reader’s mind, which makes it a delight to read, as many of us carry out the same family traditions given throughout the book.
It has a very supernatural story line, which is extremely interesting to all readers. People have a willingness to believe the unexpected magical incidents in A Christmas Carol because they want good to overcome evil, as it does at the end of the book. It seems that Dickens’ idea developed from a fairy tale, because the images he portrays correspond with many traditional fairy tales, as it ends ‘happily ever after’. This is like a magic transformation when Scrooge changes his ogre like characteristics to sharing his love with all the people around him. We respond to the book at all ages because it has aspects which both adults, “I can’t afford to make idle people merry”, and children, “ding, dong, bell” can relate to. There is an initial humour in the book because we can hardly believe the affect that the Spirits have on Scrooge, this is another reason why children may thoroughly enjoy this book.
Dickens shows many different emotive sections in the book and we are able to understand these impressions with deep feeling. As we read the book and switch between happiness, misery, fear and anger, it makes us remember the book with more complex meaning. We see Scrooge moving from togetherness and happiness with his business partner, and only friend, Jacob Marley, to loneliness when Marley dies. There is a lot of dramatic suspense in this part of the book because the reader anticipates the actions that Scrooge will take to regain a content life.
Even though Dickens is in danger of overdoing the presentation of his characters, they are recognisable because he uses the characters with habitual aspects of human life. For example he exaggerates the poverty of the Cratchits, but we can relate to their amazement of the Christmas goose, “long expected”, because Christmas is always a very expensive time of the year. The human and spiritual characters are not bland, e.g. the third spirit who’s “capacious breast was bare”. With stimulating characters, our senses become more enthusiastic and this makes the book very interesting and giving a vivid portrayal furthers the reader’s appreciation of the book. Dickens does not make the characters too unrealistic because he makes sure that they have two different sides to them and they do not become ridiculously overpowered with good or bad, like a ridiculous fairy tale. Scrooge has a very strong evil side, but we see his good side appearing at the end of the book. It also seems almost impossible that the Cratchits could be so happy together when the are so poor, so Dickens shows an aggressive side to Mrs Cratchit aswell, “I’d give him a piece of my mind”.
Charles Dickens uses very elaborate and detailed descriptions of the sights seen by Scrooge and the setting of the book to create the right atmosphere, “nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek”. The lists of visible objects and huge amounts of food at ‘Fezziwig’s party’, again, emphasise the luxurious delights available, “mince pies, and plenty of beer”. In the first chapter he uses many cold, harsh adjectives to reinforce his description of Scrooge, “wrenching, grasping, clutching”, and this helps to give the reader a very negative attitude towards him. This way of writing, using words which associate to the mood Dickens wants to put across, is very unusual and I think that people reading the book find this stimulating and exciting. We can vividly see the blissful festivities of Fezziwig’s party because Dickens uses the idea that lots of people can enjoy themselves dancing together, “all the young men and women”. Readers are able to apply this to their own memories of gatherings with family or friends, which makes it a piquant read. The happiness and togetherness of this party also allows us to compare jovial Fezziwig with unpleasant Scrooge because there is such a big difference in their characters.
Dickens uses very inventive language to allow the reader to understand exactly the ideas he is trying to portray, “Choked up with too much burying” and this enables the reader to almost feel the atmosphere written in the book. He uses a simile to describe the way in which the Cratchit children react to Tiny Tim’s death, “as still as statues” and we can fully sense their shocking grief. We can see this is very different behaviour compared with their usual happiness, such as their excitement at Christmas, “God bless us”. The way he writes that the children were all “in one corner” gives the image of contraction and trying to find security by closing in together, which helps us to see these saddening representations.
A Christmas Carol is very emotive. We have compassion for the Cratchit family and we are upset about Tiny Tim’s illness, but fear is also evoked from the reader because the spirits are so unnatural and powerful. We become very angry with Scrooge for being so parsimonious with his money, but we then gain sympathetic affections towards Scrooge as we see how he was badly treated in the earlier parts of his life.
Using these contrasts, Dickens creates different moods throughout the book and the reader feels happiness and companionship as well as distaste and anger. As more emotions are aroused, the reader becomes more involved and begins to enjoy the book with more fascination.
As well as these many advantages of the book, giving it the popularity it has acquired, there are also aspects which could reduce the popularity of the book. To modern people, the language may seem bizarre because it is a Victorian style of writing when people had more time to read the book and analyse it properly, because they were not watching television etc. People may find the descriptions and language Dickens uses in the book too complex, “courses will foreshadow certain end”, which makes it difficult to read and sometimes confusing. It seems almost impossible that the Cratchits can be so happy just because of the closeness between the family, even though they have so many problems with money. Again it is infeasible that Scrooge’s character and attitude to life could change completely overnight, but we accept this because we want him to change for the benefit of others.
Charles Dickens shows that Scrooge was once a genuine and moral person, as a young man, when the first spirit recalls Scrooge’s earlier life, “passion”. We also see the reasons in Scrooge’s adolescence that could have made him such a bitter old man. This is because he is so deprived of love and we know this because Dickens gives evidence that the Father used to be cruel, “kinder than he used to be”. This gives us reasons to sympathise with him, and helps to believe he could have a good inner heart. He also has a very kind and loving nephew, “Dine with us”, which shows that there could be righteousness in Scrooge’s blood. These reasons all help us to believe that Scrooge can become a good man again, and support our acceptance of the joy and warmth at the end.
A Christmas Carol is a book which contains many hidden meanings and the more it is read, the more interesting ideas we see in it. This is why people continue to create plays and films on the book, so people will understand the whole story fully and the main universal message, that we should be more charitable. There is also a lot of dramatic suspense in the book, because we ask ourselves so many questions. We want to know which aspects the spirits are going to show and how this will influence Scrooge. We hope that Tiny Tim will be able to gain strength to stay alive and we also want to know who the person in the graveyard is. All these confusing questions make the reader anticipate the ending of the book and this gives another reason for it’s continuing popularity.
I like the way that there are many subtle details, which highlight the main idea and further encourage me to want to change my way of life, “altered life”. I enjoy the way he uses symbols and his own ideas to create an impact on the reader. For example the deprived children are a symbol showing the reader what will happen if Scrooge does not change his actions, “Where angels might have sat enthroned, devils lurked”. The “angel” and the “devil” are opposite symbols, which gives emphasis to the degraded children. I can also see that the book is very popular because Scrooge has now become a vernacular part of speech, when we say that someone may have a ‘Scrooge like character’.
