Scrooge’s attitude towards Christmas completely contrasts to everyone else’s attitude in the novel. The ordinary people walking around on Christmas Eve were ‘jovial and full of glee’ whereas Scrooge ‘carried his own low temperature around with him’. He said that they had nothing to be merry about because every Christmas they found themselves ‘a year older, and not an hour richer’. Nevertheless, the poor in this novel find their happiness with the simplest things, as we are shown by the ‘Ghost of Christmas Present’.
The ‘Ghost of Christmas Present’ is portrayed as a warm character with a ‘jovial air’ about him. This particular spirit shows us that although ‘there was nothing very cheerful in the climate or the town’, ‘there was an air of cheerfulness’ amongst the people in the streets i.e. the lower classes. It is through this sprit that we see the lower classes that make do with what they have, and are grateful and happy about the simple things in life. I think that Dickens is trying to show that although these particular people are quite happy, they are still struggling and need help to be able to afford some material comfort in their lives. However, at the same time, he is trying to make the upper classes see that money is not everything; friends and family are what really makes a person truly happy. The main example of this in the novel is the Cratchit family. Bob Cratchit was Scrooge’s clerk. The way they acted about the goose would have made you think that it was ‘the rarest of all birds’. We can see that they are excited about having goose for dinner, probably because they were not used to eating meat, as they probably could not afford it. In a way, it could be seen as the way in which the family came together at Christmas and looked forward to it because it was a chance for them to have a reasonably expensive meal and appreciate it, as it did not happen everyday.
Through the Cratchit family, Dickens also tries to show that although the upper classes may think that the lower classes are insignificant, and that it would be better if some of them died to decrease the huge population, but if they actually saw a family in which someone was dying through being poor, they would quickly change their minds. He shows this when Scrooge sees Tiny Tim (Bob Cratchits son, who is a cripple) and is told that he will probably die soon. Scrooge instantly tries to ask the ghost if the boy will be spared, but the ghost quotes what Scrooge said when he was asked to give money to the poor: ‘If he be like to die, he better do it, and decrease the surplus population’.
In my opinion, the most effective use of personification in this stave is that of ‘Ignorance’ and ‘Want’. Dickens uses two children who were probably from the workhouse; a girl as ‘Ignorance’ and a boy as ‘Want’. The Children were ‘ragged’ and ‘wolfish’ and as much as Scrooge wanted to say that there was nothing wrong with them, ‘the words choked themselves, rather than be parties to such an enormous lie’. The spirit warns Scrooge about them both, but especially the boy, because it was ‘Want’ that would lead to ‘Doom’ unless something was done. Here, Dickens is trying to make people see that money is the root of all evil, and if they continue to want all the time and be so ignorant all the time, many more people will suffer. I think that this ties in with Dickens earlier use of language, which I interpreted as meaning that money is not everything.
Throughout the stave, there is the constant theme of how the upper classes persistent wanting affects the poor, and how through their ignorance and their belief that the situation of the poor is ‘none of my business’ is making life hard for more and more people. The last example of Scrooge’s (who represents the upper classes) ignorance, is when the spirit quotes him again; ‘Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses’ after Scrooge inquired about their ‘refuge or resource’
Dickens presents the ‘Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come’ as a cold, hash, frightening character using a sense of mystery: ‘the very air in which the spirit moved seemed to scatter gloom and mystery’ to create an atmosphere.
In this stave, Dickens shows us the seedy world of the poor, showing that not all of them try to be good, honest people. He uses a particular woman to show this; Scrooge’s laundress. She takes the bed curtains from around the dead Scrooges bed, takes the sheets from the bed he is lying on and the nightshirt from his back to sell them and make some money. This shows how desperate some people were, but it also shows that they had absolutely no respect for Scrooge at all; ‘He frightened everyone away from him when he was alive, to profit us when he was dead!’. Dickens might have written about this woman to show that people would rather steal, be disrespectful and basically survive any way they possibly could rather than go into the workhouses: Dickens was trying to show that they were not the answer to poverty.
Dickens also describes what the streets were like in the poor parts of the city; ‘the whole quarter reeked with crime, with filth, and misery’. He is trying to show that people can become bitter and disrespectful through being poor, as well as being rich and is trying to show that (apart from the obvious difference in wealth and comfort) people are not that different and have the same reactions towards poverty and wealth; the two extremes. These streets contrast dramatically to the streets shown by the ‘Ghost of Christmas Present’. I think that Dickens is also trying to make people think that if they do not change their ways, then the poor people who still have some dignity, who were shown by the ‘Ghost of Christmas Present’, will also eventually become so desperate, that the seedy, dirty London that is shown by the ‘Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come’ is what the whole city will end up like.
Dickens presents the lower classes realistically; he does not try to make out that all poor people are kind hearted. He tries to make the upper classes realise that the situation of the poor can only get better if they do something to help. He also tries to make the reader feel concerned about Tiny Tim and show the upper classes that they can help; when Tiny Tim is mentioned, it is almost like a personal appeal to the reader to help someone in need. Dickens presents the lower classes effectively and this is probably why the book is still very popular today.