The three Ghosts of Christmas represent the past, present and future of Scrooge’s life. The first ghost, Ghost of Christmas Past, Dickens describes it as ‘like a child’ but it also describes it as ‘like an old man’. It signifies the past when Scrooge was young but he is old now. The ghost’s hair ‘was white as if with age’ reveals the gain of life experience from the past and maturity. Dickens also pictures its arms which ‘were very long and muscular’. The purpose of the ghost’s strong arms is to hold plenty of memories together from young to old, past to present. Moreover, the ghost’s crown has ‘a bright clear jet of light’ and it can represent the strong memories of the past and these memories can never fade away. Besides, the ghost is holding ‘a branch of fresh holly’ but it also has its dress ‘trimmed with summer flowers’. The combination of these contrasting season’s flowers, could reveal time, year by year and memories of all the past. Apart from its appearance, what it has done is remarkably successful. Scrooge is softened and he regrets what he has done in the past. Scrooge realises that he has to change as he sees his selfishness, cruelness and coldness towards other people.
The second ghost, the Ghost of Christmas Present is a cheerful ghost. Dickens presents it in ‘one simple deep green robe’ which is one of the colours for Christmas. It has lots of fresh Christmas food besides it, such as sausages, oysters, pies, puddings’. It seems like the ghost is celebrating Christmas merrily. Its eyes were ‘clear and kind’, its ‘cheery voice’ and its ‘unconstrained demeanour’ exposes that it is a cheerful and jolly ghost. The horn that is carrying is called the horn of plenty, meaning a lot of goodness. The ghost causes Scrooge to understand there are poor families like Bob Cratchit’s who need help. Additionally, he learns that money can’t buy happiness and warmth from a family. The ghost also shows him ‘a place where miners live’ and he wants him learn that poor people can still be very happy without plenty of money. Dickens cleverly uses things that Scrooge said earlier in the story by using the devil’s advocate technique when Scrooge doesn’t want Tiny Tim to die. The ghost recalls on what he said: ‘Are there no prisons?’ and ‘Are there no workhouses?’ Scrooge now understands how horrible he has been. Therefore, Scrooge was regretting on what he said before: ‘he had better do it and decrease the surplus population’. He changes his view on poor people after this lesson.
The last of the three spirits is the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. It is the dullest and darkest ghost of all. Charles Dickens describes it as ‘slowly, gravely, silently’ reveals how deadly the ghost is. It is ‘shrouded in a deep black garment’. Black gives an impression of death, silent and mystery. The ghost signifies fears towards death. The ghost function is to tell Scrooge how the situation be after he is dead and how will his neighbours react. Scrooge’s neighbours take things from him and even the curtains from his bed and shirt off his back. Dickens presents this ghost as a scary character unlike the first two ghosts because the purpose of Christmas Yet to Come is to scare Scrooge. It is vital for Scrooge to know what others think of him so he could change. The ghost is scary because it has the responsibility to make sure Scrooge would change as this is the last chance.
Dickens’ purpose of writing the story is to remind people to help others and don’t be selfish. The purpose of the story is to entertain and to teach. It also tells us that nothing can buy happiness from being with families and friends. Dickens has been successfully achieved his aims as the set out of the story is interesting and meaningful by presenting three ghost to ‘frighten’ his readers.
