In stave two, Scrooge is visited by the Ghost of Christmas past, who represents memory. The Ghost is of a strange figure, the proportion of a child, ‘It’s hair was white as if with age but not a single wrinkle in the face’, the Ghost is described with strange qualities ‘The arms very long and muscular; the hands the same. Its legs and feet most delicately formed. It wore a tunic of the purest white; and round its waist was bound a lustrous belt. But the strangest thing about it was, that from the crown of its head there sprung a bright clear jet of light.’ This makes the Ghost seem very inhumane like and unimaginable. Scrooge is taken back to the past with the Ghost and he finds himself standing along a road where he once had been, to boys in great spirits full of ‘merry music.’ Scrooge is then taken back in time to his old school In Christmas time. He then approaches a younger Scrooge who is sitting by a fire, alone. Scrooge who begins to remember this day starts to show his first signs of humanity as he realises how happy those days made him feel. In a different Christmas past, his sister has come to see him to bring him back home to his father. Scrooge is then taken to another past where he goes to the warehouse where he was first apprenticed. In the book it says ‘His heart and soul were in the scene, and with his former self.’ This quote shows that Scrooge’s heart begins to soften again. Scrooge is now taken away from this scene and taken to a scene of a younger version of him and Belle, the women he once loved. This is the day that Belle tells Scrooge she is going to release him because he is becoming too obsessed with his job and money. She observes then ‘another idol’ has replaced her. In the present day Scrooge begins to feel guilty and demands the Ghost to remove him from that place, but the Ghost of Christmas past brings him to the final memory. Belle is now married with a husband, talking about how much of a lonely man Scrooge now is. With this, Scrooge demands the spirit to take him back home in which the Ghost finally does. The spirit has made Scrooge remember the days when he had the ability to love and care for others, yet what his love of money has cost him in life. In Dickens' time, Christmas was thought of as a time when ghosts were permitted to escape their graves and walk the earth again (as Jacob Marley is doing). That led to Christmas being seen as a holiday for celebrating memories, a time of pleasant nostalgia and reminiscence as well as grief for lost loved ones. So the Ghost of Christmas Past does both, starting with glorious party times, a time of love and laughter (and a hint of romance).
In stave three Scrooge is visited by the Ghost of Christmas Present who represents Christmas spirit, generosity and goodwill, the ghost of Christmas present haunts scrooge in order to prompt him to repent. Scrooge is led through the dull street by the phantom on this current Christmas morning. Whilst walking down the street, Scrooge starts to notice the poor people around him. This stave is to teach Scrooge the life of the poor. In the book it says ‘The sight of the these poor revellers appeared to interest the spirit very much, for he stood beside him in a baker’s doorway, and taking off the covers as their bearers passed, sprinkled incense in their dinners from his torch.’ This makes you to begin to understand that the Ghost of Christmas present’s main aim is to teach Scrooge about the poor. Scrooge goes into a deep conversation with the spirit who tries to make him feel more for poverty. Scrooge is taken to see the Cratchits, and only realises then how poor they are. He watches them enjoying Christmas day, the Cratchits say a prayer before dinner which shows that they have good family morals. Scrooge realises that all the poor people he have passed are kind, happy and loving people. This emphasises the fact that you don’t need money to have happiness in life, "For, the people who were shovelling away on the housetops were jovial and full of glee; calling out to one another from the parapets, and now and then exchanging a facetious snowball, better-natured missile far than many a wordy jest, laughing heartily if it went right and not less heartily if it went wrong." This shows goodness among the poor. There is also goodness in the entire scene with the Cratchit family, who are poor and love their fellow man: "`Mr Scrooge.' said Bob; `I'll give you Mr Scrooge, the Founder of the Feast.'" That quote shows how kind Bob Cratchit is. He toasts the very miser who makes his work a drudgery. Scrooge meets tiny Tim who is very ill and is almost on the edge of dying which makes Scrooge feel even guiltier for not giving his clerk a pay rise. The Ghost then takes Scrooge to visit his nephew Fred on Christmas day. He watches while Fred is having a lovely time celebrating, playing games and drinking ‘mulled wine.’ They play similes and Scrooge starts to join in but just remembers they cannot hear him and he starts to notice the fun he is missing out on.
Finally, the last thing the Ghost shows Scrooge is two children under his robe, Ignorance and Want. They are described as, ‘Wretched, abject, frightful, hideous, miserable. They were a boy and girl. Yellow meagre, ragged scowling, wolfish; but prostrate, too in their humility.’ They are here to symbolise mankind’s downfall. If they are not acknowledged, and are continued to be ignored, society will crumble because of rich people’s selfishness. The Ghost of Christmas Present states that he has had "more than eighteen hundred" brothers, implying that he will only exist for a single Christmas, and disappear on the stroke of midnight.
In stave four Scrooge is visited by the final spirit, the Ghost of Christmas yet to come, who represents death and judgement. Scrooge is first led amongst merchants. He is told to observe two men and he stands there listening in on the conversation. They talk about selling someone’s possessions that is dead, Scrooge looks at it and notices that they are his. The two men don’t seem to be bothered that he has died. As the Ghost shows Scrooge more of the future, he learns that he has died and see’s that nobody is upset by his death, and is in fact selling of his property. The woman who sells Scrooge’s blankets says that if he had not been such an ‘old screw’ he would not have died ‘alone by himself’. She also says that, "'he frightened everyone away from him when he was alive'" They had taken the dead man's nicest things, right down to the curtains that were around the bed he died in and the blanket that had covered him. Scrooge is horrified and he tells the spirit that he understands the warning that this could be how his life ends if he doesn't change his ways. The spirit then takes scrooge to the dead mans room. The body is lying in its curtain-less bed with the sheet concealing its face. The spirit points at the bed, hinting that Scrooge should pull back the sheet, but Scrooge cannot do it. He is too frightened. He feels great pity for the poor man with no one to mourn him, and he assures the spirit that he will not forget the lesson he has learned by it. Then he asks the ghost, "‘if there is any person in the town who feels emotion caused by this man's death, show that person to me, Spirit, I beseech you!'" Before him, appears a young wife waiting for her husband, on his arrival he tells her that the cruel man they are indebted to has died. She cannot help but feel happy that scrooge cannot worry them no more, although she knows it is wrong to think like that.
This stave is a very religious one. When Dickens writes ‘oh cold, cold, rigid, dreadful deaths, set up thine altar here, and dress it with such terrors as thou hast at thy command: for this is thy dominion!’ He has used religious references to reinforce the fact that he is teaching the reader an important moral lesson. Scrooge is then taken to visit the Cratchits to see the house after the death of tiny Tim. The atmosphere is a lot different since his last visit. The Cratchits are grieving over the death of tiny Tim; this makes Scrooge feel terrible and he realises that he must change his ways and become a better person. Dickens shows us that however bad we are, if we repent, we can be saved. Fear was the driving motivation for changing Scrooge.... Fear of what suffering was to come if he didn't change. The image of the reaper, seeing the ghostly state of his former partner, seeing of his own mortality, and the idea that all of his efforts to build a fortune would largely be an empty endeavour all served to instil fear so that Scrooge would be motivated to make a lasting change in how he lived. The other ghosts were not presented in a scary way, so that Scrooge could see happier times and images in those journeys so there could be hope for a better end to his story. Scrooge learns that he can avoid the future he has been shown and alter the fate of Tiny Tim—but only if he changes. Scrooge begs the spirit to assure him that if he changes his ways, this will not be his end, but the ghost does not answer. He throws himself at the spirit's feet and pleads saying, "'I will honour 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.'" Scrooge watches frightfully as the ghost begins to shrink until it has melted away into nothing more than a bedpost.
In the last stave, Scrooge awakens on Christmas day as a changed man. Scrooge has finally learnt from all the mistakes he has made. The Ghost of Christmas past has taught him how he used to be able to love and enjoy Christmas. The Ghost of Christmas present has taught him that he needs to change his ways before it’s too late and you can be happy without money. The Ghost of Christmas yet to come has made Scrooge realise he needs to change what happens in the future before poverty has taken over. Scrooge buys the largest turkey he can find and sends it to the Cratchit home without revealing who donated the . He wants the Cratchits to enjoy the day and he does what he can to help them out. He also pays a young boy to tell the poulterer to bring the turkey, as well as paying for a cab to take the poulterer to the Cratchit home to deliver the bird. Scrooge had never before exhibited such charity. Scrooge then presents Bob Cratchit a pay rise, and wishes everybody a Happy Christmas down the street. Scrooge decides to spend Christmas with his nephew Fred; everybody is delighted at this positive but sudden change in him. Dickens has taught that you shouldn’t worry if people laugh at the sudden change in you – as long as you are doing good deeds that are all that matters. Tiny Tim lives till he is a grown man and Scrooge becomes a second father to tiny Tim.
Through the character of Scrooge, Dickens hoped to change the views of society. Dickens has tried to show that money does not lead to happiness, but living a good Christian, moral life does! The author was a social reformer, and hoped that by appealing to the public through his books, he would be able to change people’s negative views. Dickens wanted to change the fundamental nature of how poverty and debt was handled in Britain. He wanted the people to stop the work houses and debtors' prisons. The message of A Christmas Carol is that it is never too late for people like Scrooge to change their ways and improve the lot of others by true charity. It is a morality tale made accessible through the medium of a traditional ghost story. Death was a very real part of the Victorian existence - infant mortality such as the potential fate of Tiny Tim. Scrooge is an exaggeration of the fear of poverty that haunted many people - to the extent that he places the accumulation of wealth over his own personal happiness and his childhood sweetheart. The fate that awaits Scrooge is exemplified by the phantoms, especially Marley. While you are alive you can change your ways and make life better for those around you, which will in return make your own life better.
By Jasmine Cam.
