When the Ghost of Christmas Present shows him the marketplace, Scrooge thinks about how the Spirit's blessing helps those with not enough to eat. He also remarks on how all of the people he is shown - the miners, the sailors, his nephew, the Cratchits - are happy and merry even though they have no money. He worries about Tiny Tim, and asks whether he will live.
`Spirit,' says Scrooge, with an interest he had never felt before, `tell me if Tiny Tim will live.'
`I see a vacant seat,' replied the Ghost, `in the poor chimney -corner, and a crutch without an owner, carefully preserved. If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, the child will die.'
Scrooge has up until this point shown no compassion for the poor, and certainly not for Cratchit. He shows real fear towards the children, Ignorance and Want, and asks if there is anyone to care for them. The chapter has a strange ending. The spirit ages and shrinks as midnight draws near and then suddenly Scrooge sees two dirty children under the Ghost’s robe. The Ghost tells him they are nothing but ‘mans’ and that ‘the boy is Ignorance and the girl is Want’. Scrooge is told to beware of both of them. When he asks if nothing can be done to help them the Ghost quotes Scrooges’ earlier words; ‘Are there no prisons? Are there no work -houses?’ Scrooge feels great shame and the Ghost disappears. He does not have the right to choose who lives or dies, and he (as the spirit says) is not fit to live. He also shows interest and sorrow when he finds that the spirit will only live for a few hours longer.
The Ghost of Christmas Present is full of good cheer and blessings. He shows Scrooge his fellow man, and takes him to Bob Cratchit's house and Fred's house. Scrooge cannot believe how squalidly his clerk lives, and worries about his son, Tiny Tim, who is crippled. He asks if Tim will live, and is told that he will probably die.
In the Christmas Yet to Come, Scrooge asks to see sorrow in connection with a death, and is devasted by Tiny Tim's. He has undergone his transformation at this point, and feels sorrow that no one will be there for his own death except his thieving servants. He also notes when he sees his tombstone that although there seems to be no hope for him, but he’s told there is and he will change.
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is terrifying, dark and silent. He shows that Scrooge will have no one to grieve for him when he dies and his maid will steal from him, but there will be those to grieve for Tiny Tim.
Scrooge wakes up and is thrilled to find that it is still Christmas Day. He sends a turkey anonymously to Cratchit's family and goes to dinner at Fred's. He also becomes like a second father to Tim, and a symbol of merriment in the town.
This in itself would not be redemption of he didn't follow through in other ways. He pays the boy, he pays for the cab, and he delights in thinking that the Cratchit’s will not know who the turkey is from. He is not trying to just save himself (he would have put his name on the turkey if he was) and he really wants to make a difference. He treats Cratchit kindly, and visits his nephew. In fact he becomes a good man to all of the people he has let down, and in his actions and change of heart he is saved
Scrooge realizes who he had become and snaps out of it. He is sceptical at first, but has his life's journey replayed for him. He is shown his Present as well, and through the spirit how fleeting it is. His fear of the future and what he knows he'll become also haunts him. So in truth, Scrooge is haunted by his own Ghosts and guilty conscience.
The main theme is that no person is more important than any other, and it is each person's duty to help those less fortunate.
It is required of every man,' the Ghost returned,
`that the spirit within him should walk abroad among
his fellowmen, and travel far and wide; and if that
spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death. It is doomed to wander through the
world - - oh, woe is me! - - and witness what it cannot
share, but might have shared on earth, and turned to
happiness!' (Stave 1)
* * * *
Dickens uses metaphor to bring across how much of an old grouch Scrooge is. The first example we come to is the ‘cold bleak biting fog’ which is a symbol for Scrooge as it has the same characteristics. Later on in the book he uses the ame technique with places and people e.g. the places that Scrooge is shown by the Ghost of the Christmas Past. This helps the reader understand the story.
I feel the first thirteen pages of the book sum up some of Dickens techniques and methods. The preface It shows us Dickens’ humour and draws the reader into ‘this little Ghostly book’. The book reaches out to the reader once again in the first three word of the story. ‘Marley was dead’ is a gripping and amusing way to start the book. He tells the story in a humorous way, like speaking to Dickens. On page 13 the traditional start ‘once upon a time’ sums up Dickens tells the reader that indeed the story has properly begun.
Another great effect Dickens uses is in the dialogue between Scrooge and the Ghosts. There is so much of it and it is so fluid and lively it is almost like a play. The effect of having this quality and quantity of dialogue enables the reader to be drawn into the story as it seems to be happening now in the Present, and therefore seems more realistic.
The title ‘A Christmas Carol’ is then upheld in the text. The whole book seems like a very long carol where Scrooge ends up benefiting from the result. In the book, itself instead of chapters, there are ‘staves’ which is a musical interlude. This is of course related to the title of the ‘carol’.
Another technique Dickens uses is what we might call the term playing devil’s advocate: In many situations, the spirits do not tell Scrooge he is in the wrong, but lets him see for himself. The first Spirits especially do this. The Ghost of the Christmas Past argues ironically that Mr. Fezziwig has done nothing special, causing Scrooge to praise his generosity. And the Ghost of the Christmas Present quotes Scrooge’s own words so that Scrooge can see why they are wrong. Elsewhere, this Ghost and Marley’s do tell Scrooge why he is wrong.
Though Dickens writes prose narrative he is fond of poetic images of the kind I would expect in poetry. There are a few that stand out to me. First of all is the passage in stave 1 where Scrooge is described in a series of weather images. A memorable poetic image comes where the Ghost of the Christmas Present compares people to insects, and the wealthy Scrooge is ridiculed for looking down on other ‘insects’ who have less than him to live on:
“Oh God! to hear the insect on the leaf pronouncing on the too much of life among his hungry brothers in the dust!”
At the end of Stave 3, Scrooge sees under the robe of he Ghost of The Christmas Present, two children, whose names show the symbols of ignorance and want. Dickens sees the lack of education and extreme poverty make it impossible for anyone to have a good life. Of the two children and symbols the Ghost tells Scrooge to beware the boy ‘most of all’ because ignorance allows poverty to grow and continue. Dickens personifies the abstract nouns to great effect
In conclusion, each Spirit has a different character, and purpose. The first, the Spirit of Christmas Past, is intended to be a slightly out of this world image. It must do the first round of work work, softening Scrooge emotionally and setting the base for the other Ghosts to work on. I feel that out of all the Ghosts it affects Scrooge the most.
The Spirit of Christmas Present seems actually, despite its firstly kind and helpful position, to be the least concerned with Scrooge’s emotional status. It is good but often hurts Scrooge quite badly, especially with the discovery that many think him a monster of a man. Scrooge finds most out about himself from this Spirit, and mixes his joy with his remorse and pain.
The Spirit of Christmas Yet to Come is perhaps the least accessible character, but the line “the kind hand trembled” right at the end of its visit shows that it has goodwill. Its lack of violence and terror impresses Scrooge further. It must put the finishing touches to Scrooge, ensuring he is aware of his own mortality and to encourage him to change his life for the good.
Scrooge’s dream is a growing process, starting from the one extreme of an old boring humble miser, and finishing up as a model of goodwill and religious generosity. Charles Dickens achieves what he attempted to do. With the use of humorous words and fantastic Ghosts he tells us a deep moral story which is still relevant today.
TOM MITCHELL
