Christmas Carol By Charles Dickens: From Misery To Peace

December 21, 2019 curiousadmin

A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens, is a story about Christmas. Ebeneezer Scrooge, a cold, greedy man who learns what the true meaning of the Christmas Spirit is. Ebenezer Scrooge was a mean, cold-hearted man who loved money very much and never shared it with anyone.

“Every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart.” to the man who “knew how to keep Christmas well”
Ebeneezer Scrooge

On one Christmas day, his clerk, Bob Cratchit, was working in his office shivering because Scrooge was greedy and wouldn’t pay for the fee of coal. Then, some charity volunteers came to his office and asked for some money for the homeless and the poor but obviously, Scrooge refused to give any money.

Christmas Carol By Charles Dickens: From Darkness To Light

Scrooge’s nephew, Fred, pays his uncle a visit and invites him to his annual Christmas party. Scrooge reacts to him with bitterness and responds indignantly.

“I do,” said Scrooge. “Merry Christmas! What right have you to be merry? What reason have you to be merry? You’re poor enough.”

That night Scrooge is visited at home by Marley his greedy partner who had died seven years ago. He appears to Scrooge as a ghost punishment to wander the world, bound in heavy chains and money boxes.

Christmas Carol By Charles Dickens: From Misery To Peace

“I wear the chain I forged in life…The chain was made up of cash boxes..ledgers..heavy purses”
Marley

Marley tells Scrooge that he has one chance to avoid the same fate and he will be visited by three spirits and must listen or be cursed to carry much heavier chains of his own.

Christmas Carol By Charles Dickens: From Misery To Peace

The first spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Past, takes Scrooge to Christmas time of Scrooge’s boyhood, reminding him of a time when he was more innocent. Scrooge remembers his lonely childhood at boarding school, his relationship with his beloved sister Fan.

“May you be happy in the life you have chosen”
Belle

Later he sees himself at a Christmas party hosted by his first employer, Mr. Fezziwig, who treated him like a son. Scrooge sees his neglected fiancée Belle ending their relationship when she realises that he will never love her as much as he loves money.

Christmas Carol By Charles Dickens: From Misery To Peace

“A jolly giant who bore a glowing torch with a cheery voice and a joyful air”

The Ghost of Christmas Present, a majestic giant clad in a green fur robe, takes Scrooge through London to unveil Christmas as it will happen that year.

Scrooge watches the large, Cratchit family prepare a miniature feast in its small home. He discovers Bob Cratchit’s crippled son, Tiny Tim, a courageous boy whose kindness and humility warms Scrooge’s heart.

“I have always thought of Christmas as a good time, a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time”
Fred

The Ghost also shows the faith of Scrooge’s nephew in his uncle’s potential for, change for better, an idea that slowly warms Scrooge that he can reinvent himself.

Christmas Carol By Charles Dickens: From Misery To Peace

The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come takes the form of a grim apparition, completely robed in black, who does not speak and whose body is entirely hidden except for one pointing hand.

This spirit frightens Scrooge with visions of the Cratchit family sad after the demise of Tiny Tim, of Scrooge’s own lonely death and final torment, and the cold, mean reactions of the people around him after his death(they joke about his death and funeral).

Scrooge learns that he can avoid the future he has been shown, and alter the fate of Tiny Tim, but only if he changes.

Overwhelmed with joy by the chance to redeem himself and grateful that he has been returned to Christmas Day, Scrooge rushes out onto the street hoping to share his newfound Christmas spirit.

In the end, Scrooge changes his life and reverts to the generous, kind-hearted soul he was in his youth before the death of his sister. He anonymously sends the Cratchits the biggest turkey the butcher has, meets the charity workers to pledge an impressive amount of money to their delight, and spends Christmas Day with Fred and his wife.

The following day he gives Cratchit an increase in pay and begins to become a father figure to Tiny Tim. From then on Scrooge treats everyone with kindness, generosity, and compassion, embodying the spirit of Christmas.

“I wish,” Scrooge muttered, putting his hand in his pocket, and looking about him, after drying his eyes on his cuff: “but it’s too late now…. There was a boy singing a Christmas Carol at my door last night. I should like to have given him something, that’s all.”

Merry Christmas and Christmas spirit to all the readers of MyCuriousmoon.