1. For those unfamiliar with A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (but honestly, who isn't?), the novel revolves around Ebenezer Scrooge, a stingy and unpleasant man. Scrooge is cynical and lonely, shunning anybody who attempts to show kindness to him and lashing out at others by default. One Christmas Eve, Scrooge is visited by the ghost of Jacob Marley, his equally stingy business partner who had died seven years earlier. Marley warns Scrooge that the life he is living will lead to suffering after death (in the form of chains he must carry as a spirit). In order to help Scrooge escape the same fate, Marley informs him that three ghosts will haunt him over the next few days. These ghosts are the Ghost of Christmas Past, Ghost of Christmas Present, and Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. Each ghost shows Scrooge a vision (of the past, present and future Christmases, respectively) in order to teach him some lesson. Over the course of these visions, Scrooge is reminded of the human spirit that forms Christmas spirit. The audience also learns of Scrooge's past and the reasons for his bitterness. After these visions, Scrooge awakens to find that virtually no time has passed and it is Christmas morning. He immediately goes about trying to change his ways, being kinder to others and generously offering up his wealth to those less fortunate.
2. The theme of A Christmas Carol in a literal sense is that Christmas is a time for giving and joy. In a more general sense, the novel promotes generosity and acknowledgement of humanity. Scrooge's biggest obstacle is his failure to empathize with others. He has no idea what life is like for anyone besides himself, so he naturally locks everybody out of his own dismal existence. As the ghosts force him into a more personal view of others (or even his self) he is compelled to feel pity for others or longing for what he is missing.
3. Dickens's tone is pensive and reflective, but also joyful. This is appropriate for the subject matter, as it deals with both self-realization and holiday celebrations. The way it is narrated, Dickens gives the impression that it the story of Ebenezer Scrooge is a folk tale (granted, it almost is now) to be told by a roaring fire on a cold night.
Once upon a time -- of all the good days in the year, on Christmas Eve -- old Scrooge sat busy in his counting-house. It was a cold, bleak, biting weather: foggy withal: and he could hear the people in the court outside go wheezing up and down, beating their hands upon their breasts, and stamping their feet upon the pavement stones to warm them.
Clear away! There was nothing they wouldn't have cleared away, or couldn't have cleared away, with old Fezziwig looking on. It was done in a minute. Every movable was packed off, as if it were dismissed from public life for evermore; the floor was swept and watered, the lamps were trimmed, fuel was heaped upon the fire; and the warehouse was as snug, and warm, and dry, and bright a ball-room, as you would desire to see upon a winter's night.
The crisp leaves of holly, mistletoe, and ivy reflected back the light, as if so many little mirrors had been scattered there; and such a mighty blaze went roaring up the chimney, as that dull petrifaction of a hearth had never known in Scrooge's time, or Marley's, or for many and many a winter season gone. Heaped up on the floor, to form a kind of throne, were turkeys, geese, game, poultry, brawn, great joints of meat, sucking-pigs, long wreaths of sausages, mince-pies, plum-puddings, barrels of oysters, red-hot chestnuts, cherry-cheeked apples, juicy oranges, luscious pears, immense twelfth-cakes, and seething bowls of punch, that made the chamber dim with their delicious steam.
4. Textual quotes are taken from here. There are no page numbers, but if you would like to see the quote's context, you can go to the appropriate stave and use Control + F to search for it.
Allegory: On one level, A Christmas Carol is a story about a a cranky old man who eventually sees the spirit of Christmas. On a deeper one, it is about the intrinsic belief in human goodness that everybody (at least subconsciously) believes in.
Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him.
(stave 5)
Anecdote: All of the scenes that the Ghosts reveal to Scrooge are anecdotes used to convince him to change his ways.
"I am in the presence of the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come?" said Scrooge.
The Spirit answered not, but pointed downward with its hand.
"You are about to show me shadows of the things that have not happened, but will happen in the time before us," Scrooge pursued. "Is that so, Spirit?"
(stave 4)
They walked along the road, Scrooge recognizing every gate, and post, and tree; until a little market-town appeared in the distance, with its bridge, its church, and winding river. Some shaggy ponies now were seen trotting towards them with boys upon their backs, who called to other boys in country gigs and carts, driven by farmers. All these boys were in great spirits, and shouted to each other, until the broad fields were so full of merry music, that the crisp air laughed to hear it.
"These are but shadows of the things that have been," said the Ghost. "They have no consciousness of us."
(stave 2)
"The school is not quite deserted," said the Ghost. "A solitary child, neglected by his friends, is left there still."
Scrooge said he knew it. And he sobbed.
(stave 2)
Foil: Scrooge's nephew serves as a foil to Scrooge. The nephew has an irrepressible joy during Christmas time, refusing to let Scrooge's "Bah, humbug!" ruin the day. Scrooge's similarity to his nephew at the novel's end also serves as foil to himself at the beginning.
"I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a schoolboy. I am as giddy as a drunken man. A merry Christmas to everybody! A happy New Year to all the world! Hallo here! Whoop! Hallo!"
(stave 5)
Imagery: A Christmas Carol is littered with festive imagery that pulls the reader into the mood of the season.
Mrs Cratchit made the gravy (ready beforehand in a little saucepan) hissing hot; Master Peter mashed the potatoes with incredible vigour; Miss Belinda sweetened up the apple-sauce; Martha dusted the hot plates; Bob took Tiny Tim beside him in a tiny corner at the table; the two young Cratchits set chairs for everybody, not forgetting themselves, and mounting guard upon their posts, crammed spoons into their mouths, lest they should shriek for goose before their turn came to be helped.
(stave 3)
Interior Monologue: Since Scrooge is largely anti-social, his thoughts are often much more prominent than spoken words.
Oh cold, cold, rigid, dreadful Death, set up thine altar here, and dress it with such terrors as thou hast at thy command: for this is thy dominion. But of the loved, revered, and honoured head, thou canst not turn one hair to thy dread purposes, or make one feature odious. It is not that the hand is heavy and will fall down when released; it is not that the heart and pulse are still; but that the hand was open, generous, and true; the heart brave, warm, and tender; and the pulse a man's. Strike, Shadow, strike. And see his good deeds springing from the wound, to sow the world with life immortal!
(stave 4)
Narrator: Interestingly, the narrator speaks in the first person and directly to the audience.
Mind! I don't mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a door-nail. I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the Country's done for. You will therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as dead as a door-nail.
(stave 1)
Pathos: The entire theme of the story is intended to evoke strong emotions in the reader.
"Spirit," said 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."
"No, no," said Scrooge. "Oh, no, kind Spirit. Say he will be spared."
(stave 3)
Suspension of Disbelief: Obviously, the appearance of time-traveling ghosts requires significant suspension of disbelief. The reader is not expected to read for realism.
The cellar-door flew open with a booming sound, and then he heard the noise much louder, on the floors below; then coming up the stairs; then coming straight towards his door.
"It's humbug still!" said Scrooge. "I won't believe it."
His colour changed though, when, without a pause, it came on through the heavy door, and passed into the room before his eyes. Upon its coming in, the dying flame leaped up, as though it cried, "I know him; Marley's Ghost!" and fell again.
(stave 1)
CHARACTERIZATION
1. Direct Characterization:
Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shriveled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A frosty rime was on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin.
It was clothed in one simple green robe, or mantle, bordered with white fur. This garment hung so loosely on the figure, that its capacious breast was bare, as if disdaining to be warded or concealed by any artifice. Its feet, observable beneath the ample folds of the garment, were also bare; and on its head it wore no other covering than a holly wreath, set here and there with shining icicles. Its dark brown curls were long and free; free as its genial face, its sparkling eye, its open hand, its cheery voice, its unconstrained demeanour, and its joyful air. Girded round its middle was an antique scabbard; but no sword was in it, and the ancient sheath was eaten up with rust.Indirect Characterization:
Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks, "My dear Scrooge, how are you? When will you come to see me?" No beggars implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it was o'clock, no man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to such and such a place, of Scrooge.
"I wish to be left alone," said Scrooge. "Since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer. I don't make merry myself at Christmas and I can't afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the establishments I have mentioned -- they cost enough; and those who are badly off must go there."Dickens uses direct characterization to catapult the reader into the story with a perception of characters ahead of time. For characters like the ghosts, their appearance is relatively brief. There is little point in developing a character who plays a utilitarian role in the story and will be gone in the next scene. However, for Scrooge, Dickens can afford to spend time reinforcing the traits he establishes with direct characterization.
"Many can't go there; and many would rather die."
"If they would rather die," said Scrooge, "they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population. Besides -- excuse me -- I don't know that."
"But you might know it," observed the gentleman.
"It's not my business," Scrooge returned. "It's enough for a man to understand his own business, and not to interfere with other people's. Mine occupies me constantly. Good afternoon, gentlemen!"
2. Dickens changes his diction and syntax when describing characters. Typically, his descriptions of settings are flowing and poetic.
The fog came pouring in at every chink and keyhole, and was so dense without, that although the court was of the narrowest, the houses opposite were mere phantoms. To see the dingy cloud come drooping down, obscuring everything, one might have thought that Nature lived hard by, and was brewing on a large scale.His descriptions are much more straightforward and to the point. Given that A Christmas Carol is a relatively short story with a clear purpose in mind, Dickens does not often go beyond literal descriptions.
It was shrouded in a deep black garment, which concealed its head, its face, its form, and left nothing of it visible save one outstretched hand. But for this it would have been difficult to detach its figure from the night, and separate it from the darkness by which it was surrounded.
3. Scrooge is flat, but extremely dynamic. At the beginning he is characterized purely by his dislike for Christmas (and others' happiness in general). At the end, he is joyously prancing around town, spreading his wealth and love for others. It is essentially a complete flip of his character. However, outside of the small bit of background given about Scrooge's character, he has no defining characteristics beyond these.
4. Given that the story is so prevalent, it is tempting to say that it feels like I have met a person after reading A Christmas Carol, as Scrooge and the ghosts are so familiar. However, if I had been reading/hearing/watching the story for the first time, I'd have to admit that Scrooge's character is fairly transparent. While the characters are realistically written, there is not enough development of the characters to make them "come to life" the first time through.
^)!
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