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A Christmas Carol
(1843)
Illustrated by George Alfred Williams
"I have endeavoured, in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it."--Their faithful Friend and Servant, C. D. December 1843.
In this book of excitement the main character, Scrooge, who is a complete grouch (especially at Christmas) is visited by the ghost of his dead business partner who is there to warn him. The Ghost tells him that he will be visited by three more ghosts. And they take him on a journey through Christmas Past, Present, and Future to see the ups of Christmas and the downs of the way he is living to try to save him and many others from himself, and his huge Bah Humbug Attitude. This book is an eye opener and a sensation.--Submitted by N.L.H.
Dickens sets his novella in this the Christmas period to show the true meaning of sharing, giving and receiving. Through his representation of Scrooge, Dickens wants the reader to learn from his miserable personality and to encourage others to change their ways too. It seems that the reason why he wanted to do this was because the rich didn’t appreciate the poor; during the Industrial Revolution the gap widened between the rich and the poor – the poor being forgotten. This is why Scrooge then was visited by three different ghosts: the past, present and future. These ghosts highlight the need for Scrooge to change and value the poor and recognise their needs.--Submitted by Jessica Hennell
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Is Tiny Tim Really Fred's (Scrooge's Nephew) Son
My Wife and I have been watching A Christmas Carol with Patrick Steward for years. Each year my wife picks up on a scene that is really out of place in the movie, & our only conclusion after watching the scene time after time is that Tiny Tim is really not Bob Cratchits's son. In the scene, they are sitting around the fireplace & Bob says that it was strange that he ran into Scrooges Nephew today. He says that his nephew gave him his card & says that he has a good wife & that if Tim needs anything to let him know. Crachit was a bit puzzled as to how Fred even knew of his wife & Tim. Earlier, Cratchit asks his wife "Where did you get such a fine goose (since he knew that he did not have the funds to buy it himself). The presumption here would be that Fred bought the Goose & gave it to Crachit's wife. Normally, I would not mention this on literary forum, but the Patrick Stewart version of a Christmas Carol is as good as it gets, & I want to pose this question to some sharp analytical minds. If you have not seen it, have a look & let me know what you think. Now that I watch this movie, this scene is a blaring reference to something going on with Crachit’s wife & Fred.
Posted By vadread at Sat 3 Dec 2011, 8:21 PM in A Christmas Carol || 0 Replies
What can we learn from "A Christmas Carol"?
(Originally posted yesterday in the wrong forum, where it has been deleted and moved here.) It's just a "little" book, but it packs a wallop bigger than the most potent Christmas punch. Written in 1843, "A Christmas Carol," the novella (or long short story) is a perennial favorite, more ubiquitous than the other two members of the Yuletide triumvirate, Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite and Handel's The Messiah. Stage adaptations of the Charles Dickens piece -- performed by a spectrum of actors from schoolchildren to professional touring companies -- dot the theatrical landscape from coast to coast. The jaded among us may wonder why this old roasted chestnut is still popular in the twentieth century. The current economic collapse aside, many Americans approach the holiday season with dread because it's "too commercial" (a comment, by the way, ironically made by the money-loving Scrooge himself in the 1984 George C. Scott CBS-tv version.) Having been scorned by our Pilgrim forefathers, Christmas wasn't even recognized as a national holiday until the mid-nineteenth century. Yet the national Ideal of what Christmas should be has descended down to us from Britain, where Queen Victoria celebrated Christmas with German-infected customs. Earlier in the century, Washington Irving's Bracebridge Hall, which described the holiday as celebrated in a English country house, made many of the former colonists nostalgic for a Yuletide with all the holly and ivy trimmings. A Christmas Carol embodies such a Victorian spirit. Dickens reportedly said that he had initially written the piece as a "pot-boiler," (i.e. for money), but that it was the only one of his works that made him laugh and cry. The near laughable cheapness Scrooge exhibits becomes downright meanness in his consummate dismissal of the plight of the Poor: "Are there no workhouses? Are there no prisons?" He disdains the celebration of Christmas as a "humbug," and rejecting such extends to his indifference toward Christianity: truly he loves money more than he loves his neighbor. Ebenezer Scrooge, whose surname has come down through the language as a synonym for a surly and flinty miser, is the ultimate comic-slash-tragic figure, a true protagonist because he changes: at the beginning of the story his character is one thing, and by the end has become the complete antithesis of what he formerly was. Another reason for the story's durability is its emphasis on family values, and I say this completely without irony. Bob Cratchit, the hardworking clerk, has a brood arguably too large to support on the meager salary which Scrooge pays him. But the abiding love the Cratchits hold for one another is the key to their survival. The youngest son, Tim, suffers from a terminal illness, and he needs a crutch to walk. Such sentimental pulling at the reader's heartstrings could facilely be deemed bathos; even Dickens himself was no stranger to crowd-pleasing emotionalism, Oscar Wilde's famous quotation about the death of Little Nell coming to mind. Yet consider the role which Tiny Tim's character plays in this story; he symbolizes not something else but Someone Else, the "reason for the season," so to speak. In the vision forced upon Scrooge by the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, Tiny Tim dies, but in the final scenes showing Scrooge's no-less-than-miraculous conversion, becomes "resurrected" in a way. Indeed, only by being forced by The Ghost of Christmas Present to witness Tim's suffering as well as Bob's even deeper anguish does Scrooge begin to feel anything akin to compassion. Other scenes in the piece are rich in Christian allegory: the haggling over the "deceased" Scrooge's bed curtains parodies the casting of the money changers out of the temple, and Scrooge's harrowing soul-searching in the climactic graveyard scene seems like a personal Gethsemane for him. For Dickens's literary treatments of Christian imagery, only the self-sacrifice of Sidney Carton in A Tale of Two Cities comes close to a superb treatment of Christian imagery. It's always darkest, it's said, before the dawn. Even in pre-Christian times, the Winter Solstice was a supernatural symbol. The sun has reached its lowest point in the sky, it is the shortest day of the year, yet, and yet-- little by little, the sun rises a bit higher, the day becomes gradually longer and longer. The darkness dies and the Light appears. There is no better analogy for the human spirit of hope, which is undeniably the "take home" message of "A Christmas Carol." Even the most hardest of hearts can soften, and it truly is never too late to transform despair into hope. Like Scrooge, people can change -- sometimes literally overnight.
Posted By AuntShecky at Tue 16 Dec 2008, 12:40 PM in A Christmas Carol || 2 Replies
No subject
I would just like to say that i think that Christmas Carol is a great book and story for all ages. I love all the symbolism Dickens uses. (e.g. - I love how Dickens describes how the the clock surrounded by the fog in the church is starring down at him the clock symbolizing the time he has left and the church symbolizing judgement of whether he ends up like Marley or is permitted into heaven.) Also I love the ghost of Christmas Present. One of my favorite lines is when Scrooge asks the spirit to spare Tiny Tim and he replies quoting Scrooge "If he be like to die, he had better do it, and decrease the surplus population" (77) (Stave 3). Also the quote on page 77 about the insect is a great quote. Also if whoever was wondering what a stave was still doesnt know, it the way music or poetry is divided (into 5). (A Christmas Carol
Posted By Samurai2792 at Sun 10 Dec 2006, 11:36 PM in A Christmas Carol || 0 Replies
Socio-cultural aspects
Hello everybody, Could someone try and tell me the socio-cultural aspects which are told in a Christmas Carol about Britain in that age? I am a student of history & English in Holland and I am trying to study Great Britain. All I still need to know exactly, is how the socio-cultural aspects are written down by Charles Dickens. Thanks to anyone who is able to help me! Myrthe
Posted By mvoostveen at Mon 1 May 2006, 12:45 PM in A Christmas Carol || 1 Reply
New Found Vintage Book
While going thru my in laws basement I came across a suede bound copy of A Christmas Carol. There is an inside note dated Christmas 1903. The title page just says " A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens Borse & Hopkins New York. It is 145 pages long with gold edges on the pages. There are not other dates in the book. I am wondering if this might be a 1st addition and my "find" of the century. If anyone has any info. or insight as to where & can get any more information on this great book I would greatly appreciate your help. Thank you, Colleen St. Pierre
Posted By ColleenSTP at Wed 29 Mar 2006, 2:16 AM in A Christmas Carol || 3 Replies
Stave Reader Responses, Need Help!
Hello folks, i have few questions about A Chrismas Carol :) and i will be very greatful if somebody give me an answers of them on Stave 3 and 4.. Thanks.. :confused: :confused: Stave Three: Explain how "taking away the power to help" is a cruel sentence for the people like Marley? What can Scrooge do to avoid Mareley's fate? What moral transformation will have to take place in Scrooge>? How ccan you personally avoid Marley's fate? Stave Four: Light and Dark are iportant aspects of this book. Give example of how light and dark are used to convey a theme. How does the "winter solstice" theme relate to Scrooge and Christmas? How does the "Winter solstice" theme of light deal with the problem of "Ignorance and Want"?
Posted By skate at Thu 5 Jan 2006, 12:31 PM in A Christmas Carol || 0 Replies
Tiny Tim a real person that existed?
Looking for a reference to an autobiographical sketch by Dickens about the origin of "A Christmas Carol" which is quite startling. I heard an in depth radio review/analysis of this work and it was very provocative. It is a commentary by Dickens about how he met a man who showed him around and introduced him to his family, including his young handicapped son, workplace, friends in a pub, over the course of a couple of days up to Christmas eve. The next day, all evidence of the visitation was gone. The house abandoned, friends missing, pub closed down. He did talk to the landlord of the house where the man and his family resided and learned that the man in question had died seven years prior, on christmas eve. The mans name was Jacob Marley and his son, who had also died later, was named Tim. If anyone has any idea how I could get any research material or a reference on this specific subject please contact me, as it is very important. "May god bless us, everyone" :santasmil jollyollie
Posted By jollyollie at Tue 13 Dec 2005, 1:03 AM in A Christmas Carol || 4 Replies
Review
I am particularly attached to this story. When I was about 9, I tried to sign it out of our local public library, but the Librarian felt that it was "too old" for me. I went home and told my mother what she had said, and Mum marched right down there and read that lady the riot act! The upshot was that, from that day forth, I was allowed to read anything I wanted from the library.
In any case, I love the book! Not only is it a great comment on the Industrial Revolution (rather radical, at the time), and a morality play about the evils of greed; it's also a cracking good ghost story!
Posted By Veronica at Tue 24 May 2005, 5:07 PM in A Christmas Carol || 0 Replies
Be Careful
I enjoyed this book because I think that it really does teach you to be thankful and appreciate those who try to show love towards you. It also teaches us not to be greedy over money and don't choose money over loved money. I am in the 7th grade 03-04 and I enjoyed this book
Posted By Malecia at Tue 24 May 2005, 5:07 PM in A Christmas Carol || 0 Replies
No Subject
No doubt a superb writer.
The Christmas Carol is rather boring as it is nothing but an "Infomercial" paid for by the paper and the advertising merchants.
Crachitt had his own house and enough to purchase a goose. He was asked to work on Christmas Eve day as I have done many times. Where would we be if our police, firemen and doctors followed the ridiculous dogma esposed in this tiresome, non-relevant tome? Eb only becomes acceptable when he gives away his money. Duh. Dicken's father was obviously a wasterel and Chucky baby was following in his footsteps wanting others to give to him
It was designed to pull money out of the pockets of all who read it and refused to think. It has done a marvelous job but is really ready for the trash heap.
Posted By Unregistered at Tue 24 May 2005, 5:07 PM in A Christmas Carol || 3 Replies