A Christmas Carol by Charles Dicken

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dicken

A story was written by Charles Dickens in just six weeks and released in time for ChristmasThe story begins on a cold and bleak Christmas Eve in London, seven years after the death of Ebenezer Scrooge's business partner, Jacob Marley. Scrooge, an old miser, hates Christmas and refuses an invitation to Christmas dinner from his nephew Fred. He turns away two men who seek a donation from him in order to provide food and heating for the poor, and only grudgingly allows his overworked, underpaid clerk, Bob Cratchit, Christmas Day off with pay to conform to the social custom.At home that night, Scrooge is visited by Marley's ghost, who wanders the Earth, entwined by heavy chains and money boxes, forged during a lifetime of greed and selfishness. Marley tells Scrooge that he has one chance to avoid the same fate: he will be visited by three spirits and he must listen to them or be cursed to carry chains of his own, much longer than Marley's chains.

The story is loosely based on a character from the novel, The Pickwick Papers by Dickens. In it, Gabriel Grubb, a character from The Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton, is kidnapped by goblins and persuaded to change his deplorable and grim ways. In A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge, the protagonist, is a miserly businessman who has no sentiment for charity and those less fortunate. In fact, he begrudgingly gives his employee, Bob Cratchit, the day off to celebrate Christmas with his family. Bob knows the importance of family, especially given the circumstances of his youngest son, Tiny Tim, who needs the aid of braces and a crutch to walk. Tiny Tim’s symbolizes the purity of heart which is in stark contrast to Scrooge’s greedy nature. Throughout the story, Scrooge will be challenged by three ghosts, or spirits, to change his cold-hearted ways before it is too late. The timing of the release of A Christmas Carol could not have been better, because it reflected the decline of the holiday celebration and depicted the nature of child labor conditions. A Christmas Carol has played a significant role in the way we celebrate the holiday todayknow classics Ghosts and Goodwill in the ultimate Christmas story. It is Christmas Eve in Victorian London, and all around the snow-covered city people are rushing home to be with their families. All except one man, that is: Ebenezer Scrooge. A wealthy old miser whose only joy in life is money, Scrooge decides to spend the evening counting his cash, rejecting seasonal goodwill with well-practiced cries of ‘Bah! Humbug!’

But this Christmas Eve there are some surprises in store for old Scrooge. While his poor and put-upon employee Bob Cratchit prepares the finest family feast his paltry wages can buy, Scrooge’s sleep is disturbed by the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come. In one short night they reveal more to him about his true character than he has ever realised himself. As Christmas Day dawns, Scrooge is forced to confront the spectre of his own mean existence.

A Christmas Carol was published in December 1843, at a time when medieval Christmas traditions were in steady decline. Indeed, Dickens’s heart-warming tale has been seen as a major turning point; the popularity of its lamp-lit setting and its diverse characters – from the wonderfully wicked Scrooge to the crippled but optimistic Tiny Tim – helped ensure that family unity and ‘goodwill to all men’ once more became the appropriate sentiments of the Christmas season. At the same time, Dickens used the poverty-stricken Cratchit family’s dependence on hard-hearted Scrooge to highlight the Victorian working class’s daily struggle against the indifference of the greedy.

The book’s importance was cemented at Christmas 1852, when Dickens undertook public readings of it before both educated and working-class audiences. The success of these events led to public readings becoming a major part of his later career, usually featuring A Christmas Carol. The novella’s short length and strong moral message have ensured that it has become one of Dickens’s most well-known classics.

Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth, England, in 1812, the second of eight children. His father, John Dickens, struggled financially and as a result the Dickens family found themselves almost constantly on the move. The dire situation culminated in John being sent to a debtors’ prison and twelve-year-old Charles being sent to work at a London blacking factory, sticking labels onto jars of boot polish. Dickens’s difficult childhood had an enormous influence on the subjects he later tackled and his experience of both poverty and prison would reappear throughout his novels, particularly in David Copperfield (1850) and Great Expectations (1861).

After eventually returning to his education, Dickens became a newspaper reporter. He indulged his passion for writing humorous sketches under the nickname ‘Boz’, and his first publication, Sketches by Boz, appeared in 1836. Its serialisation earned him acclaim and popularity, and led to further publishing commissions. Dickens’ best loved books include Oliver Twist (1839), A Christmas Carol (1843) and A Tale of Two Cities (1859). Acutely observed characters and a witty but brutally satirical depiction of Victorian society remain his trademarks.

Dickens and his wife Catherine had ten children but their unfulfilling marriage ended in separation. He travelled widely and eventually moved to Kent, England, where he died in 1870, leaving his last novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, incomplete. He is buried in London’s Westminster Abbey. I should probably come right out and say that I did not grow up with A Christmas Carol. In my defense, I am neither British nor American; the story is not as culturally significant in the Netherlands as it is in other parts of the world. Until very recently, my only exposure to the story had been through snippets of the Muppets, Blackadder, and Scrooged. I had some vague idea of the plot and its characters, but I had never seen a full movie adaptation, let alone read the book. Every year I told myself that I would finally pick it up and read it for myself, and every year I either forgot or decided to read other holiday books instead (last year’s pick: Hogfather).

I think I knew that this book would be almost impossible to review. It is the quintessential Christmas read, has been adapted a billion times into other media, and has an iron-clad place in Anglo-American culture. It’s like trying to come up with a fresh perspective on Hamlet; everything has already been said – and probably much better by people much cleverer than you. Cultural bagage aside, this work has both the best and the worst of Dickens’ writing, and your enjoyment of it will largely depend on your tolerance for Victorian schmaltz. As I have previously touched upon in my review of J.K. Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy, this was a time of tugging at the reader’s moral heartstrings to the point of over-the-top preachiness. Dickens wants Scrooge to learn a lesson about caring for those less fortunate than him, so he not only introduces a likable poor family, but gives us a sickeningly adorable, disabled child. Tiny Tim is the cutest cute to ever cute, a good Christian boy, and suffers from an illness that only the patronage of a rich uncle can cure – and then Dickens kills him off, just to twist that knife in a little bit deeper into the wound. Oh God, enough! I’ll donate to any charity you want, Dickens, just make it stop!

That said, the premise of A Christmas Carol is ingenious; it is not surprising at all that absolutely everyone has put their own spin on this idea. It has a timeless fairy tale quality to it, and it is almost impossible not to have a big goofy smile on your face by the end of it. Despite the obvious emotional manipulation, it is incredibly difficult to resist its charms – because it is charming, very much so. Scrooge is a fantastic creation, and Dickens clearly had a lot of fun writing his lines; he has some of best zingers in the book, and as his backstory is slowly revealed, we cannot help but feel for this crotchety old grump.The ghosts are also just great; even if you know what’s coming, the build-up to the arrival of Marley is still so well done that you cannot help but feel on edge. Dickens creates an eerie atmosphere in these passages and gives him some brilliant other-worldly qualities: the way Marley’s hair moves like he is surrounded by blistering hot air, the clanking of his chains… These eerie visuals stuck with me more than any of Dickens’ fair-haired orphans ever will.

A Christmas Carol has all the subtlety of a blindfolded rhinoceros with two left feet, but then again, it was never meant to be subtle. Dickens gives us a moral tale about an embittered man who learns the true meaning of Christmas, and he will do just about anything to get you in the holiday spirit, even if he has to shove the holly right down your throat. And… It works. As much as I was rolling my eyes at some of the passages, I could not sto grinning by the time I’d reached the end. All right, Dickens… I concede. Consider my icy heart melted.But if I ever run into Tiny Tim, I may still shove his face into the snow before he can open his squeaky little mouth. Bah! Humbug!