More handpicked essays just for you.
Christmas carol literary analysis essays
Christmas carol literary analysis essays
Christmas carol literary analysis essays
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Ebenezer Scrooge Regains Humanity The Christmas season is upon us once more. This year more than other years we hear more and more of people who shun humanity because they are too wrapped up in themselves and their own problems. Of people who would rather have that extra bottle of wine on their Christmas table than drop that money into the nearest Salvation Army kettle. The wine will be drunk but in the kettle it could have done some good for those who are needy and who won’t have anything to put on their tables. Each Christmas we are reminded of humanity and the goodness it can do to reunite people through the popular book by Charles Dickens “A Christmas Carol” and of course the many different variations represented in movies and a musical. …show more content…
I give you Ebenezer Scrooge an old, miserable miser who in the very beginning wouldn’t know humanity if it came up and said boo into his face.
He hates, even deplores people and the very saddest thing is that his job has everything to do with people but that doesn’t matter to him. His thoughts on Christmas? Bah, humbug! Now don’t you think that ole’ Scrooge would make very good company indeed? Scrooge makes his home in London in the 19th century. A time when life was very hard for the poor and very good for the rich. When every donation could really help the poor and those who lent one another a helping hand lived a decent life. Scrooge has found a way to avoid putting himself into a difficult situation he simply pinches every penny he has and in turn makes the lives of the poor people who owe him simply …show more content…
miserable. We get to look into this miser’s life right on Christmas Eve. Working away in an office which lacks any comfort we see Scrooge contentedly counting his money while his clerk Bob Cratchit works in a cold corner eagerly awaiting the moment that he can get home to his family and begin celebrating Christmas. Now mind you Bob makes pennies but he gets joy from his wife and his children and he lives poorly but happily truly enjoying life and of course people. Bob would even reach into his own pocket to give to the poor if he earned a decent wage. However he is a remarkable man because he doesn’t complain and he works for Scrooge. This particular Christmas Eve we get introduced to the cold, cruel heart of Scrooge. His nephew arrives unafraid of his uncle and once again attempts to invite him to his home for his annual Christmas dinner party. Scrooge’s rebuff of his nephew and his scorn could make anyone cringe but his nephew leaves with a smile on his face bidding Bob a Merry Christmas. I’m sure that there are others who could relate to this situation. I know I have met quite a few people in my life that had absolutely no Christmas spirit and therefore no humanity in their hearts toward their fellow man. After his nephew has gone arrive two gentlemen wanting donations to help the poor. These gentlemen are quite shocked in discovering that Scrooge has a heart blacker than coal. When informed that a lot of people would rather die than have to go to a government funded workhouse we have his famous line, ”If they’d rather die then perhaps they had better do so and decrease the surplus population.” If at this point we are sure of one thing then it is that Scrooge in no humanitarian. Further Scrooge feels that Christmas Day is a day for picking employers pockets because people want the day off from work. He is actually amused to see how eager his employee Bob is to receive his meager wages and excited at the prospect of having the following day free. We get to see Bob greeting his children who are waiting for him by a decorated store window and he tells them what a wondrous Christmas they’ll be having. He has no qualms over spending every last penny just so his family can have a Christmas dinner. This means so much more to him than all the riches on this earth. Then there is Scrooge making his way home feeling perfectly content after the shabby and deplorable way he treated his employee, his nephew and the two business men collecting for charity. In this modern world we know that everyone no matter how poor tries to make their home as comfortable as possible for themselves and for their families. It doesn’t matter if there are hardly any furnishings and bare floors just so everyone can be under one roof and have enough to put food on the table. We return to Scrooge who has made his way home the home he got from his deceased business partner Jacob Marley. Now Marley at this point has been dead for seven years dying right on Christmas Eve. He was a true humanitarian, not. This character for all of his miserable life exploited the poor and horded money. We see Scrooge living in shabby circumstances, denying himself any creature comforts. Into this miser’s life returns his partner in spirit. We get to see what the lack of humanity has done to Marley in the world of the dead. He appears bound and drags after him chains which make a fearful clatter. It would frighten me half to death but dear Scrooge looks upon him at first as a bit of undigested beef. Yeah, right. Marley goes on to inform him that he can escape this fate if only he will listen to the three spirits which will come to visit him starting at midnight – the spirits of Past, Present, and Future. Back to young Ebenezer coming from a family which lacked compassion and love for one another and in turn Ebenezer lost the feel for fellow humans. Well at least we now know where the lack of humanity began. We travel on with Scrooge and the spirit and we get to see a pleasant side of him. A time when he had a great life, a wonderful employer Mr. Fezziwig and a fiancée Belle until he became obsessed with money and became a workaholic. He also deceived his kind hearted employer. Lost the one love of his life who might have been able to save him. We see the death of his sister Fanny in childbirth hurting him so badly that Scrooge loses any love he had left for the world and of course shuns his only living relative his nephew. This trip to the past starts showing signs of remorse in Scrooge but not enough yet to give him the want to change. Comes the Ghost of Christmas Present. This spirit takes Scrooge on a journey to show him how people celebrate Christmas. He gets to see the joy poor people have of Christmas Eve. Just gathered together by a warm fire and singing Christmas carols, praising the Lord. No presents, no Christmas dinner just pure warmth for one another. He gets to see how lavishly his nephew, his nephew’s wife and their friends spend Christmas Eve together with food, wine, song, dance and games. They all are filled with joy of being together and thoroughly enjoying this wonderful time of year. Onto the home of Bob Cratchit and family. A home which speaks of poverty but also a home filled with love and joy. The wonder of Christmas with a puny goose, pudding and punch hardly enough for such a family but being all together is the most important thing to them especially at Christmas time. Sadness hangs over this family as the youngest child a boy Tiny Tim is an invalid and in poor health and of course there is not enough money for doctors. Seeing all of this we can see changes coming over Scrooge he even inquires if Tiny Tim will survive another Christmas. Before this spirit goes away he leaves Scrooge with a warning to be careful of two terrible evils – Ignorance and Want hidden beneath the spirits great coat in the guise of two vicious and terrifying children who appear more animal then human. It amazingly shocks our miser. By now our own heads are filled with the sights and sounds of this Christmas tale and I know that many a time I’ve already shed some tears for Tiny Tim, for his family and for the poor of London. Reminding myself that they were poor but had the love of Christ in their hearts and could sing Christmas carols with great joy. Onto the scene comes the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come and Scrooge gets to see what will develop the following Christmas. Bob Cratchit and his family are having a sorrowful Christmas as Tiny Tim has died and Bob has lost his joy for life. Scrooge also discovers that he has met with death and that people who had contact with him are overjoyed that he has passed on. They don’t mourn him but are eager to steal his money and possessions. He himself forgotten lies in a horrid graveyard a shabby tombstone at his head. It makes us wonder if Scrooge has descended into the pits of hell. In the musical version with Albert Finney we actually see Scrooge descend to hell where he is met by his late partner Marley and finds out that his chain is even larger than Marley’s. Comes Christmas Day and we see a repentant and ecstatic Scrooge overjoyed that he hasn’t missed this Christmas and that he has the time to make up for all of his wrongs.
Leaves us to wonder if humanity finally made its way into his heart or if at first he was just glad to have escaped a most horrible fate. However we do see Scrooge buy a giant turkey and in some versions of the movie toys for the Cratchit children, we see him tear up all the debts of all the people who owe him, and we see him going to his nephew’s house for Christmas dinner even bringing a belated wedding present and of all things dancing. It is a new and improved Scrooge and we can just rejoice that he is now in favor of his fellow humans. The story ends with us knowing that Scrooge has paid for the operation which Tiny Tim needed and that Tiny Tim will grow up to be a healthy and strong boy. Let us all let the compassion, love and understanding for our fellow humans into our hearts this Christmas. Let’s lend a helping hand where we can, let’s keep Christ in our Christmases and find love and joy with our family and friends. As Tiny Tim said,”God bless us
everyone!”
Dickens displays guilt as the main form of how Scrooge’s character develops into a compassionate person by the end of the novella. As Scrooge feels this quilt, it's purely based on the visions that the ghosts provide which further causes Scrooge to realise the consequences of his actions. His alienation from specific characters that he used to love such as Belle, “...has displaced me…” whom left Scrooge, due to his desire for money and wealth which grew. This desire grows with him as he is rejecting the christmas joy and spirit as he continuously states that Christmas is a “humbug,” but by stating this it provides comparison. Dickens depicts that Scrooge has become a better person because of fear but in the end he has become kinder. As the
Scrooge was and owner of a factory and made a whole bunch of money, but he did not care about anyone else. “Merry Christmas said his nephew, what right do have to be merry you are poor enough”. This shows that scrooge is mean to family and does not care about Christmas.
In the beginning of the play in spite of being selfish Scrooge is also cheap, cold-hearted, and cruel. Scrooge behaves in this manner to his nephew, Fred. One way of proving this is when Fred said “Merry Christmas.” Scrooge replied salty saying “Humbug Christmas is just a time for spending and wasting money.” Not only he treats Fred badly but many more people. For instance take one of his quotes towards the Gentleman Visitor, “Are there no Jails for the poor, are there no
I feel that Charles Dickens could not have described his character any better. In my opinion the last sentence has great relevance to the story and his attitude towards all things merry, especially Christmas: ‘’…his own low temperature…and didn’t thaw it one degree at Christmas.’’ Scrooge is a very cold-hearted, spiteful man, he is never cheerful or in any way nice to anyone. The only people who he at the very least endures or respects are men of great importance or wealth, but also his fellow businessmen. It would be easier to get blood out of a stone than to get Ebeneezer Scrooge to be merry; ‘’Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire…’’
Scrooge generally disregards or outright denies the needs and welfare of the less fortunate and the challenged, which fits in perfectly with an objectivists view on the less fortunate. An objectivist view on the poor is that, “Every honest man lives for himself. Every man worth calling a man lives for himself. The one who doesn't - doesn't live at all.”(Ayn Rand). What this means is that because the poor cannot provide for themselves and their families they are not men at all and why should the rest of the population help them if they cannot help themselves. This is the same ideology Scrooge subscribes to and is best shown when two men appear at Scrooge’s counting house and ask him if he can, “make some slight provision for the Poor and Destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries… [Scrooge has] help[ed] to support the establishments I have menti...
Scrooge was a terrible, terrible man. However, after a fantastic night of visions, he transforms into a better man. Patrick T. Reardon wrote in the National Catholic Reporter, that “A Christmas Carol isn’t about a sinner. It’s about a sinner who goes through a conversion experience. (Reardon, Patrick T. "The conversion of St. Scrooge." National Catholic Reporter, 18 Dec. 2015) He says that we are all like Scrooge, and we all have our Bah Humbug experiences; and like Scrooge, we need a conversion in some way. Scrooge is in all of us, but it’s what we do to try and change ourselves that’s makes the story have a happy
Scrooge was always mean to everyone. They did not like him. He was visited by three ghosts that taught him a lesson. He started being nice. “Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all. . . He was a second father. . . [to Tiny Tim] His own heart laughed.” (Dickens 64). Doing nice things for people can make people happier too. The Grinch, as well as Scrooge, hates Christmas and he expresses it. The Whos hate him for it. He takes the presents of all the Whos, he is about to throw it off the mountain. The Grinch hears a sound. It is them. They are singing, despite the fact their Christmas is ruined. He returned all their gifts and celebrates Christmas with them. He is finally loved by the Whos. Doing nice things for people can make a person happy as well. Although, Scrooge was helped by spirits, The Grinch was held by people. Recent books can be seen using traditional story’s themes.
Often, readers don’t hear their protagonist shouting phrases such as “Bah!” and “Humbug!”, yet Ebenezer Scrooge is known as the prime character in the novel A Christmas Carol written by Charles Dickens. Right off the bat, the reader can notice Scrooge is known for being bitter, self absorbed, selfish, and cruel. Over the course of the book, the reader will reevaluate the main character and notice he becomes warmer, joyous, and pleasant. Growth and prosperity have both taken place by the end of the novel.
On page 64, we see how Scrooge shows sympathy in the quote, “There was a boy singing a Christmas carol at my door last night. I should like to have given him something. That 's All.” After being shown a memory of himself as a boy, Scrooge regrets being harsh to the boy caroling and not giving him any money. Seeing his own sadness as a child made him realize it would have been nice to give the boy something to make him happy. He will probably do nicer things in the future because he now realizes that the boy would have been upset because of how Scrooge turned him away so harshly. He is changing his actions, and regretting bad actions in the past. He wants to fix what he did wrong, and he feels sympathy for the boy. People want to be shown compassion, so in the future if he helps people out and is kind, he will not be as isolated. Another quote to show how he becomes less detached from humanity is on pages 92-93, ‘”Spirit,” said Scrooge, “Tell me if Tiny Tim will live.” Scrooge feels sorry for Bob Cratchit because the spirit says if the future remains unaltered he will die. He feels upset that Tiny Tim will die, and sympathy for Bob because his son will probably die. He probably regrets not giving Bob more time with his son. He had made a comment earlier that if someone will die they better go and die to decrease the population, when the donation collector
During the story, Scrooge is visited by the Ghosts from Christmas past, present, and future, who shows the ill-tempered Scrooge how to be feel compassion towards others human beings. A large quantity of the story revolves around money, and it plays a large role, to contrast how generosity is viewed in society. Scrooge is incredibly wealthy, as he lives a l...
He is like Victor and chooses to be isolated for how he treated others. For example, Scrooge says, “I wish to be left alone. 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” (Dickens 16). Scrooge is showing the reader that he is an ungrateful and a non-friendly man. The author wants us to know that he has no Christmas sprit and is selfish man that is also very stingy with his money. He also is rude to the people that come to his store. Charles Dickens describes him in A Christmas Carol as “a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, clutching, covetous old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel has ever struck generous fire; secret, and self contained, and solitary as an oyster” (Dickens 12). This description of Scrooge shows that he is a very negative person, that chooses to isolate himself, and keeps things all to himself. He does not care about anyone other than money and himself. He loves money and also watching his clerk; “the door of Scrooge’s counting-house was open that he might keep his eye upon his clerk” (Dickens 13). Scrooge was always watching what his clerk was doing; he was not a friendly guy. There is an example of this in Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein also, where Victor was being watched constantly by the monster, everything victor did the monster was watching. Scrooge
Scrooge is just a normal guy who went to border school when he was a kid. He didn’t spend to much time with his family. He only got to see them on Holidays. Now, he is a grumpy old man.
...ht it was extremely delightful. Also when Scrooge went to his nephew Fred’s home and started dancing it looked like Scrooge was having fun and he fitted in a big happy family. But the most key moment was at the end when Scrooge was carrying Tiny Tim in his arms and then Tiny Time said ‘Bless us all’
It’s December of 1801 and the whole town is decorating, dancing, singing, and laughing as they get ready for a near holiday: Christmas. All but one pessimistic, obdurate cripple of a man. His name is Ebenezer Scrooge, an undermined old male swathed in dark clothing. He is typically found strolling the streets on Victorian London with poor posture, eyes locked on the cracked sidewalk beneath the soles of his shoes. Slumping along, carolers cease to sing near him and nobody speaks when in his presence. Scrooge is a prejudging business man who hurries to be left alone and disregards cheer. He is obdurate and blind to the consequences of his actions. Sudden wealth brings a snobbiness when his business partner dies, and as a result, his one true love divorces him, sending him into a state of hatred and regret. With this evidence to back it up, Scrooge can be perceived as a negative, crippling man with little tolerance to change. However, things are bound to change with the visitation of the wraiths: the Spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come, an inevitable change that be...
A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens is a tale of the morality changes of a man. The uncharitable, cold heart of the main character, Ebenezer Scrooge, melts with ardent love as he receives visitations from three Christmas spirits who enlighten his soul with wise lessons and bring a warm change to his heart. In the beginning of the novel, Scrooge expresses his vices of greed and cold heartedness by his words and actions, but as the story unfolds, his life is renewed by these Spirits who shed light and truth upon him, resulting in making him become a better man, portraying the virtue of charity.