Literary Analysis of Israel Horovitz´s The Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley

In Israel Horovitz’s stage production of “A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley”, the spirit of the characters develops into an adventurous journey. The setting is Christmas Eve and a poor man is working diligently while the owner, Ebenezer Scrooge, refuses to let him have Christmas Day off. Later that night at Scrooge's house, his old, dead, partner in business, Marley, visits him and tells him to change his ways and that three ghosts will come to haunt him: The Ghost of Christmas Past, The Ghost of Christmas Present, and The Ghost of Christmas Future. They all show him scenes in which Scrooge realizes his guilt and eventually make Christmas a better time for everyone he originally affected. Scrooge changes from a cold-hearted miser, to a merry, warm-hearted person through realizing his guilt.

Ebeneezer at first is cruel, and would not give to the needy. Whenever there is simply mention of Christmas, Scrooge merely states: “Bah! Humbug!” (667). It is simply his fault for choosing to live alone and be miserable. The first thing that states Scrooge is a miser is when his nephew comes over to invite him over on Christmas Day. He refuses saying “I’d rather see myself dead than see me with your family,” (669). Then, men asking for donations for the poor come. Scrooge denies and asks if the prisons and workhouses are full, and refuses to give anything.

Later on Christmas Eve, three spirits sent by Marley attempt to change Scrooge’s ways. The first ghost, the Ghost of Christmas Past, shows him how miserable he was as a child and how he became a grumpy old man. The reason he is the way his is today is his lost love left him for him loving money more than lovingnher. “Another Idol has displaced me. A golden one,” (689) she says...

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...ce Scrooge realized he needs to have a good spirit and be happy to stay alive. He then attempted to convince Future that he will change by screaming, “Assure me that I yet may change these shadows that you have shown me by an altered life!” (720).

Scrooge changes from a cold-hearted miser, to a merry, warm-hearted person through realizing his guilt. The three spirits changed Scrooge’s outlook by showing him things he never would have noticed all by himself. Scrooge realizes you only live life once and you should treat people the way you want to be treated. Through this experience Scrooge is definitely a better person and much more generous than he ever could have been. The lesson Scrooge learned needs to be taught to cruel business owners or even people everywhere today. They need to learn you can change if you try, realize the small things, and show mercy.