A Christmas Carol is a novella by English author Charles Dickens first published by Chapman & Hall on 19 December 1843. The story tells of sour and stingy Ebenezer Scrooge's ideological, ethical, and emotional transformation after the supernatural visits of Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come. The novella met with instant success and critical acclaim.
The book was
written and published in early Victorian era Britain when it was experiencing a
nostalgic interest in its forgotten Christmas traditions, and at the time when
new customs such as the Christmas tree and greeting cards were being
introduced. Dickens' sources for the tale appear to be many and varied but are
principally the humiliating experiences of his childhood, his sympathy for the
poor, and various Christmas stories and fairy tales
The tale begins
on a Christmas Eve in 1843 exactly seven years after the death of Ebenezer
Scrooge's business partner, Jacob Marley. Scrooge is established within the
first stave as a greedy and stingy businessman who has no place in his life for
kindness, compassion, charity or benevolence, rudely turning away two gentlemen
who seek a donation from him. He hates Christmas, calling it
"humbug", and refuses his nephew Fred's dinner invitation; his only
"Christmas gift" is allowing his overworked, underpaid clerk Bob
Cratchit Christmas Day off with pay (which he does only to keep with social
custom, Scrooge considering it like being pickpocketed annually).
Returning home,
Scrooge is visited by Marley's ghost, who warns him to change his ways (lest he
undergo the same miserable afterlife as himself). Scrooge is then visited by
three additional ghosts – each in its turn, and each visit detailed in a
separate stave – who accompany him to various scenes with the hope of achieving
his transformation.
The first of the
spirits, the Ghost of Christmas Past, takes Scrooge to Christmas scenes of his
boyhood and youth, which stir the old miser's gentle and tender side by
reminding him of a time when he was more innocent. They also show what made
Scrooge the miser that he is, and why he dislikes Christmas.
The second
spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Present, takes Scrooge to several radically
differing scenes (a joy-filled market of people buying the makings of Christmas
dinner, the family feast of Scrooge's near-impoverished clerk Bob Cratchit
(including his youngest son, Tiny Tim, who is seriously ill but cannot receive
treatment due to Scrooge's unwillingness to pay Cratchit a decent wage), a
miner's cottage, and a lighthouse, among other sites) in order to evince from
the miser a sense of responsibility for his fellow man.
The third spirit,
the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, harrows Scrooge with dire visions of the
future if he does not learn and act upon what he has witnessed (including Tiny
Tim's death). Scrooge's own neglected and untended grave is revealed, prompting
the miser to aver that he will change his ways in hopes of changing these
"shadows of what may be."
In the fifth and
final stave, Scrooge awakens on Christmas morning with joy and love in his
heart, then spends the day with his nephew's family after anonymously sending a
prize turkey to the Cratchit home for Christmas dinner. Scrooge has become a
different man overnight and now treats his fellow men with kindness, generosity
and compassion, gaining a reputation as a man who embodies the spirit of
Christmas. The story closes with the narrator confirming the validity,
completeness and permanence of Scrooge's transformation.
Source: WikipediA
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