All About the Charles Dickens Classic "A Christmas Carol"

Ebenezer Scrooge is a penny-pinching miser in the first degree. He cares nothing for the people around him and mankind exists only for the money that can be made through exploitation and intimidation. He particularly detests Christmas which he views as 'a time for finding yourself a year older, and not an hour richer'. Scrooge is visited, on Christmas Eve, by the ghost of his former partner Jacob Marley who died seven Christmas Eves ago.

Marley, a miser from the same mold as Scrooge, is suffering the consequences in the afterlife and hopes to help Scrooge avoid his fate. He tells Scrooge that he will be haunted by three spirits. These three spirits, the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future, succeed in showing Scrooge the error of his ways. His glorious reformation complete, Christmas morning finds Scrooge sending a Christmas turkey to his long-suffering clerk, Bob Cratchit, and spending Christmas day in the company of his nephew, Fred, whom he had earlier spurned.

Scrooge's new-found benevolence continues as he raises Cratchit's salary and vows to assist his family, which includes Bob's crippled son, Tiny Tim. In the end Dickens reports that Scrooge became ' as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew'.

I had forgotten how enjoyable this book was until I read it again this year. It is a book for all ages, and even though it was written explicitly for Christmas and has a Christmas theme, its lessons are not only for Christmas. But having said that, it is an excellent Christmas gift for old and young alike.

One major theme in A Christmas Carol was rooted in Dickens' observations of the plight of the children of London's poor. It has been said of the times that sex was the only affordable pleasure for the poor; the result was thousands of children living in unimaginable poverty, filth, and disease. In 1839 it was estimated that nearly half of all funerals in London were for children under the age of ten. Those who survived grew up without education or resource and virtually no chance to escape the cycle of poverty. Dickens felt that this cycle of poverty could only be broken through education and became interested in the Ragged Schools in London.

Ragged Schools were free schools, run through charity, in which the poorest children received religious instruction and a rudimentary education. Dickens generally applauded the work of these schools although he disapproved of introducing religious doctrine at the expense of a practical education which would help the pupil become a self-sufficient member of society. Despite the availability of these schools, most poor children remained uneducated due to the demand for child labor and the apathy of parents, wretchedly poor and uneducated themselves.

Dickens introduces these children in A Christmas Carol through the allegorical twins, Ignorance and Want. The Ghost of Christmas Present shows them, wretched and almost animal in appearance, to Scrooge with the warning: "This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased."

Dickens continued to support education for the poor through his works but compulsory education for all did not come about until 1870, the year of Dickens' death.

Ebenezer Scrooge is the main character in Charles Dickens' 1843 novella A Christmas Carol. His last name has come into the English language as a byword for miserliness and misanthropy, traits displayed by Scrooge in the exaggerated manner for which Dickens is well-known. The story of his transformation by the three Ghosts of Christmas (Past, Present and Yet to Come) has become a defining tale of the Christmas holiday in some cultures. Scrooge's phrase, "Bah, humbug!" has been used to express disgust with Christmas traditions in modern times. The inspiration for Charles Dickens' character was from a grave marker for an Ebenezer Lennox Scroggie; the marker identified Scroggie as a "meal man" (corn merchant), but Dickens misread this as "mean man". It has been asserted that Dickens based Scrooge's character on that of demographer and political economist Thomas Malthus.

The miserly Scrooge paid his clerk, Bob Cratchit, a weekly salary of fifteen shillings (cockney slang for shilling was "bob"). Bob "pocketed on Saturdays but fifteen copies of his Christian name".

According to C. Z. Barnett in his play A Christmas Carol or The Miser's Warning (1844) Cratchit would have spent a week's wages to buy the ingredients for the Christmas feast: seven shillings for the goose, five for the pudding, and three for the onions, sage and oranges.

Humbug is an archaic term meaning "hoax", or "jest". While the term was first attested in 1751 in student slang, its etymology is unknown. Its present meaning as an exclamation is closer to "nonsense", or "gibberish", while as a noun, a humbug refers to a fraud, impostor or a person who is habitually mean. The latter interpretation is derived from the word's association with Ebenezer Scrooge, a character created by Charles Dickens. In several East-Indian dialects, the word is borrowed from English, and used to mean "to deceive" or "to cheat."

A mint humbug is also a type of boiled mint, striped with alternate dark brown and beige stripes. They have a strong, sugary taste and are often sold wrapped individually in plastic film.

Tiny Tim is the son of Bob Cratchit.

Tim is very ill in the story and is crippled. Although facing death he is a very happy boy and is very much loved by his parents. His illness would be easily cured with the right money that Cratchit's low wage from Ebenezer Scrooge cannot provide. When Scrooge is visited by The Ghost of Christmas Present he sees just how ill Tim is. When visited by The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come all he sees of Tim is his crutch, as sadly Tim has died. Knowing he could have prevented Tim's death the reformed Scrooge puts things right at the end of the story.

He is known for the line, "God bless us, everyone!"

Of all the affecting scenes from A Christmas Carol none touches the heart more than the death of the crippled Tiny Tim, foreshadowed to Scrooge by the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, especially to Victorian readers. Large families and child mortality were common in the 19th century and many readers may have suffered firsthand the loss of a child.

Michael Patrick Hearn, in his book The Annotated Christmas Carol, reports that one observer of a public reading by Dickens of A Christmas Carol in Boston in 1867 noted that the passage of Tiny Tim's death "brought out so many pocket handkerchiefs that it looked as if a snow-storm had somehow gotten into the hall without tickets".

Bob Cratchit is a fictional character in the classic story A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Although a central figure of the tale, his passive character is overshadowed by that of Ebenezer Scrooge.

Cratchit is Scrooge's employee, a low-paid clerk with a large family. Though he is treated poorly by Scrooge, Cratchit retains a loyalty to his boss despite the protestations of his wife. His youngest son, Tiny Tim, is a cripple, and it is partly through concern for his plight that Scrooge makes the transformation from miser to philanthropist.

The name Cratchit is rooted in the word creche, which is a nativity scene or manger depicting the birth of Christ.

Jacob Marley's ghost appears in the Charles Dickens novel, A Christmas Carol.

In life, Marley was the business partner of Ebenezer Scrooge. Earlier, both men had apprenticed in business and met as clerks (presumably in Accountancy) in another business. The firm of Scrooge and Marley was a nineteeth century financial institution, probably a counting house, as Marley refers to their offices as 'our money-changing hole'. They have become successful bankers, with seats on the London Stock Exchange; they are also stockholders and directors of at least one major association, but a vast amount of their wealth has been accumulated through usurious moneylending.

Both Scrooge and Marley have evolved from idealistic, ambitious clerks into astute and driven businessmen for whom money and profit is an end in and of itself.

Fred is the hearted nephew of Ebenezer Scrooge, son of his sister Fan.

The Ghost of Christmas Past was one of three spirits (after the visitation by Jacob Marley) that haunted the miser Ebenezer Scrooge in order to prompt him to repent. It showed him scenes from his youth, that occurred on or around Christmas, in order to demonstrate to him the necessity of changing his ways.

The Ghost of Christmas Past appeared to Scrooge as a white-robed, androgynous figure of indeterminate age. It had on its head a blazing light, reminiscient of a candle flame. It carried with it a metal cap, made in the shape of a candle extinguisher, with which Scrooge finally banishes it by extinguishing the light on its head.

The Ghost of Christmas Present was one of three spirits that haunted the miser Ebenezer Scrooge, in order to prompt him to repent. It transported him around the city, showing him scenes of festivity and also deprivation that were happening as they watched. Among those they visited were Scrooge's nephew, and the family of his clerk, Bob Cratchit.

Before leaving him, the spirit showed Scrooge the anthropomorphic spectres of Ignorance and Want, appearing as two starving children.

The Ghost of Christmas Present appeared to Scrooge as a large man with a red beard and fur-lined green robe. He carried a large torch, made to resemble a Cornucopia, and appeared accompanied by a great feast. He was given to outbursts of laughter. He could change his size to fit in any space.

The Ghost of Christmas Present would only exist for a single Christmas, and die on the stroke of midnight. The 1,800 previous ghosts of Christmas Present were his brothers.

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is one of three spirits that haunts the miser Ebenezer Scrooge, in order to prompt him to adopt a more caring attitude in life and avoid the horrid afterlife of his business partner, Jacob Marley. It is the most fearsome of the three ghosts. The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come appeared to Scrooge as a figure entirely muffled in a black hooded robe, except for a single gaunt hand with which it pointed. It never spoke or made any sort of vocal noise.

When the Ghost makes its appearance, the first thing it shows Scrooge is three wealthy gentlemen making light of a recent death, remarking that it'll be a cheap funeral, and they'd only go if lunch was provided. Next, Scrooge is shown the same dead person's belongings being auctioned away. He also sees a shrouded corpse he implores not to unmask and a poor famly rejoicing that someone they owed money to is dead. After pleading to the ghost to see kindness connected with death, Scrooge is shown Bob Cratchit and his family mourning the passing of Tiny Tim. Scrooge is then taken to a churchyard, where he is shown his own grave, and realises that the dead man the others spoke ill of was him. Implied, however, is that the future does not have to be - but Scrooge must change himself if he is to change his future.

The term "future" was not as widely used in Dickens' time, but contemporary re-tellings of the story often describe the spirit as the "Ghost of Christmas Future".

Albert Fezziwig was the jovial merchant with whom the young Scrooge apprenticed. Fezziwig was renowned for his wonderful Christmas parties. Scrooge visits his old employer with the Ghost of Christmas Past and is reminded of what a kind, generous man he was.

Fan was Scrooge's sister and mother of his nephew Fred. She has died before the story begins but lives again in the 'shadows' shown to Scrooge by the Ghost of Christmas Past. She is based on Dickens' own sister Fanny who died of consumption at age 38.

Belle was Scrooge's former fiancée whom he had forgotten until reminded by the Ghost of Christmas Past. The Ghost of Christmas Past showed Ebeneezer Scrooge how his success in business made him to become obsessive and develop a workaholic tendency. His money and work-obsessed personality traits eventually compel Scrooge's fiancée, Belle, to leave him, which further hardens his heart. The final memory Scrooge was forced to face by this ghost is that of Belle, the woman whose love he discarded in favor of financial gain. Intent on showing how Scrooge missed an opportunity of becoming a happily married man, Dickens presents a scene that clearly lies outside Scrooge's memory. The time is that of Christmas and Belle is married and has several children. As her husband returns home laden with Christmas presents, the children set upon him with glee and the domestic scene vibrates with good feeling. As he views the family that might have been his, Scrooge hears Belle's husband say that he looked into Scrooge's office earlier that day: "His partner lies upon the point of death, I hear; and there he sat alone. Quite alone in the world, I do believe." The pain of loss overcomes Scrooge and he attempts to extinguish the light of memory that the Ghost has shown over the past. He presses the extinguisher-cap down upon the head of the Ghost, darkens the scene, but fails to hide the light, which streamed from under it.

Mrs. Dilber was Scrooge's charwoman who sells his bed linen and curtains to Old Joe when Scrooge is shown shadows of the future by the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come.

Old Joe buys Scrooge's bed linen from Mrs. Dilber when Scrooge is shown the future by the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come.

Sabbatarianism, the Christian doctrine of strict observance of Sunday as a holy day reserved for worship, was attacked by Dickens throughout his life. In 1836 he published the pamphlet Sunday Under Three Heads in opposition to a Bill that would have extended already strict limitations to Sunday recreation. Dickens felt that these Bills were an attempt by the upper classes to control the lives of the lower classes disguised as religious piety. He argued that Sunday was the only day that the poor and working classes could enjoy simple pleasures that the upper and middle classes enjoyed all week. In A Christmas Carol Dickens again voices these concerns through this exchange between Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Present:

"Spirit," said Scrooge, after a moment's thought, "I wonder you, of all the beings in the many worlds about us, should desire to cramp these people's opportunities of innocent enjoyment."

"I!" cried the Spirit.

"You would deprive them of their means of dining every seventh day, often the only day on which they can be said to dine at all," said Scrooge. "Wouldn't you?"

"I!" cried the Spirit.

"You seek to close these places on the Seventh Day," said Scrooge. "And it comes to the same thing."

"I seek!" exclaimed the Spirit.

"Forgive me if I am wrong. It has been done in your name, or at least in that of your family," said Scrooge.

"There are some upon this earth of yours," returned the Spirit, "who lay claim to know us, and who do their deeds of passion, pride, ill-will, hatred, envy, bigotry, and selfishness in our name, who are as strange to us and all our kith and kin, as if they had never lived. Remember that, and charge their doings on themselves, not us."