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A Christmas Carol - Themes - Coggle Diagram
A Christmas Carol - Themes
Religion and the Supernatural
Ghosts/Spirits
Poverty and Social Injustice
Family
Isolation
Materialism and Wealth
Scrooge
Scrooge was so afraid of ending up with nothing that he wrapped himself in a cloak and hid himself away, "warning human compassion to keep its distance"
But in the book, Dickens doesn't present Scrooge as a villain, he actually finds a way to sympathise with him
Dickens had no love for people like Scrooge - it was a debt collector who put his father in prison, after all
Dickens shows Scrooge the compassion that Scrooge couldn't show others
Dickens argues that Scrooge's upbringing taught him how to be alone - in fact it taught him that he did live alone
This combined with Scrooge's understandable fear of poverty - he didn't want to become poor and outcast by society - and created a man who couldn't share.
It was if the world had rejected Scrooge when he was a child, and so Scrooge rejected the world and gave it nothing in return when he became an adult
Through Scrooge Dickens encourages us to be greedy for happiness, family, compassion, care - for humanity. As Marley said: "Mankind" should have been his "business"
Ghost of Christmas Past
Scrooge was deserted by his father - we never learn what happens to his mother - and he is left alone during Christmases as a child
His friends deserted him, his family deserted him - are we really surprised that he turned his back on the world when he grew older?
No-one shared their love with Scrooge when he was younger and so he won't share what he owns now he's older. It seems that all Scrooge learnt from school was that he had to look after himself
Scrooge enjoyed his time working with Fezziwig, and in the party scene Scrooge realises that the "happiness Fezziwig gave was quite as great as if it had cost a fortune"
This is Scrooge recognising that money and happiness are not necessarily linked
Scrooge realises that it doesn't take much to make people happy, and so maybe he should relax his grip a little
He responds to Fezziwig's party by wishing he could speak to Bob Cratchit - his own employee
At this point, Scrooge realises, that his greed is not getting him what he wants
The last scene with this ghost is with Belle where we see just how obsessed by money he has become
In the scene Scrooge observes that there is "nothing the world is so hard on as poverty."
Scrooge is terrified of being poor - which is understandable given how horrendous the conditions in workhouses were
But he responds to this by becoming obsessed by money
Belle goes on to say that "the master passion, Gain, engrosses you."
Here, she is saying that gain - or greed - has taken him over
His "nobler aspirations" - the good things he once believed in - are gone, and now he simply wants money
This is so important because the Scrooge we knew at the beginning didn't care for anything but money, though here, Belle is saying that once, before all this, she fell in love with someone who loved something more
When she leaves him, Belle says that Scrooge "fears" the world too much
Within this we understand Scrooge's problem: he's so afraid of ending up with nothing that he continues to grasp and wrench and clutch, even though he has more wealth than tens of thousands of working people
Ghost of Christmas Present
Before Marley visited, Scrooge sat alone in a tavern and ate dinner. Then he went home alone for gruel before bed. The Ghost of Christmas Present shows Scrooge that no matter how hard life can be, it is better when it's shared. And you don't need to be rich to laugh or smile or support your friends and family.
Together they visit the Cratchits, who enjoy Christmas despite their poverty because they have each other
They have love and companionship and in this book Dickens hopes to show us that real wealth comes from family and friendship, not bank balances
Tim is described as being "good as gold - and better" in an image which clearly puts the happiness of a child above any amount of gold
Dickens is also careful to describe the Cratchit's food - it is simple but brings real joy
Then they visit Fred who insists on toasting his uncle
Here, Fred shows that no matter how greedy and selfish Scrooge is, civility, smiles and respect cost nothing and Fred will insist on sharing them with his uncle
Because Fred knows that he can be happy despite being "poor enough."
After these two tastes of what can be enjoyed if Scrooge stopped fretting about money all the time, the Ghost of Christmas Present ends with a warning: the two children, Ignorance and Want, who come with a very clear statement from Dickens
The ghost says to "beware" the children - suggesting that they are a threat - and most of all to "beware the boy" (who is Ignorance) for "on his face I see written that which is Doom."
The language here is interesting, as the order of the words sounds almost like a Biblical prophecy
Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come
Scrooge had it all - all the wealth he could have ever dreamt of... And when he died: no-one cared. No-one cared that he'd died. No-one missed him, no-one thought of him fondly, no-one remembered his potential or his desires, or shed a tear for what he could have been. In fact, it was as if he had never even lived.
Though that's not entirely true: one point to be shown someone who was emotionally affected by his death and the spirit takes him to see a couple who are celebrating it - though Dickens is careful to show that they feel bad celebrating a death (they're nice people after all) but they can't help but be happy.
And what's interesting in this stave is that two people die: Scrooge - who was the richest character in the book - and Tiny Tim - the poorest. In this way, Dickens reminds us that no matter much you have, no matter how rich you are, you are just a "passenger on a journey to the grave."
In the end, Scrooge is faced by his own "neglected grave" and is forced to ask himself whether everything he'd possessed had any real value at all.
Morality
Redemption and Change
In the Beginning
During the opening of the book Scrooge is presented as a pretty horrible guy - he's a "a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, covetous old sinner" who thinks poor people should either be sent to jail or just hurry up and die! He refuses invites for dinner, is horrible to his clerk and to a local carol singer, and spends his life alone.
However, even at this early stage Dickens suggests that Scrooge is capable of something more. He's most famously compared to an "oyster" - which is something with a hard shell, but which produces pearls out of sand in one of the most wonderful metamorphoses in nature.
When he is visited by the ghost of Jacob Marley, Scrooge is told that unless he changes he will be punished after death. The punishment is interesting though as it really is just an extension of what he was while he was alive. Marley, like Scrooge, was obsessed with money and when he dies this passion becomes a chain made of padlocks and ledgers and safes - all the things he used for his work - that weighs him down.
In certain respects, this fate suggests that unless Scrooge changes he will remain the same way forever, even after death; this sounds deceptively obvious when you put it like that but is actually a really wise observation. We all have things that we'd like to change about ourselves, and all Marley observes is that unless Scrooge changes he will remain that way.
As I say it seems obvious really: you either change or you will remain the same; but it's amazing how many people in the world don't seem to understand this simple truth.
Regret