A Christmas Carol Dramaturgy Blog #4

 Adaptations of the Novella

    Dickens’ novella has been adapted countless times, and continues to be today, from written works, to theatre productions, to film, however the first notable telling of the story (other than the release of the original work) was Dickens’ readings following its release. Due to his love of performance and love of the story, his readings were said to be the favorite way of the people to consume the story, as he put on character voices, fully performed the story, and traveled around Europe and the United States to tell it. He charged low costs for tickets and let working class people attend for free as was in line with his devotion to helping the poor and getting the story of compassion and personal change into the minds and hearts of as many people as he could reach. Dickens' first public reading, given in Birmingham Town Hall to the Industrial and Literary Institute was on December 27th 1853. 

Staged Adaptations

    The first known staged version of the story other than by Dickens himself was by British actor Seymour Hicks throughout the late years of the nineteenth century. Hicks toured England with his own non-musical adaptation of the story, in which he played Scrooge. 

    “A Christmas Carol (1964 to present), an original musical stage adaptation written and directed by Tim Dietlein, celebrated its 50th anniversary of consecutive shows in 2015 at the Glendale Centre Theatre. GCT's A Christmas Carol is the longest running adaptation in theatre history. The live performance was filmed and released in 2015 starring Tom Killam as Scrooge and Bradley Bundlie as Tiny Tim.” (Glendale Center Theatre)

Film Adaptations

    When it comes to film Scrooge, or, Marley's Ghost (1901), a short British film that is the earliest surviving screen adaptation. This is a silent film and is available to watch online.

    In recent years as the story has become more widely acknowledged as one intended for children, film adaptations have reflected this. Several animated versions of the story have been released such as Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol (1962),A Christmas Carol (1971), Bugs Bunny's Christmas Carol (1979),Mickey’s Christmas Carol (1983) and Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol (2002). 

    Other notable adaptations for film include A Christmas Carol (1984) starring George C. Scott as Scrooge and David Warner as Bob Cratchit, Scrooged (1988), a modern retelling starring Bill Murray, and The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992), a musical film featuring The Muppets, with Michael Caine as Scrooge.

Conclusion

    Charles Dickens wanted to both create a holiday story that would create a festive and lively atmosphere as well as spur social change in the society he was living in. The story has gone on to shape the Christmas season as we know it and encourage readers and audiences alike to strive for an atmosphere of giving and generosity every holiday season. I think the following lines from the script represent what Dickens wanted audiences to get from his story for years to come.

MARLEY 

Business? Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business – charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence were all my business. And now . . . this time of year I suffer most. Hear me, Scrooge, my time grows short. 

FRED 

There are many things in this world from which I have derived good, but by which I have not profited. Christmas is one of them. I have always thought of Christmas time as a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time. The only time I know of, in the long calendar year, when men and women open their hearts freely and regard others as if they really were fellow-passengers through this life and not another race of creatures bound on their own journeys. And therefore, Uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe it has done me good and will do me good! And I say, God bless it!

    Oregon State University's production of A Christmas Carol will be available to stream via Dam the Distance podcast starting December 11th to bring you jolly entertainment and festive cheer this holiday season. Merry Christmas!

A Christmas Carol Dramaturgy Blog Post #3

    Christmas as we know it today was not always how the holiday was celebrated and it was not always so widely acknowledged by people in all walks of life. It wasn't until the Victorian era and the publishing of Dickens' A Christmas Carol that celebration, generosity, and festivity of all sorts were associated with the holiday. For my research on the show I dove into the evolution of Christmas throughout Dickens' life and how the novella as well as the era itself shaped the holiday as we know it.

    “While Charles Dickens did not invent the Victorian Christmas, his book A Christmas Carol is credited with helping to popularize and spread the traditions of the festival. Its themes of family, charity, goodwill, peace and happiness encapsulate the spirit of the Victorian Christmas, and are very much a part of the Christmas we celebrate today.” (Victorian Christmas)

 

Regency Era Christmas

    Late Georgian era England, or the Regency era was the time that Charles Dickens grew up. In this period Christmas was celebrated mostly in the country and with much less fanfare than we see today. Mostly Christmas was celebrated by the wealthy at their country estates by hanging greenery, depending on the part of England, you might use evergreen boughs, holly, ivy, hawthorn, rosemary, and/or Christmas Rose (hellebore). One might also use mistletoe, although it grows mostly in the western and southwestern parts of Britain. Christmas was also celebrated by attending church and having a large meal shared with as many friends and family as one could gather. The most important part of a Christmas celebration was the gathering of people, but there was not much about the holiday that set it apart from any other gathering throughout the year. Due to the holiday’s lack of popularity, the celebration did not even reach the city, as mentioned before, and those from London who did choose to celebrate often did so by visiting family in the country.

Victorian Era Christmas

    The popularity of Christmas grew dramatically under the rule of Queen Victoria, mostly due to the influence of her husband Prince Albert as he was from Germany where Christmas was a much more widely celebrated holiday. Common Christmas traditions that we know today began under their rule, and many of them were created by Dickens himself and popularized due to the success of the novel.

    “Christmas, I always look upon as a most dear happy time, also for Albert, who enjoyed it naturally still more in his happy home, which mine, certainly, as a child, was not. It is a pleasure to have this blessed festival associated with one’s happiest days. The very smell of the Christmas Trees of pleasant memories. To think, we have already 2 Children now, & one who already enjoys the sight, — it seems like a dream.”

            Entry from Queen Victoria’s journal on 24 December 1841

Victorian Christmas stockings: filled with sweet treats

    One way to celebrate Christmas that began thanks to Prince Albert’s German traditions was that of Christmas stockings. Victorian children looked forward to finding their stocking full of sweet treats and handmade presents, as was popular at the time. Upper class children would find treats like barley sugar twisted into festive shapes, one that remained popular being that of a cane, and one especially sought after treat was that of Everton Toffee, a treacle and butter mixture that is similar to our toffee today. Lower class children were more likely to receive gifts such as citrus fruit and a few nuts.

TO MAKE EVERTON TOFFEE

Get one pound of treacle, the same quantity of moist sugar and half a pound of butter. Put them in a saucepan large enough to allow of fast boiling over a clear fire. Put in the butter first and rub it well over the bottom of the saucepan, and add the treacle and the sugar, stirring together gently with a knife.

After it has boiled for about 10 minutes, ascertain if it is done, in the following way:- Have ready a basin of cold water, and drop a little of the mixture into it from the point of a knife. If it is sufficiently done, when you take it from the water it will be quite crisp.

Now prepare a large shallow tin pan, or dish, rubbed all over with butter, to prevent its adhering, and into this pour the toffee from the saucepan to get cold, when it can be easily removed. To keep it good, it should be excluded from the air.

From Cassell’s Household Guide (1869)

Victorian Christmas Dinner

“It was a regular Christmas dinner, with turkeys, Baron of Beef, Plum Pudding & Mince Pies.”

Entry from Queen Victoria’s journal 25th December 1843. 

    “Perhaps this was a regular Christmas dinner for Queen Victoria, but for her subjects the Christmas feast was a less elaborate affair. No matter what your economic circumstances a festive bird was central to Christmas dinner. During the early part of Victoria’s reign this would have meant a goose (like the one consumed by the Cratchits in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol).

    Local ‘Goose Clubs’ were established early on in the year so that poorer people could save a few pennies a week from their wages to buy their bird. If you didn’t have your own oven (which many households did not) then you could take your goose to the local baker to be cooked ready for Christmas morning.” (Sanders)

    “The turkey truly began to usurp the goose (or swan if you were royalty) from pride of place towards the end of the 19th century, particularly in middle class households. Royal Christmas feasts would include a dazzling array of dishes. These sumptuous spreads would feature a choice of soups like Mock Turtle (made from calves head – a very popular alternative to real turtle soup during the Victorian era); several fish dishes; a number of roasts including a baron of beef and boars head (a particular favourite of Prince Albert); game pies as well as plum pudding and mince pies.” (Sanders)

The Invention of the Christmas Card

    “In 1843 Henry Cole commissioned an artist to design a card for Christmas. The illustration showed a group of people around a dinner table and a Christmas message. At one shilling each, these were pricey for ordinary Victorians and so were not immediately accessible. However the sentiment caught on and many children - Queen Victoria's included – were encouraged to make their own Christmas cards. In this age of industrialization color printing technology quickly became more advanced, causing the price of card production to drop significantly. Together with the introduction of the halfpenny postage rate, the Christmas card industry took off.” (Victorian Christmas)

The Invention of the Christmas Cracker

    “The greater widespread industrialization of the country had helped to create a new middle class with a greater disposable income. Increased prosperity across Britain saw a rising market for mass-produced toys, decorations and novelty items such as the Christmas cracker. Inspired by bon bons (French sugared almonds wrapped in paper) he saw during a trip to Paris, sweetshop owner Tom Smith first invented the cracker in the 1840s.

     It wasn’t until the 1860s, when Smith perfected its explosive ‘bang’ that the Christmas cracker as we know it today became a popular seasonal staple. Along with a joke, gifts inside could range from small trinkets such as whistles and miniature dolls to more substantial items like jewellery.”(V&A) 

The Christmas Tree

    The Victorian age placed great importance on family, so it follows that Christmas was celebrated at home. For many, the new railway networks made this possible. Those who had left the countryside to seek work in cities could return home for Christmas and spend their precious days off with loved ones. Family life was epitomized by the popular Queen Victoria, her husband Albert and their nine children. One of the most important Christmas traditions, the decorated Christmas tree, was a custom introduced to Britain by Prince Albert.

    The idea of an indoor Christmas tree originated in Germany, where Albert was born. In 1848 the Illustrated London News published a drawing of the royal family celebrating around a tree bedecked with ornaments. The popularity of decorated Christmas trees grew quickly, and with it came a market for tree ornaments in bright colours and reflective materials that would shimmer and glitter in the candlelight.

Christmas Carols

    The publication of Davies Gilbert's 1823 work Some Ancient Christmas Carols, With the Tunes to Which They Were Formerly Sung in the West of England and William Sandys's 1833 collection Christmas Carols, Ancient and Modern led to a growth in the form's popularity in Britain.

Direct Effects of the Novel - Christmas traditions

    While all of the traditions shaped in the Victorian era were somewhat inspired by the publication of A Christmas Carol, some traditions that are still known today were directly shaped from the novel itself.

A more general effect is the atmosphere and spirit of the holiday that has stuck around all this time. While it was always seen as a time to gather with loved ones, it was not the essential time of giving and togetherness that it has become today until Dickins made it so.

    “A Christmas Carol tapped into a long-repressed hunger for what historian Ronald Hutton calls ‘a family-centered festival of generosity’ which Dickens himself defined in the aftermath of the success of a A Christmas Carol”(McGovern):

Christmas Day … bound together all our home enjoyments, affections and hopes…

Charles Dickens What Christmas Is As We Grow Older, 1851

Merry Christmas

    While the term merry had been associated with Christmas since the 1700s it did not pick up in popularity until the almost overlapping events of Henry Cole’s first Christmas card, which had the phrase Merry Christmas printed on the front, and the publishing of A Christmas Carol. Both of these events spurred the public to begin using the phrase as a greeting and it has stuck around ever since.

“Bah! Humbug!”

    A humbug is a person or object that behaves in a deceptive or dishonest way, often as a hoax or in jest. When referring to a person, a humbug means a fraud or impostor, implying an element of unjustified publicity and spectacle. This phrase was coined by Dickens for his character Ebenezer Scrooge and became a slang term in common vernacular, however today it is most often associated with the character and novella.

Sources for this post

A Georgian Christmas: A Regency Christmas. (n.d.). Retrieved November 07, 2020, from https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/A-Georgian-Christmas/

A Victorian Christmas. (n.d.). Retrieved November 07, 2020, from https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/A-Victorian-Christmas/

Christmas, Regency Style. (n.d.). Retrieved November 07, 2020, from http://www.reginascott.com/christmas.htm

First Victorian Christmas Tree. (n.d.). Retrieved November 07, 2020, from http://www.victoriana.com/christmas/tree-99.htm

Geoffrey Rowell | Published in History Today Volume 43 Issue 12 December 1993, & Fellow, G. (n.d.). Dickens and the Construction of Christmas. Retrieved November 07, 2020, from https://www.historytoday.com/archive/dickens-and-construction-christmas

Hanc, J. (2015, December 09). The History of the Christmas Card. Retrieved November 07, 2020, from https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/history-christmas-card-180957487/

Humbug. (2020, October 22). Retrieved November 07, 2020, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humbug

Kosann, M. (2019, November 26). Monica Rich Kosann. Retrieved November 07, 2020, from https://www.monicarichkosann.com/blogs/journal/a-royal-love-story

McGovern, K. (2020, October 04). Did Dickens invent Christmas? Retrieved November 07, 2020, from https://medium.com/@eslreading/is-charles-dickens-the-man-who-invented-christmas-9391d2bf9e8e

McNamara, R. (n.d.). How Most of Our Christmas Traditions Began In the 1800s. Retrieved November 07, 2020, from https://www.thoughtco.com/the-history-of-christmas-traditions-1773799

Rex), (., & Getty), (. (2012, December 27). Charles Dickens is the REAL Father of Christmas: How the author defined our festive spirit. Retrieved November 07, 2020, from https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/how-charles-dickens-shaped-christmas-1506955

Sanders, K. (2017, January 03). How did Queen Victoria and Prince Albert popularise Christmas? Retrieved November 06, 2020, from http://blog.english-heritage.org.uk/how-did-queen-victoria-and-prince-albert-popularise-christmas/

Some ancient Christmas carols : With the tunes to which they were formerly sung in the west of England : Gilbert, Davies, 1767-1839 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming. (1970, January 01). Retrieved November 07, 2020, from https://archive.org/details/SomeAncientChristmasCarols

Victorian Christmas - History of Christmas. (n.d.). Retrieved November 06, 2020, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/victorianchristmas/history.shtml

V&A · Victorian Christmas traditions. (n.d.). Retrieved November 06, 2020, from https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/victorian-christmas-traditions

An engraving depicting the maid bringing in the Christmas pudding. Illustrated by Davidson Knowles (1852-1901) a British landscape painter. Dated 19th century. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Bettmann. (n.d.). Illustration of children unpacking an enormous stocking full of toys... Retrieved November 07, 2020, from https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/christmas-greeting-card-illustration-of-children-unpacking-news-photo/517201934?adppopup=true

Christmas card showing a boy and girl pulling a cracker, about 1880, England. Museum no. E.2669:357-1953. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Christmas with Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, their children and Queen Victoria's mother, in 1848 (from Illustrated London News), 1848. Found in the collection of Royal Collection, London. Artist : Anonymous. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

circa 1850: Queen Victoria's Christmas tree on display on Christmas Eve at Windsor Castle. Original Publication: The Graphic - pub. 1887 By J Roberts (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Hanc, J. (2015, December 09). The History of the Christmas Card. Retrieved November 07, 2020, from https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/history-christmas-card-180957487/

Some ancient Christmas carols : With the tunes to which they were formerly sung in the west of England : Gilbert, Davies, 1767-1839 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming. (1970, January 01). Retrieved November 07, 2020, from https://archive.org/details/SomeAncientChristmasCarols

VICTORIA & ALBERT DECORATE THE CHRISTMAS TREE, ILLUSTRATION FROM GODEY'S LADY'S BOOK, DECEMBER 1860.

A Christmas Carol Dramaturgy Blog Post #2

     Part of my dramaturgy presentation was analyzing the content of Dickens' novella and the adapted script that is being produced for OSU's fall audio drama. The research I did on Dickens' past helped to see why he planned to write the novel, and further research explained just how Dickens used these characters and story that are so loved by readers and audiences of the past, present, and most likely future, to get across his wish for society to change and for the most desolate of us to be treated with warmth, kindness and Christmas cheer. The character I focused on the most in my research was one Ebenezer Scrooge, as well as Dickens' use of cold and warmth throughout the story to show how greed and anger effect how we see and are seen by the world, and that we can only experience warmth when we choose to live for others.

Ebenezer Scrooge

    Dickens set out to show readers how becoming complacent to the exploitation of the poor and the young for the sake of your own gain can lead to a society of cruel and incomplete people - in this piece this is represented through the character of Scrooge. Dickens’ childhood spent in the blacking warehouse desperately trying to save money for his father and exposure to men who exploit others for profit was inspiration for the character. It is also said that upon visiting a graveyard while on a walk in Edinburgh he saw a tombstone for a man named Ebenezer Lennox Scroggie, whose job was listed as a meal man—a corn merchant; Dickens misread the inscription as "mean man" and adapted the name for his character.

    Here are some lines from the script that show Scrooge's characterization and explicitly tell us how he views money as the all important part of life.

FRED
And what of that? His wealth is of no use to him. He won’t do any good with it. He doesn’t make himself comfortable with it. And he certainly hasn’t the satisfaction of helping others
P.37

BELLE                                      

Surely you fear the world too much. All your other hopes have merged into the hope of being beyond the chance of its sordid reproach. I have seen your nobler aspirations fall off one by one, until the master-passion, gain for the sake of gain, now engrosses you. Have I not? Your desire for this Idol has swallowed the man I used to know.

P.25

BELLE 

That which promised happiness when we were one in heart is fraught with such misery now that we have been split in two. How often I have thought of this, I will not say. I did not want to believe you had changed so, at first I tried not to see. But the shadow of greed had so consumed you that I could no longer recognize your face or your heart. Now that the truth is so apparent, I can release you. 

P.25

Cold/Warmth and Worldview

    Dickens uses the imagery of temperature and the weather to stand in place of the two sides of the story. Scrooge is seen as cold and dark when he is spoken of, and the world directly around him is described in the same way. This use of cold and wintery weather is a stand in for the money hungry selfishness that Dickens is describing as what is wrong with society throughout the play, it cuts him off from connecting to the world around him. The warmth is seen in the other characters who embody love, generosity, and Christmas spirit. We slowly see more warmth associated with Scrooge as the spirits lead him through the Christmases and end with him finally feeling both cold and warmth and finding joy in it.

Through the following lines we see the use of cold and warmth as it relates to Scrooge and how it changes throughout the story.

FRED

If I may now add to this story. He was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, my Uncle Scrooge! A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, covetous old sinner! Cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shriveled his cheek, stiffened his gait, made his eyes red, his thin lips blue, and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. He carried his own remarkably low temperature always about him; he iced his office in the dog-days, and didn’t thaw it one degree at Christmas. This fateful London night was cold, bone shatteringly cold. The fog and darkness thickened so.

P.8

BOB CRATCHIT

In this time of year of fog and piercing, searching, biting cold we all find reason for infectious joy. See here as the steeples call good people all, to church and chapel, flocking through the streets in their best clothes, and with their gayest faces. We can all smell the sticks of cinnamon, the candied fruits so caked and spotted with molten sugar, the moist and pulpy figs, and everything so good to eat in its Christmas dress. There is music in the air and much is right with the world that hearts are touched with spirit of goodness in mankind.

P.2

SCROOGE

Cold enough for you, Cratchit?

BOB CRATCHIT

Good morning Mr. Scrooge.

SCROOGE

Is it? You don’t look particularly “good” on this bleak and biting winter day.

BOB CRATCHIT

Why ‘tis the Christmas season. There is warmth to be had in this city. Why, there

isn’t a merrier time in all the year. I’ll think on that to warm myself.

P.3

GENTLEMAN

They are, still. I wish I could say they were not! As they scarcely furnish good cheer of mind and body to the multitude, a few of us each season endeavor to raise a fund to buy the poor some meat and drink and means of warmth.

P.7

FRED

That night began like so many cold, winter nights as Uncle Scrooge gathered his books and his ledgers, cold lifeless things and locked up his miserable counting house. The pitiful fire had died out hours before, not that Scrooge would take notice of the dismal nip in the air. He moved out into the town and down the foggy streets to his home, a grey miserable place that had once belonged to his deceased partner.

P.9

FRED

The fog and frost so hung about the black old gateway of the house, that it seemed as if the Genius of the Weather sat in mournful meditation on the threshold.

P.10

Here we see the first sign of warmth associated near Scrooge with the arrival of the first spirit, and it continues to grow as the remaining spirits visit Scrooge and show him each Christmas timeline.

Scrooge turns to his side to go back to sleep and suddenly the room floods with bright shimmering light, accompanied with a warm chorus of voices. The 1st SPIRIT appears beside Scrooge, and giggles in a childlike way.

P.15

SCROOGE

 It’s more than that, Spirit. Your fellow spirit showed me things I did not wish to see. I felt a coldness in my bones and in my heart. It is there I lack the courage to feel it again. 

P.28

2nd SPIRIT 

Now Scrooge, you have simply forgotten how to feel the cold, haven’t you? Or the warmth for that matter. Rest assured you cannot perceive one without the other. Come with me to share in the spirit of the season! 

P.28

2nd SPIRIT 

Drink Scrooge! This is no ordinary potable – but the spirit of all humankind. The warmth, generosity, and conviviality of this season

P.29

2nd SPIRIT produces the cup again and SCROOGE drinks deeply, smacking his lips and for once feeling rather warm inside.

P.31

PETER 

There we go! Let’s get this fire blazing. 

P.31

2nd SPIRIT 

There is much. Around the city and around the world, people feast together. Golden, crisp turkeys, red apples, pies and puddings dusted with sugar. Bellies are full and spirits are high. Glasses are raised and laughter is heard over and over in rooms and halls. Do you not feel the warmth in the air? It rises above the cold and the frost and enters the hearts of so many

The Spirit and Scrooge move through the space and see families sitting celebrating Christmas together, warm around fires. They stop and look out into the darkness.

P.36

2nd SPIRIT

 It is a place where miners live, who labor in the bowels of the earth, but they know me. See! See how the light warms them, see how cheerful the company is assembled round the fire. Dressed in their finest holiday attire, they celebrate together sharing what little they have as if they were the wealthiest family in the world.

P.36

SCROOGE

So cold. Where are we now?

The raspy breath of the SPIRIT answers him.

P.51

    While Scrooge is presented to the readers/audience originally as a cold unfeeling man, what Dickens hoped to get across was that people are capable of change once they recognize this coldness inside themselves. We see this foreshadowed when young Scrooge is visited by his sister Fanny and she mentions the change she has seen in their father.

SCROOGE 

My father, well – he had other priorities and . . . I had to get my schooling. Education is a priority! 

P.17

FANNY 

Father is so much kinder than he used to be that home is like Heaven! He has changed, Ebenezer, changed for the good. He had been ever so much more cheerful that I drew up the courage to ask him, once more, if you might come home and he said yes! He sent me in a coach to bring you!

P.18

    We start to see this recognition in Scrooge when the spirits use his own previous comments regarding the less fortunate against him. In this scene when Scrooge has just seen the Christmases of today the 2nd Spirit introduces him to Ignorance and Want.

2nd SPIRIT 

They belong to Humankind. And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers and mothers. 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 is erased. 

SCROOGE 

But have they no refuge or resource? Something must be done! 

2nd SPIRIT 

Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?

P.45

    Once Scrooge begins to recognize the coldness within him, he is shown how it will affect others if it continues when visited by the third spirit. This ghost shows Scrooge what Christmas yet to come will look like if he continues as he has, and he sees how those around him begin to take on the same selfish and money hungry attributes that he holds. Here we see people from his present life clinging to his possessions in hopes to sell them, and feeling no remorse for his death because of how he was in his life.

CHARWOMAN

 You’re too slow, Mrs. Dilber! Ha! Every person has a right to take care of themselves, he always did. Who’s the wiser. Who’s the worse for the loss of a few things like these? Not a dead man, that’s for certain.

MRS. DILBER

 I certainly shan’t hold my hand when I can get anything in it by reaching it out for the sake of such a man as he was. I promise you that, Joe. 

P.55

    Scrooge finally sees himself for who he truly is when visiting the Christmas yet to come. He is told of a cruel and unfeeling man whose death was mourned by no one, this man seems to Scrooge to deserve this fait. Upon realizing that he is indeed that man he is struck with not only the realization that he must change to save himself, but that he must change for others. He is faced with the outcome of a life spent exploiting those around him and not caring for the welfare of others. He sees how this will not only doom him to a fate like Marley’s, but will end in the unhappiness of all those around him, as it did in his life, but he had chosen not to see it.

SCROOGE

Men’s courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if preserved in, they must

lead. But if the courses be departed from, the ends will change. Isn’t that so, Spirit?

The future is not written. It cannot be. Say it thus with what you show me!

P.56

SCROOGE 

Good Spirit! Please assure me that I yet may change these shadows! I will honor Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future! The Spirits shall all stay with me and I shall not shut out the lessons that they teach. I beg you, tell me that I may sponge away the writing on this stone! 

P.56

Scrooge is Changed!

    When Scrooge has been faced with the realities of who he is becoming and how he is affecting the world in such a negative way, he realizes how much he needs to change. We finally see the idea of warmth associated with him, along with the cold, and we see him acknowledge the potential within himself to live the way he saw Mr. Fezziwig do so, the first place in his past where he encountered the generosity, kindness, and love that are associated with this warmth.

MRS. DILBER

 He dressed himself in “all his best” and, giddy as a school boy, he bounded down his staircase to greet the world, crisp and fresh with snow and warmed by friendly faces.

P.59

SCROOGE

 It isn’t that. It isn’t that, Spirit. He has the power to render us happy or unhappy; to make our service light or burdensome; a pleasure or a toil. His power lies in words and looks, in things so slight and insignificant that they are impossible to count. The happiness he gives is quite as great as if it had cost a fortune –

P.24

(In reference to Mr. Fezziwig)

“His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him.”

    We see Scrooge’s obsession with wealth and gain take away his family, his chance at love with Belle, friendships, enjoyment of everyday pleasures such as food, music, home, and his possessions, as well as warmth in general, all things that Dickens so strongly associated with Christmas. Scrooge changes when he learns that money or “gain for the sake of gain” is not life’s sole purpose and that he must prioritize the qualities seen in characters such as the Fezziwigs, Belle, his nephew Fred, and The Cratchits, all of which center around caring for others.

    Dickens wanted to make his point about the state of his world through a Christmas story because he didn’t want to portray positive social change as an all encompassing ordeal. He valued this himself, but also enjoyed reading, deserts, traveling, and spending the holidays with his family. He wanted to present change in a way that was digestible for the public, and would show that you can take part in all of these things at once, but would give them a sense of urgency to help others nonetheless. The story of Scrooge’s change of heart that has remained popular during the Christmas season for decades not only promoted social change, but also shaped our idea of the Christmas season.