A Christmas Carol

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beings to change.

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So what makes Ebenezer Scrooge, the hero—of sorts—of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol…

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…suddenly go from awful, curmudgeonly grump…

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…to upbeat, generous, heck-of-a-great-guy? The short answer, of course, is that he is

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visited by three spirits who don’t feel he has enough…spirit.

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But what changes inside Ebenezer to… turn his frown upside-down?

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Does his transformation take place because of fear?

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After all, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come shows him his own grave…

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…you’d think that would be enough to scare the crankiness out of Oscar the Grouch.

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Scrooge isn’t ready to join Marley and company in the hereafter…

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…and he seems pretty upset about his corpse being robbed.

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So…does he just turn things around because he feels that’s the way to change history’s

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course…

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…and avoid an untimely—and horribly depressing—demise? Or… maybe he genuinely regrets hurting the

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people he once cared about.

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When visited by the Ghost of Christmas Present...Scrooge witnesses firsthand the plight of the Cratchits.

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And how his penny pinching habits affected the life of Tiny Tim.

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It could be that it just took this drastic measure to wake Scrooge up…

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…to shake him by the shoulders and make him turn an eye to the people he was injuring

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with his actions. Or maybe it isn’t about fear or regret at

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all…but love.

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Yeah, yeah, we know… bah humbug.

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But maybe we have a Grinch situation going on here. Maybe Scrooge’s heart grew three

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sizes.

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He used to be that kind, loving lad back in the day… perhaps he simply…got back in

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touch with his old, happy self?

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Since this is a Christmas story, it sure would be nice if love had a little something to

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do with it. So, what drove Scrooge to…be less Scrooge-like?

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Fear?

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Regret?

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Or love? Shmoop amongst yourselves.