A Christmas Carol
How did Scrooge go from being naughty to nice so quickly, and why? (Hint: contrary to popular belief, it has nothing to do with the ghost of Santa Claus...thank goodness.) Just one question to think about in Dickens's classic A Christmas Carol.
Author | Dickens - Charles Dickens |
British Literature | 19th-Century British Literature |
Language | English Language |
Literature | 19th-Century Literature British Literature |
Themes | Choices Compassion and Forgiveness Family Guilt and Blame Isolation Memory and the Past Philosophical Viewpoints The Home Time Transformation |
Transcript
beings to change.
00:32So what makes Ebenezer Scrooge, the hero—of sorts—of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol…
00:37…suddenly go from awful, curmudgeonly grump…
00:40…to upbeat, generous, heck-of-a-great-guy? The short answer, of course, is that he is
00:49visited by three spirits who don’t feel he has enough…spirit.
00:54But what changes inside Ebenezer to… turn his frown upside-down?
00:59Does his transformation take place because of fear?
01:02After all, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come shows him his own grave…
01:07…you’d think that would be enough to scare the crankiness out of Oscar the Grouch.
01:09Scrooge isn’t ready to join Marley and company in the hereafter…
01:11…and he seems pretty upset about his corpse being robbed.
01:15So…does he just turn things around because he feels that’s the way to change history’s
01:22course…
01:23…and avoid an untimely—and horribly depressing—demise? Or… maybe he genuinely regrets hurting the
01:30people he once cared about.
01:34When visited by the Ghost of Christmas Present...Scrooge witnesses firsthand the plight of the Cratchits.
01:41And how his penny pinching habits affected the life of Tiny Tim.
01:45It could be that it just took this drastic measure to wake Scrooge up…
01:48…to shake him by the shoulders and make him turn an eye to the people he was injuring
01:52with his actions. Or maybe it isn’t about fear or regret at
01:59all…but love.
02:00Yeah, yeah, we know… bah humbug.
02:03But maybe we have a Grinch situation going on here. Maybe Scrooge’s heart grew three
02:08sizes.
02:09He used to be that kind, loving lad back in the day… perhaps he simply…got back in
02:14touch with his old, happy self?
02:16Since this is a Christmas story, it sure would be nice if love had a little something to
02:20do with it. So, what drove Scrooge to…be less Scrooge-like?
02:25Fear?
02:26Regret?
02:28Or love? Shmoop amongst yourselves.