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.
So what makes Ebenezer Scrooge, the hero—of sorts—of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol…
…suddenly go from awful, curmudgeonly grump…
…to upbeat, generous, heck-of-a-great-guy? The short answer, of course, is that he is
visited by three spirits who don’t feel he has enough…spirit.
But what changes inside Ebenezer to… turn his frown upside-down?
Does his transformation take place because of fear?
After all, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come shows him his own grave…
…you’d think that would be enough to scare the crankiness out of Oscar the Grouch.
Scrooge isn’t ready to join Marley and company in the hereafter…
…and he seems pretty upset about his corpse being robbed.
So…does he just turn things around because he feels that’s the way to change history’s
course…
…and avoid an untimely—and horribly depressing—demise? Or… maybe he genuinely regrets hurting the
people he once cared about.
When visited by the Ghost of Christmas Present...Scrooge witnesses firsthand the plight of the Cratchits.
And how his penny pinching habits affected the life of Tiny Tim.
It could be that it just took this drastic measure to wake Scrooge up…
…to shake him by the shoulders and make him turn an eye to the people he was injuring
with his actions. Or maybe it isn’t about fear or regret at
all…but love.
Yeah, yeah, we know… bah humbug.
But maybe we have a Grinch situation going on here. Maybe Scrooge’s heart grew three
sizes.
He used to be that kind, loving lad back in the day… perhaps he simply…got back in
touch with his old, happy self?
Since this is a Christmas story, it sure would be nice if love had a little something to
do with it. So, what drove Scrooge to…be less Scrooge-like?
Fear?
Regret?
Or love? Shmoop amongst yourselves.