A Christmas Carol

The quintessential Victorian author, Charles Dickens, was much praised for his incredible contribution to classic English literature, and even today his work is unforgettable. Dickens’ life was one of rags to riches, and because of his fathers bad debt he was left out of school for much of his younger years. After he wrote his first two novels, he started his life as a journalist; and after the publication of his third novel, there was no turning back for Dickens. Along the road he also became a theatre enthusiast, wrote plays and performed for Queen Victoria in 1851. He could do it all. Dickens came to America in 1842, and after his return to England, Dickens began work on the first of his profound tales, A Christmas Carol, which was written in 1843.

Although Charles Dickens could have written A Christmas Carol for many reasons, I believe that the real reason was because of his childhood experiences and the sympathy he had for the poor. When Dickens was 12, his father was imprisoned for debt; and during this time, the young boy had to pawn his books, leave school, and take a factory job. For a boy at this age that had friends, who in no way had to go through what he did, this experience was very humiliating for him. While his family was very poor, he started to get a good look at all the impoverished families as well, leaving him to understand that he his family wasn’t the only one. Even though this time period was short lived, it affected Dickens in such a way that his novel’s, such as A Christmas Carol, were written because of what he went through. Another reason he wrote this novel was because years later, when Dickens had grown up more, he visited mines where he saw the effects of the Industrial Revolution on children. After experiencing these terrible sights, he started a pamphlet, "An Appeal to the People of England, on behalf of the Poor Man's Child." This pamphlet would later become the basis for the story of A Christmas Carol. Some aspects of his novel are based upon certain events or things that happened in his younger years, such as the Cratchit’s house being modeled on the small four room house at 16 Bayham Street in Camden Town, where Dickens lived when he was ten years old. Also, the six Cratchit children emulated the Dickens children. The character Tiny Tim was based upon Dickens’s youngest, sick brother who was known as “Tiny Fred.” Although connections to other things outside of his own life could have been put into this book, I do believe that this book was made to explicate the struggles and his own experiences that he went through as a young boy.

Throughout this novel, there is an underlying meaning that Dickens is trying to achieve and make people think about. The message he was trying to get across to people was that Christmas wasn't about greed and selfishness, but it was a spiritual time, a time for humility and charity for those who were less fortunate. He was trying to make people understand that you don’t need financial gain to feel good about yourself. Scrooge, the novel’s main character, embodies every value that puts down the happy joyful Christmas spirit, with his greed, selfishness, and a lack of consideration for anyone around him. Dickens used Christian principles to motivate his writing, such as the themes of generosity, kindness, and love for your community, and much of Victorian England in general. This book offers more of a modern view of Christmas, less focused on religious ceremony, but more centered around the joyous traditions of Christmas, like the sharing of gifts, festive celebrations, and displays of success.

Without giving away this amazing novel, A Christmas Carol, is about a man names Ebenezer Scrooge, who absolutely hates Christmas, and whenever he hears anything about Christmas he mumbles his same ongoing expression, “Bah! Humbug!” Scrooge’s nephew works for him; and although he asks his uncle many times to be get off work so he can be with his family, Scrooge wont let his nephew spend Christmas at home, but instead insists he remain at work. One day his old business partner, Jacob Marley comes to warn him that if he continues to live his life in such an unchristian way, he will spend the rest of his life trying to make up for it. Scrooge is a very cold and mean man and eventually gets visited by spirits who confront him about his ruthless behavior. The first ghost, The Ghost of Christmas Past, represents memory, the Ghost of Christmas Present symbolizes charity, empathy, and the Christmas spirit, and finally the last ghost, Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, epitomizes the fear of death. Dickens paints this picture of the Cratchit family, who are the exact representation of the poor. He shows us that even though this family has close to nothing, they express extreme gratitude for everything they do have. Taking this emotion even further, he shows us the figure of the genuine crippled Cratchit son, Tiny Tim. Tiny Tim helps to guide Scrooge in his sudden acceptance for the Christmas ideal, as Scrooge starts to express immense pity for Tiny Tim. On Scrooge’s path to “recovery,” he adopts Tiny Tim, serving as a sort of second father figure to this little boy. This young boy helped this alone and angry man, understand that there is more to life than just worrying about being rich.

Since the book is sent in Victorian times, the style of his writing was more Victorian. Because poetry was very popular in these times, Dickens wrote in a very poetic way, including metaphors, similes, personification, imagery, and symbolism. Satire was also used at times. This novel is mainly narrated in the third person, usually being told as “he said” or “she said” and “Scrooge watched them.” At the beginning of the novel though, there is a hint of first person; but it begins to go away when the characters start interacting with each other. The novel is full of metaphors and similes, in almost every paragraph, and a ton of repeated phrases and words are used throughout the novel. Dickens’ style of writing intrigues the reader, making you want to keep reading and reading. A Christmas Carol is definitely a must read, enabling you to look at things in your life in a different way as well.