How can one truly be happy? According to psychologist Karyn Hall, radical acceptance of oneself is the only way to live a happy, healthy life. In Charles Dickens’s novel, “A Christmas Carol”, the main character, Ebenezer Scrooge, declares that he will live in the past, present, and future. By the end of the story, Scrooge radically accepts himself, learns to love others, and copes with his anxiety. Scrooge’s declaration to live in the past, present, and future demonstrates his ability to overcome his suffering and become empathetic of the world. Although it is not possible for Scrooge to completely overcome his anxiety, he learns to radically accept it. Scrooge’s journey towards radical acceptance begins with a visit from Ghost of Christmas …show more content…
When Scrooge dies, no one comes for him or cares that he has died, “He lay, in the dark empty house, with not a man, a woman, or a child, to say that he was kind to me in this or that, and for the memory of one kind word I will be kind to him.” Scrooge only ever did things for his own benefit, and this is reflected by how little people care for him after he is gone. However, Scrooge is not necessarily doomed to die alone and miserable. When Scrooge declares that he will live in the past present and future, the Ghost of Christmas Future disintegrates, “Holding up his hands in a last prayer to have his fate aye reversed, he saw an alteration in the Phantom 's hood and dress. It shrunk, collapsed, and dwindled down into a bedpost.” As Scrooge radically accepts his past, the Ghost of Christmas Future no longer depicts the future Scrooge is destined to have. The Ghost has shown Scrooge a possible future: the future that will occur if Scrooge does not change his ways of greed. The future that the Ghost represents, one of misery and loneliness, no longer exists. For Scrooge to live the rest of his life in happiness, he has to radically accept his past, which he has repressed, and the present, which he has ignored. At the end of the book,Scrooge embraces the spirit of giving, and thus is able to alter his
Scrooge approached the door, but didn't have a speck of knowledge of what's going to happen next. When Scrooge is about to open the door, his old friend, Marley, and worker appeared on the door knocker in surprise. Scrooge walked in his dark house with a little fear, still think it is just, humbug. His mind resolute to playing tricks, he thought. Christmas eve, A night to fear, yet to thank. Life can change in a matter of minutes. In the story, “A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley. Scrooge faces a series of turning points that altered his life forever. In this Exploratory essay, Three turning point will be talked about. Each one with a different ghost, Past, Present, and future. Each with a different lesson Scrooge has to face.
Throughout the play, A Christmas Carol, we learn that change begins simply. As stated by Robin Sharma, “Change is hard at first, messy in the middle, and gorgeous at the end.” Luckily Scrooge changed directly like what Robin Sharma’s quote stated. When he had the help of the three ghosts it was hard in the beginning, messy in the middle, and truly gorgeous at the end. Unfortunately, Scrooge believed that he will suffer too many hardships to change and became a stingy, greedy, and cold-hearted old man. Since Scrooge thought it was hard to change he didn’t think it was worth the time and effort to do it. Luckily for Scrooge, Past, Present, and Future helped him out so he could change. In conclusion moving forward Scrooge will transform into a new man, he keeps Christmas in his heart all year round and will spread love and joy to
In the play, Mr. Scrooge is a greedy man who thinks Christmas is “Bah Humbug!” (Dickens 3). His family has always wanted him to join them for a Christmas feast, but Mr. Scrooge has never wanted anything to do with Christmas. Marley, Mr. Scrooge’s old business partner, didn’t want Mr. Scrooge to end up like him with chains of greed attached to him when he died, so he sent Mr. Scrooge three spirits: Christmas Past, Present, and Future. Those three spirits visited each day to haunt him about his Christmases. Eventually, he traveled with two of the three spirits, but when the spirit of Christmas Future arrived, Mr. Scrooge realized that he would die in a few years. Ebenezer begged for mercy and promised to celebrate Christmas with joy and festivity. (Dickens 7-32) After the haunting with the spirits, Mr. Scrooge woke up and asked a boy what day it was. When the little boy, Adam, replied that it was Christmas, he ordered the boy
In conclusion, Scrooge is a cold-hearted, tight fisted, greedy man, who despises Christmas and all things which engender happiness. After a visit from the Ghost of Christmas Past, he finds happiness again and the wrong decisions he made him the man he become in the present, The Ghost of Christmas Present made him learn or remember joy, happiness, coming together at Christmas with friends and family and his moral responsibility to society. Finally, the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come shows him where his current life choices will lead him and makes Scrooge have a epiphany and because of these experiences, he changes.
The play “A Christmas Carol – A ghost story of Christmas” by Charles Dickson, directed by James Black in Houston, TX was performed in a similar way in “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickson, directed by Michael Wilson in Washington, D.C. The both plays had similarities and differences throughout the play in which demonstrated different creativity from the different directors. The rating that was given by the reviewer of the play in Washington gave a 5 out of 5 star rating. For the play that I went to watch the rating I would give it would be a 5 star rating.
How and why does Ebenezer Scrooge change throughout “ A Christmas Carol?” Scrooge changes after seeing himself dead in the future. There are several quotes throughout the story to help prove this. This essay will show only three of these, one from the beginning, one from the middle, and one from the end. Scrooge thought he would never change, but it turned out that he was wrong.
In summation the Novella A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, Ebenezer Scrooge was an unhappy man who was given the chance to change. The ghost that prompted this the most was the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. The ghosts all showed us something different about Scrooge, but the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come was literally the final nail in the coffin of Scrooge’s humbuginess! In the end Scrooge was a changed man, who was more merry than could be. He never again question the spirit of
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966&2000) explains not only the life of the Grinch but the Whos as well. Through the theorists of Karen Horney and Erik Erikson, viewers can learn why the Grinch’s personality is formed. Not only had it formed, but through the years it transformed.
Charles Dickens wrote the novel A Christmas Carol because he believed that he can have an influence on the situation in England in the 19th century(Bio). He included the character’s greed and want that are a part of Scrooge during his visits with the Ghosts of Christmas.
On page 64, we see how Scrooge shows sympathy in the quote, “There was a boy singing a Christmas carol at my door last night. I should like to have given him something. That 's All.” After being shown a memory of himself as a boy, Scrooge regrets being harsh to the boy caroling and not giving him any money. Seeing his own sadness as a child made him realize it would have been nice to give the boy something to make him happy. He will probably do nicer things in the future because he now realizes that the boy would have been upset because of how Scrooge turned him away so harshly. He is changing his actions, and regretting bad actions in the past. He wants to fix what he did wrong, and he feels sympathy for the boy. People want to be shown compassion, so in the future if he helps people out and is kind, he will not be as isolated. Another quote to show how he becomes less detached from humanity is on pages 92-93, ‘”Spirit,” said Scrooge, “Tell me if Tiny Tim will live.” Scrooge feels sorry for Bob Cratchit because the spirit says if the future remains unaltered he will die. He feels upset that Tiny Tim will die, and sympathy for Bob because his son will probably die. He probably regrets not giving Bob more time with his son. He had made a comment earlier that if someone will die they better go and die to decrease the population, when the donation collector
It is hard to believe that there is anyone on the planet that hasn't heard of the story "A Christmas Carol". Although it isn't hard to believe that people do not realize that there are differences between movies and novels. In this case, that fits right into that subject. Here are some of the differences between the movie and the novel.
“hear me! I am not the man I was. I will not be the man I must have been but for this intercourse.” “I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach. Oh, tell me I may sponge away the writing on this stone!” (Dickens, Stave 4, Page 84) Finally, Scrooge changed for good.
The first significant alteration of Scrooge’s character occurred when he was a young man, as he became increasingly involved in the occupation of business, where wealth and assets are subjects of great examination and often possessiveness. Described and portrayed as an avaricious, bitter, and solitary man, Scrooge is introduced as critically immoral, occupied constantly by business. Christmas, as the faithful celebrate it, is referred to by Scrooge as a humbug, or fraud. On the topic of a merry Christmas, as his nephew related to it, Scrooge declared that an individual as poor as Fred has little or nothing to be merry about. In one of the most disturbing quotations from Scrooge, he casually remarks to two gentlemen requesting donations for the poor, “if [idle people] would rather die [than attend prisons and workhouses], they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population” (11). Scrooge accuses Bob Cratchit of being greedy for requesting Christmas as a day to retreat from work to be with his family, when in fact it is he who is greedy, essentially concerned with profits, not people. Orally, this point is perhaps best illustrated in the Past when the girl he once loved more than money, Belle, declared that, “a [golden] idol has displaced me” (37). Fully aware that Scrooge’s priorities are deranged, and he has been degraded to worship wealth rather than valuing the qualities of human love, Belle leaves him.
During the story, Scrooge is visited by the Ghosts from Christmas past, present, and future, who shows the ill-tempered Scrooge how to be feel compassion towards others human beings. A large quantity of the story revolves around money, and it plays a large role, to contrast how generosity is viewed in society. Scrooge is incredibly wealthy, as he lives a l...
In "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens, Ebenezer Scrooge undergoes a transformation as a result of his encounters with three ghosts and becomes a kind, happy, and generous man. His greedy, cruel, and grumpy demeanor is replaced seemingly overnight, but he doesn’t just wake up and decide to be nice. It takes three Spirits to change his outlook on life - The Ghosts of Christmases Past, Present, and Future. The Ghost of Christmas Past makes Scrooge begin to regret his selfishness, and the Ghost of Christmas Present begins to teach him about others. This second Ghost helps to make him realize that money doesn't buy happiness. The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, however, teaches the most profound lesson of all: unless he changes, no one will care if Scrooge dies. Because of the Ghosts, by Christmas morning Ebenezer Scrooge is a completely different person from the man who went to bed on Christmas Eve.