“Grief is like the ocean; it comes on waves ebbing and flowing. Sometimes the water is calm, and sometimes it is overwhelming. All we can do is learn to swim” says Vicki Harrison, the author of Dressed to Thrill. Learning to swim is something that almost anyone can accomplish. Much like swimming in the ocean, no matter how overwhelming it can become, everyone can learn to cope with their grief. For the main character in A Christmas Carol, however, he strives to take on his grief without learning to swim. Throughout the story, three ghosts visit Ebenezer Scrooge and help him realize that he needs to change how he acts toward other people. The Ghost of Christmas Past shows the readers that Scrooge has lost three women whether it was by death …show more content…
The Ghost of Christmas Past describes Fan as a “delicate creature, whom a breath might have withered…but she had a large heart” (Dickens n.pag). The spirit is explaining to Scrooge that Fan was pure and delicate. She never fails to lift Scrooge’s spirits and “had a heart of gold” (Holden). Fan is always kind to everyone and makes Scrooge feel loved when he does not have a mother or a father to love him. One day Fan comes up to Scrooge and starts kissing and addressing him as “dear brother” (Dickens, n.pag.). This is when she is telling him that he will finally be able to come home for Christmas. Fan becomes ecstatic that her brother will have the opportunity to come home. This particular scene of Fan makes Scrooge happy both as a child and while he is reliving it with the ghost. Without Fan in his life, he no longer has anyone to help him be content. After her death, Scrooge turns his grief and anger towards anything that reminds him of her. This includes Fan’s son, Fred. In Stave I, Fred wishes Scrooge a Merry Christmas and Scrooge tells him that he has no reason to be merry because “he’s poor enough” (Dickens n.pag.). Scrooge constantly treats Fred poorly and fails to let go of his sister’s passing, even when Fred is nice to him. Fan’s passing causes Scrooge to be cruel to Fred because he no longer has her lighting up his
Scrooge receives visits from three ghosts, who show him images of the past, present, and future, and Scrooge experiences these visits in a dream-like way. The Ghost of Christmas Past takes Scrooge travel to his childhood. One of his memories is placed on the way to school. He remembers passing a group of children described in the following form: ‘All these boys were in great spirits, and shouted to each other, until the broad fields
things to feel happy about in life. If we want to live a happy life,
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.
Ebenezer Scrooge is the major character in the story, A Christmas Carol written by Charles Dickens. A Christmas Carol is about how a “cold-hearted, tight fisted, selfish” money grabbing man is offered an opportunity of a life time, to change his behaviour, attitude... to have a second chance in life.
Robin Sharma, a famous writer, once said, “Change is hard at first, messy in the middle and gorgeous at the end.” Many people believe that change is a very big decision. It takes time and can get a little messy on the way. The truth, however, is a small decision, Like donating money for the poor in need. Unfortunately, in the play, A Christmas Carol, the main character, Scrooge, is a selfish miser. Fortunately, by the end of the play, Scrooge realizes that he was selfish and no good and changed his ways. For example, he donated to the poor.
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.
Memory serves as an important tool for the ghosts to reach out to Mr. Scrooge’s sympathetic feelings, thus contributing to the change of personality that Mr. Scrooge undergoes towards the end of the novel.
Scrooge was always mean to everyone. They did not like him. He was visited by three ghosts that taught him a lesson. He started being nice. “Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all. . . He was a second father. . . [to Tiny Tim] His own heart laughed.” (Dickens 64). Doing nice things for people can make people happier too. The Grinch, as well as Scrooge, hates Christmas and he expresses it. The Whos hate him for it. He takes the presents of all the Whos, he is about to throw it off the mountain. The Grinch hears a sound. It is them. They are singing, despite the fact their Christmas is ruined. He returned all their gifts and celebrates Christmas with them. He is finally loved by the Whos. Doing nice things for people can make a person happy as well. Although, Scrooge was helped by spirits, The Grinch was held by people. Recent books can be seen using traditional story’s themes.
The Ghost takes him to the Cratchit's house first. At the house, Scrooge sees a lot. He sees that Tiny Tim is hurt and he wants to know why. The Ghost tells him that Tiny Tim has a disease and that he doesn't have enough to eat so it just gets worst and worst. Scrooge is curious about why Tiny Tim doesn't eat that much. The Ghost of Christmas Present tells Scrooge that because you only give Bob Cratchit 15 shillings he can only provide so much for his family. Scrooge started feeling so guilty because he knows he has the power to give more money to the Cratchits. Mr. Cratchit gives a toast about Scrooge and Mrs. Cratchit got upset because Scrooge has done nothing to help this family. Bob Cratchit defends Scrooge and says that he still believes in Scrooge. Scrooge feels guilty because after all that could and has happened Bob Cratchit still believes in him. The Ghost then takes Scrooge to see his nephew Fred. Everyone in the room with him is saying mean and cruel things about Scrooge and Fred defends him. He stands up for him and shows that he still believes in him. Scrooge feels really guilty because both of these people still believe in him and all he does is treat them
Do you ever feel like people change? In A Christmas Carol, written by Charles Dickens, Scrooge is a grouchy, unsocial, miserly, uncharitable old man. He is extremely unsympathetic and bah humbugs everything to do with Christmas. On Christmas Eve, Scrooge is magically visited by 3 ghosts. The ghost of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. Scrooge has a rude awakening of haunting memories he holds onto. These memories make him feeling as if he needs a second chance and a fresh start at life. What better day than Christmas to tidy the dreaded past. The mysterious ghosts bring him to the past, present and future in one night. Scrooge had remarkable experiences and felt emotions he had never thought were possible to feel again. Scrooge longed for
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
It’s December of 1801 and the whole town is decorating, dancing, singing, and laughing as they get ready for a near holiday: Christmas. All but one pessimistic, obdurate cripple of a man. His name is Ebenezer Scrooge, an undermined old male swathed in dark clothing. He is typically found strolling the streets on Victorian London with poor posture, eyes locked on the cracked sidewalk beneath the soles of his shoes. Slumping along, carolers cease to sing near him and nobody speaks when in his presence. Scrooge is a prejudging business man who hurries to be left alone and disregards cheer. He is obdurate and blind to the consequences of his actions. Sudden wealth brings a snobbiness when his business partner dies, and as a result, his one true love divorces him, sending him into a state of hatred and regret. With this evidence to back it up, Scrooge can be perceived as a negative, crippling man with little tolerance to change. However, things are bound to change with the visitation of the wraiths: the Spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come, an inevitable change that be...
In this Stave, Dickens shows the importance of kindness by showing Scrooge’s absence of it and the effects of his harmful indifference. Scrooge is taken into his own past and shown memories of when he was young. The Ghost shows him scenes of when he was small and alone on Christmas. This memory makes him regret his harshness towards a young caroler that had come to his door the previous day. He sees that he lacked kindness and wishes he gave something to the caroler. His indifference towards the caroler insured that Scrooge would remain alone. The Ghost also reminds Scrooge of his beloved sister, Fannie who had died and left only her son. “’Always a delicate creature, whom a breath might have withered,’ said the Ghost. ‘But she had a large heart!’ ‘So she had,’ cried Scrooge. ‘You’re right. I will not gainsay it, Spirit. God forbid!’ ‘She died a woman,’ said the Ghost, ‘and had, as I think, children.’ ‘One child,’ Scrooge returned. ‘True,’ said the Ghost. ‘Your nephew!’ Scrooge seemed uneasy in his mind; and answered briefly, ‘Yes.’” (pg. 33-34). Scrooge’s only connection to his kind and gentle sister is his nephew, who also shares Fannie’s sweet nature. Scrooge is then filled with regret because of his callous treatment and lack of relationship with his nephew, who only wanted to be kind and spread the joy of the season. Scrooge’s sheer indifference and lack of kindness towards his nephew prevented
The true description of Scrooge first appears about quarter way through the book, before then there are only a few minor references to his character. The description begins metaphorically as it features the words “ A tight-fisted hand at the grindstone”. Its metaphorical because it is trying to portray that Scrooge is literally as tight as the hand to the grindstone. Then soon after this seven adjectives follow, “ Squeezing, Wrenching, Grasping, Scraping, Clutching, Covetous, Old sinner”. They are used effectively as each one has an individual meaning describing seven trates of Scrooges character, which begins to give the reader a visual picture of how the character may conduct himself. So far all qualities of Scrooge have been negative and so it continues. Then the writer brings in the object “flint” and states all the negative quality’s of flint then compares them to Scrooge.