A Christmas Carol

A cold and lonely Christmas Eve

Set on a cold Christmas Eve in London, the story begins as the curmudgeonly Ebenezer Scrooge sits in his counting-house (an accounting firm), while his much-abused clerk, Bob Cratchit, works at copying letters “in a dismal little cell beyond, a sort of tank.” The old miser’s antipathy toward the holiday and all its festive cheer is revealed when his generous young nephew, Fred, arrives to wish him a merry Christmas. Scrooge’s response—other than his trademark expressions of “Bah!” and “Humbug!”—is to launch into a tirade against the “fools” of this world and reject his nephew’s invitation to his home for dinner on Christmas Day.

Before retiring for the evening, Scrooge refuses a request by two gentlemen to donate to a charity for the “many thousands” of poor. Dismissively, he tells them that he supports such establishments for the poor as prisons and workhouses, “and those who are badly off must go there.” When the men plead that many “would rather die” than go to such places, Scrooge says, “If they would rather die…they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”

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Next, Scrooge chases away a hungry caroler and then grumbles when his clerk asks to take off work on Christmas. Begrudgingly, he allows Cratchit the holiday but on the condition that he report to work early the day after Christmas.

That night, Scrooge spends the holiday alone—but not for long. Through a series of spectral visions, the miserable (and deeply lonely) old man is allowed to review his life and to change its outcome.

Marley’s ghost

The first ghost to appear to Scrooge is that of his business partner, Jacob Marley, who has been dead for seven years. Marley’s restless spirit wears the chains of “cash-boxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, deeds, and heavy purses wrought in steel”—all trappings of the accounting trade. Initially, Scrooge shrugs off the apparition as perhaps a trick that indigestion has played upon his senses. But he engages in a conversation with the spirit, who explains to Scrooge that the chains he carries are of his own making—they are the weight of his toil and greed when he was alive. He then warns Scrooge to make amends before suffering the same fate and tells him that he will be visited by three more spirits throughout the night.

The Ghost of Christmas Past

Scrooge is next visited by the Ghost of Christmas Past, who reveals vignettes of Scrooge’s early life as a schoolboy, an apprentice, and a young man in love. Although Scrooge reacts with delight while watching his younger self, he becomes impatient and angry when the spirit replays for him the moment when his fiancée, Belle, ended their engagement. She had told the younger Scrooge that she realized he loved money more than he loved her.

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The Ghost of Christmas Present

After the Ghost of Christmas Past leaves, the Ghost of Christmas Present appears and reveals to Scrooge that joy has little to do with wealth. Together they visit the homes of Bob Cratchit and of his nephew Fred. Unlike the lonely Scrooge, Fred has married for love. At the Cratchits’ home, in particular, Scrooge witnesses the family’s happiness and devotion to each other. However, Tiny Tim, one of the Cratchit children, is seriously ill and relies on the use of a crutch. Although Tiny Tim appears to be a cheerful and optimistic child (during the scene, he utters the immortal line, “God bless us every one!”), Scrooge is struck by the boy’s plight.

“Spirit,” said Scrooge, with an interest he had never felt before, “tell me if Tiny Tim will live.”

“I see a vacant seat,” replied the Ghost, “in the poor chimney-corner, and a crutch without an owner, carefully preserved. If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, the child will die.”

“No, no,” said Scrooge. “Oh, no, kind Spirit! say he will be spared.”

But the spirit warns the old miser that unless social conditions change for the better, Tiny Tim will indeed die. Before leaving, the ghost shows Scrooge two emaciated and destitute children, named Ignorance and Want. Overcome with pity, Scrooge asks if there are resources or refuges where the children can be taken for help. The ghost mocks the miserly old man by repeating his own dismissive comments to the two gentlemen who had been seeking donations earlier in the evening.

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come

Finally the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come arrives and allows Scrooge a vision of what his end will be like if he continues on his present course: He will die despised and unmourned. After witnessing these harrowing scenes, Scrooge is a changed man: “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.”

“God bless Us, Every One!”

Scrooge immediately sets about mending his ways, ordering a turkey to be sent anonymously to the Cratchits’ home and paying a Christmas Day visit to his nephew, whose family welcomes the reformed miser. The next day he tells a stunned Bob Cratchit that he is raising his salary. By becoming generous and thoughtful, Srcooge finds redemption and joy. The novel ends:

…and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One!