A Christmas Carol
Written by Charles Dickens
In the novella A Christmas Carol, written by Charles Dickens in 1843, Ebenezer Scrooge undergoes multiple scenarios that change his attitude from the beginning of the story to the end, which proves that he is a dynamic character. When the Spirit of Christmas Past takes him to his old schoolhouse, when the Spirit of Christmas Present takes Scrooge to visit the Cratchit family, and when the Spirit of Christmas Yet To Come shows him his future are all key points in this tale where Scrooge starts to use his imagination and relent. In the beginning of the novel, Scrooge starts out extremely cold-hearted and miserly.
When Scrooge is visited by Spirit of Christmas past, the first of three spirits, he does not believe in the Christmas spirit, and, in fact, hates Christmas itself. He is mean and harsh towards everyone, but especially the poor and homeless. The spirit helps soften up Scrooge by showing him scenes of Christmases from when he was a boy. He was living in his schoolhouse, and was very poor with no one to look after him. It made him cry to see himself with all alone on Christmas. I wish, Scrooge muttered, putting his hand in his pocket, and looking about him after drying his eyes with his cuff: but its to late now. Scrooge was wishing that he had given some money to the poor children who were caroling earlier, but instead, he had chosen to be miserly. Now he was feeling sorry, and thought about how much that money couldve helped the children. Scrooge is now starting to use his imagination, which is letting him relent in his feelings and change his stingy ways.
Next, the Spirit of Christmas Present shows Scrooge Christmases that are taking lace on that very day. He shows Scrooge the Cratchit family. They are a large family, and they did not have a lot of money, but they still had a great deal of Christmas spirit. Scrooge had thought earlier that if you were poor, you had nothing, and you might as well die. The Cratchit family proved him wrong. They might have a small dinner, small home, cold rooms, and a small, ill child, but they had each other, and they were happy. Tiny Tim was Bob Cratchits youngest son. He had a cripple leg from polio, and needed to walk with a crutch. It cost a lot of money to pay for medical bills, and they didnt have that money because Scrooge underpaid Cratchit. Tiny Tim was not getting the medical attention he needed because of it. No, no.Oh no kind spirit! Say he will be spared! said scrooge when he found out that Tim could possibly die. Scrooge honestly felt for Tim, and the whole Cratchit family as well. He was changing, and becoming less miserly as the novel progressed on.
Finally, the Spirit of Christmas yet to come takes Scrooge to see Christmases that are going to happen in the future. They went into the city, and came upon bystanders that were discussing the death of a man, but they werent mourning. They did not appear to have any direct relation to the man who had died, and they didnt seem to know him very well, but they spoke ill of him. People had even stole things right off the dead mans body, because that was how little they cared about him. They just wanted the money. Scrooge wanted to know who the man was, so the Spirit of Christmas Yet to Come took Scrooge to the grave. It was Scrooges own grave. Ebenezer begged for forgiveness, and promised that he would change his ways. He said he would change his greedy ways. I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the past, present, sand the future. The spirits of all three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons the they teach (78). Scrooge was honestly a changed man. He was not the miser that he once was. Scrooge became a different man overnight.
The novella A Christmas Carol is important to read because it teaches us that we are capable of change if we really want to. This lesson still applies to everyone today. There are still people in our world that care about money and business than they do about others. Another lesson in the novella is that there will always be people who are less fortunate than us who need our help. This lesson applies to everyone, and will still apply to people who are reading this book in the future.
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