A Christmas Carol Term Paper

English 12
January 2, 2013

A Christmas Carol

In A Christmas Story by Charles Dickens the main character Ebenezer Scrooge is a sour old man who is in for a rude awakening. In the book Ebenezer Scrooge seeks redemption in order to avoid a tragic future that lies ahead. Scrooge undergoes many hard times in his past which lead him to such a lonely life filled with only his work. He is extremely miserable and hates the Christmas season; he believes that all the festivities are a waste of time. Ebenezer states that ““If I could work my will every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should! (Stave 1).”” During the novel Scrooge is visited by 3 ghosts: the ghost of Christmas past, the ghost of Christmas present, and the ghost of Christmas yet to come, they showed him all parts of his life. This made him wish to change his ways so that his future wouldn’t be what it was sought to be. “Scrooge seeks redemption through the many lessons taught by the Spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come.” As the novel begins Scrooge is in his office on Christmas Eve working hard with his clerk, Bob Cratchit. Right away you can tell that he is an unsympathetic old man who doesn’t have a care in the world for Christmas. He rants on to his nephew who comes in to invite him to Christmas dinner that Christmas is a humbug and his nephew has no reason to be merry because he is poor. When leaving he sees tiny Tim who was waiting for his father Bob Cratchit. He tells the boy that he will be waiting a while because his dad does not get off anytime soon. Ebenezer continues on his was when he comes across men asking for a donation, he tells them “”I wish to be left alone, since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer. I don't make merry myself at Christmas and I can't afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the establishments I have mentioned -- they cost enough; and those who are badly off must go there (Stave 1).”” This shows that scrooge is all about money, he is greedy, and not willing to be sympathetic to others. “In 'A Christmas Carol', Dickens represents Scrooge as a 'squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner' who is against Christmas and happiness and values money, yet given a chance to redeem his fate.” Ebenezer’s old partner, Jacob Marley, had died 7 years ago to the date. He came to Ebenezer that night explaining how he needs to change his ways or else he’ll be doomed. He tells him that the chains he bears were invisible while he was living but his selfishness and greed made those chains link by link and yard by yard. “I wear the chain I forged in life,” replied the Ghost. “I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it. Is its pattern strange to you?”
“Or would you know, the weight and length of the strong coil you bear yourself? It was full as heavy and as long as this, seven Christmas Eves ago. You have laboured on it, since. It is a ponderous chain!” “Jacob,” he said,. “Old Jacob Marley, tell me more. Speak comfort to me, Jacob!” “I have none to give,” the Ghost replied. “It comes from other regions, Ebenezer Scrooge, and is conveyed by other ministers, to other kinds of men. Nor can I tell you what I would. A very little more, is all permitted to me. I cannot rest, I cannot stay, I cannot linger anywhere. My spirit never walked beyond our counting-house -- mark me! -- in life my spirit never roved beyond the narrow limits of our money-changing hole; and weary journeys lie before me!”… “I am here to-night to warn you, that you have yet a chance and hope of escaping my fate. A chance and hope of my procuring, Ebenezer.” Here Marley visits Scrooge to warn him that he must change his ways. “Marley's Ghost has come to warn Scrooge to change his avarice ways or he, too, will be condemned to wander the Earth in the pain he has caused and the happiness he cannot share, weighed down by 'the chain [he] forged in life' which he has made 'link by link, and yard by yard'. Dickens uses the metaphor to contribute to the burden Marley carries because of the selfish ways he has acted in his life on Earth.” At the stroke of midnight the first spirit comes to take Ebenezer on a journey. This is the spirit of Christmas past. She is there to bring him to times in his past that prove why he is the way he is now. She takes him through his childhood where all the kids are playing and the abandonment of his dad. Also the loving times with his sister and his girlfriend.

sorry its not done!