Josh Williams- A Christmas Carol Summary

  A Christmas Carol- Charles Dickens

A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens, is a novel that captures the joy and essence of the holiday season.  This novel tells the story of Ebenezer Scrooge and his life in England during the middle of the nineteenth century.  Scrooge, the owner of an accounting firm, is a greedy  and grumpy old man who is determined to make those around him as miserable as he is.  At the outset of the novel, Scrooge is especially irritable due to his least favorite holiday, Christmas, being right around the corner. Many people, including his nephew and his clerk, attempt to spread the holiday cheer to Scrooge.  These efforts are all met with disdain.    

On Christmas Eve, the ghost of Scrooge’s old business partner, Jacob Marley, visits Scrooge at his home.  He warns Scrooge of the dangers of continuing to live his life the way he is.  The ghost of Marley had been forced to wonder Earth for eternity as punishment for living a life full of greed and scorn.  Marley tells Scrooge that over the course of the next three nights, he would be visited by three spirits that would attempt to help him turn his life around.     

The next night, Scrooge is visited by the Ghost of Christmas Past. This ghost take Scrooge through Christmases that had occurred in his past.  Scrooge re experiences times including a Christmas when he was a young child attending boarding school and a Christmas he spent with his fiance who had left him due to his greed for money.  Scrooge is driven to tears by the events he witnesses.  The following night, the Ghost of Christmas Present visits Scrooge.  This ghost shows him how other people are experiencing the present holiday season.  Scrooge visits the house of Bob Cratchit, his clerk.  He witnesses how Bob and his family make the most of their minuscule earnings to enjoy the holidays.  Scrooge also gets to see the party that he had been invited to by his nephew, but had blown off.  Scrooge begins to realize the joy of the holidays.  On the final night, he is visited by the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come.  This ghost takes Scrooge to witness future Christmases.  Scrooge observes many different people who rejoice after referring to a man who has died.  He soon comes to realize that the man they are referring to is himself.

Scrooge returns to the present a changed man.  He realizes that he can’t change his wrongdoing in the past, but knows that he can control how he will act in the present and in the future.  Scrooge decides to spread his newfound joy to the people around him.  He begins to build relationships with both his nephew, Fred, and his clerk, Bob.  Scrooge also becomes more charitable and begins to treat all people with respect and kindness.  In doing so, Scrooge ends his selfish and miserable behavior and establishes himself as a caring member of society.           

Since its publishing in 1843, A Christmas Carol has become an iconic piece of holiday literature.  It is widely known and has been adapted into many different versions.  There have even been plays and films based off of it.  Some of the most prominent adaptations include the film A Christmas Carol by Disney and The Muppet Christmas Carol.  This popularity may be due to the timeless message that this novel presents.  It is portrayed that human decency will always prevail if it is provoked. Dickens shows this by embodying the spirit of Christmas while at the same time portraying the moral standards that all members of society should hold themselves to.