The End of It
YES! AND THE BEDPOST was his own. The bed was his own, the room was his own. Best and happiest of all, the Time before him was his own, to make amends in!
“I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future!” Scrooge repeated, as he scrambled out of bed. “The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. O Jacob Marley! Heaven, and the Christmas Time be praised for this! I say it on my knees, old Jacob; on my knees!”
He was so fluttered and so glowing with his good intentions, that his broken voice would scarcely answer to his call. He had been sobbing violently in his conflict with the Spirit, and his face was wet with tears.
“They are not torn down,” cried Scrooge, folding one of his bed-curtains in his arms, “they are not torn down, rings and all. They are here: I am here: the shadows of the things that would have been may be dispelled. They will be. I know they will!”
His hands were busy with his garments all this time; turning them inside out, putting them on upside down, tearing them, mislaying them, making them parties to every kind of extravagance.
“I don’t know what to do!” cried Scrooge, laughing and crying in the same breath, and making a perfect Laocoön of himself with his stockings. “I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a schoolboy. I am as giddy as a drunken man. A merry Christmas to everybody! A happy New Year to all the world. Hallo here! Whoop! Hallo!”
He had frisked into the sitting-room, and was now standing there: perfectly winded.
“There’s the saucepan that the gruel was in!” cried Scrooge, starting off again, and frisking round the fire-place. “There’s the door by which the Ghost of Jacob Marley entered; there’s the corner where the Ghost of Christmas Present sat! There’s the window where I saw the wandering Spirits! It’s all right, it’s all true, it all happened. Ha, ha, ha!”
Really, for a man who had been out of practice for so many years, it was a splendid laugh, a most illustrious laugh. The father of a long, long line of brilliant laughs!
“I don’t know what day of the month it is!” said Scrooge. “I don’t know how long I’ve been among the Spirits. I don’t know anything. I’m quite a baby. Never mind. I don’t care. I’d rather be a baby. Hallo! Whoop! Hallo here!”
He was checked in his transports by the churches ringing out the lustiest peals he had ever heard. Clash, clang, hammer, ding, dong, bell. Bell, dong, ding, hammer, clang, clash! Oh, glorious, glorious!
Running to the window, he opened it and put out his head. No fog, no mist; clear, bright, jovial, stirring, cold; cold, piping for the blood to dance to; Golden sunlight; Heavenly sky; sweet fresh air; merry bells. Oh, glorious! Glorious!
“What’s to-day!” cried Scrooge, calling downward to a boy in Sunday clothes, who perhaps had loitered in to look about him.
“Eh?” returned the boy, with all his might of wonder.
“What’s to-day, my fine fellow?” said Scrooge.
“To-day!” replied the boy. “Why, CHRISTMAS DAY.”
Stave Five of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol gives exultant expression to the life-saving metamorphosis of Scrooge. The wide-eyed wonder of Scrooge’s new, relieved and resurrected emotional state, is captured in a language that privileges exclamatives and repetition. It feels as if Scrooge has been returned to life, returned to a world that he had squandered so miserably to enjoy the most precious gift of all, a second chance. Notice how the previously avaricious, proprietorial language of ownership as evidenced by the repetition of personal pronouns like ‘own’ now signify exultation and revelation. The earlier concern with the material world for its economic worth has undertaken a remarkable transmutation. Scrooge’s Spiritual transformation has rendered his world miraculously refreshed. Scrooge can now ‘see’ his world with gratitude rather than the blindness of pathological greed. And what is particularly revealing is the palpable relief at the return normality, the lack of the remarkable or extraordinary: ‘the bed was his own, the room was his own.’ Yet ironically, the remarkable thing is the unremarkable being treasured and literally remarked upon, and then raised briefly again to metaphor. ‘ They are not torn down,’ says Scrooge about his curtains and also his life’s expectancy!
Think about the theme of poverty too: in Stave One Scrooge’s spiritual impoverishment is wrought by an excessive, compensatory desire to protect himself from the jeopardy and ignominy of his childhood poverty glimpsed in Stave Two. By Stave Five, the protagonist and even ‘hero’ recognise the consequences of his callous self-regard and impoverished compassion and is determined to ‘fix’ what he can before he dies a lonely, un-mourned death.
The stave begins with a capitalised,’ YES!’ to capture Scrooge’s affirmative delight at his miraculous survival. He is testifying to the revelation of his continued existence after the departure of the final Ghost. The exclamative underlines his existential pleasure at his rebirth. And the affectionate simplicity of his declaration about his ‘bedpost’ which after all was the site of his visitations, leads to the acknowledgement of all the coordinates of his daily existence remaining intact and loyal to his sensory impressions. Finally, he recognises that ‘Time’ itself can be used to make ‘amends.’ Little wonder that such an opportunity for forgiveness and a second chance feels so wonderful! Think how far away this affirmative relationship with time is when compared to the bleak nihilism of Macbeth’s #Tomorow and Tomorrow’ speech in Act Five of Macbeth. By contrast, Scrooge has a new today. The last Ghost has shown him an unimaginably dreadful future and Scrooge’srepentance has ‘earned’ ( how ironic) another opportunity at life.
Significantly too, the trinities are abundantly represented by Scrooge’s declaration to live in ‘the Past, The Presenta and The Future.’ Scrooge’s haunting has saved him. The oyster has opened and his revelatory, ‘pearl’ self is embracing thankfulness and hope. He is unthawed from the psychologically, static, cynical, ‘frozen’ figure of Stave One. His old partner is mentioned by his full name and is repeated in an intimate manner, suggesting that Scrooge has reflected upon the resonant role of Jacob Marley in preparing him for spiritual scrutiny.
The language given to the ‘new’ Scrooge, shows a vitality that is wonderfully joyful and innocent. ‘he was so fluttered, and so glowing.’ This language testifies to the magical transformation of Scrooge as his behaviours are so different to the flinty, frozen language of the first Stave. It feels as if Scrooge is ‘quite a baby,’ as he feels completely reborn and bursting with gratitude at his chance to try again. ‘I am light as a feather, I am as happy as an Angel.’ His declarations are literally wonderful expressions of his spiritual resurrection. Scrooge uses similes that have strong spiritual connotations as well as exuberant humour. ‘ I am as giddy as a drunken man.’ It is as if the deluge of similes are necessary as Scrooge is overflowing with possibilities. We as readers are immersed in this infectious joy because we have witnessed how much Scrooge has committed to change. So, we love the new ‘broken voice’ which emphasises his rebirth as the voice is trying out an entirely fresh way of life and philosophy.
The repeated reference to the extraordinary ‘laugh’ of Scrooge gives representation to the spiritual currency of humour. Scrooge is now capable of self-deprecation. . He no longer takes himself seriously which is liberating for his spirit. ‘Whoop! Hallo here!’ Such a vibrant greeting suggests he is talking both to a world he has largely ignored before and to his transformed self too. As if the many tales of healing and transformation, have caused innocence to be resurrected and restored. So now we witness Scrooge’s return to openness and humility. The caustic cynicism of ‘humbug’ is quite simply, no more!
Brilliant Dickens and an excellent response! I appreciate your articulate insights into the qualities of this extract – super point re. comparison with Macbeth’s speech – the radical difference in hope and hopelessness felt towards ‘tomorrow’!