Christmas Carol: Ten Quotations for Evaluation.
Do remember the value of ‘hearty ‘ laughter in the novella : interestingly linked to both Scrooge in his redemption in Stave Five and Fred consistently indicating the life-affirming power of good humour in human connection through forgiveness, humility and joy.
Stave One.
I wish to be left alone…it’s not my business.
Scrooge exists in isolation from the world. His withdrawal precludes any possibility of exercising compassion. Yet for all his self-alienation and cynical attitude, the reader senses something deeply hurt and buried. The ‘oyster’ wall masks his deep-seated fears of abandonment hence the reference to ‘Hamlet’s father’ at the beginning of the story. Parental rejection haunts Scrooge as it did Dickens himself who felt ‘cast away’ in Warren’s Blacking Factory.
‘Marley’s face… like a bad lobster in a dark cellar.’
Something gleefully grotesque at this comparison of Scrooge’s old partner to a rotting lobster. The hallucinatory, eerie quality of Marley’s spectral visitation underlines the shocking quality of Marley’s purgatorial afterlife and the bleak, rank, future-facing, Scrooge, if he fails to repent.
Stave Two.
It was a strange figure- like a child, yet not so like a child as an old man’ Here, the contradictory elements of the spectre’s appearance reflect Scrooge’s complex psychological and biological state. He is an old man, surely not far from inevitable mortality yet the ghost’s intervention and guidance reveal old Scrooge is as he is because of his childhood abandonment by his father. The disorienting effect of the contradictory ghost unsettles the ‘dead’ emotionally rigid Scrooge and encourages him to become receptive to change.
‘Remove me! …I cannot bear it! …he could not hide the light’
Despite Scrooge’s violent efforts to subdue the enlightenment introduced by the Ghost of Christmas Past’s illuminating ‘light’, Scrooge is forced to confront his missed happiness with Belle. The evident pain that Scrooge feels and expresses surprises us because we recognise the buried regret of Scrooge becoming twisted into a protective or defensive cynicism. Yet Scrooge has never married despite his idol (of avarice) , and we suspect he deeply loved Belle and has been haunted by the life he once threw away.
Stave Three.
It was his own room. ..but it had undergone a surprising transformation…
Plenitude in Scrooge’s previously dismal and desolate room. It stands as a metaphor for the burgeoning transformation of Scrooge and his willingness to embrace a new identity and belief in the values of Christmas. The ‘dull petrifaction ‘ of his previous hearth has magically metamorphosed into a place of fecundity and celebration where the Ghost of Christmas Present presides beckoning the reticent Scrooge with his symbolic invitation to ‘Come in !’ Think about the way Scrooge rosses his own threshold into a new life.
‘Tell me if Tiny Tim will live.’ Scrooge recognises himself in Tiny Tim as a lost child and his enquiry underlines Scrooge awakening to the plight of the vulnerable and the poor. This demand demonstrates a curiosity that has been absent or buried for years and it also risks hurt as he is told, ‘I see a vacant seat’ which reprimands Scrooge and the wealthy who fail to view the poor as anything other than as commodities or as ‘idle’. This is a deeply chastening moment for Scrooge and for the wealthy readers who could afford to buy the novella for 5 shillings.
Stave Four.
The Phantom slowly, gravely, silently approached.
Notice the unnerving quality of this figure, accentuated by the use of sibilance, suggestive of the unearthly quality of Scrooge’s final visitor. If the previous ghosts have been associated with light and even compassionate connection, this ghost’s identity is predicated on darkness and the irrefutable silence of death. Here, the Ghost signifies the fateful, irreversible consequence of death. There is no more language because Scrooge is encountering human absence. There is nothing left to say to Scrooge if he doesn’t repent and change his ways. .
‘In his agony, he caught the spectral hand…The Spirit, stronger yet, repulsed him’ Scrooge is terrified of dying without hope of forgiveness. The noun ‘agony’ suggests his journey has been one of spiritual transformation and penitence. This Scrooge feels deeply and truly regrets the appalling consequences of his choices. The hand of the Spirit denies Scrooge any further connection no doubt suggesting death is inevitable, but not yet, as Scrooge’s transformation is sincere. Hence the enormous relief of the Uncanny Spirit’s disappearance into the sanctuary of Scrooge’s ‘bed-post’ . The drama of this ending is palpable and represents the final appearance of the Spirits giving Scrooge the opportunity to salvage what remains of his life in exuberant and spiritually uplifting terms.
Stave Five.
Yes! And The bedpost was his own. The bed was his own. The room was his own.
Look at the way the once acquisitive possessive pronouns that would have underlined the avarice of Scrooge have become representative of gratitude. Scrooge recognises he has been granted a second chance. He feels reborn and the elation is communicated through the use of the exclamative, repetition and the use of verbs that give representation to his new self: ‘ fluttered… frisked….winded’ culminating in his ‘splendid laugh’ which reunites him with humanity and with Fred who links him of course to his beloved lost sister, Fan.
A Merry Christmas to you!…of all the blithe sounds.,, those were the blithest.’
Scrooge is no longer as solitary as an oyster. He has healed the wounded child left abandoned at Christmas in some lonely dismal school by a cruel father. His interaction and ability to laugh at himself and to be teased, reveal humility and compassion both for others and for himself. The symbolism of Christmas no longer wounds Scrooge, instead, he embraces it.
