The main themes of the story Christmas Carol

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As you can see, Scrooge has no desire to celebrate Christmas. He simply thinks that Christmas is ‘bah humbug’; it is nonsense and that people should not celebrate it. However, the phrase ‘bah humbug’ does not only represent his views on Christmas, but also suggests his attitude on the morals surrounding Christmas; generosity, humanity and love towards others do not mean anything to Scrooge and he ignores throughout the whole year. He also said to his nephew “What right have you to be merry? You’re poor enough”.
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This makes us aware that Scrooge was not in the Christmas spirit, and also that Scrooge thinks that you can only be merry if you’re wealthy, again showing how important money is for Scrooge. However, to an extent I understand Scrooge’s strong hate for Christmas; Christmas is a Christian celebration and Christianity teaches people that they should be loving, generous and considerate, and Scrooge resents all of these values. At the end of the story, Scrooge had changed.

He was no longer a mean, selfish, cold-hearted old man.
He bought the Cratchits family the ‘prize turkey’ in the shop, he wished passers by ‘Merry Christmas’ and he went to spend the day socialising with his nephew. This was because the three Christmas spirits made him realise what kind of a person he was, by showing him his past, present and future. Firstly, he saw the happy times he had when he was younger. He saw the past in a different point of view miserly person he was, but most importantly they showed him what will happen to him if he will not change, and this really scared him.

Moreover, when his dead business partner came to visit him with chains on his body, Scrooge started to think about the way he was living. Marley had been damned because he was like Scrooge; all he cared about was money, and he had been a mean person all his life. Scrooge saw that he wasn’t isolated and unloved like he thought, but that his fianci?? e and sister loved him and that he had had a happy life. This made him want return to these times and experience the feelings again.
The next spirit showed him the contrast between poor people who can still be happy at Christmas, and him- a wealthy man who had lots of reasons to be happy – a sad person sitting in his office on Christmas day. The last of the Christmas spirits had the biggest impact on Scrooge; it showed him what would happen to him if he did not change and this really shocked and scared him. It also showed him that he had the power to change the future and that everything that happens is his own responsibility.
He started to be liberal and to be more considerate; he thought about other people and their wellbeing, not just about himself and money. Dickens emphasises his change in character by repeating the adjective ‘good’: ”He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew… ”. In the 19th century, when the book was published, the level of poverty was high, especially in London where the story is set. Those who had no income were forced to go to a workhouse, an unpleasant place where people had to do hard work in order to get food and accommodation.
At this time, the Victorians believed that the poor were poor due to their own laziness, not because they were less fortunate than them. Dickens uses Scrooge as a mouthpiece to demonstrate the attitude of the Victorians in Stave 1 when two men knocked at Scrooge’s office asking him for a donation, and he responded with the rude and insensitive question “Are there no prisons… And the Union workhouses? Are they still in operation? “. It demonstrates the opinion of the Victorian social reformers and businessmen that charity encourages the poor to be lazy and that poor people should die and “decrease the surplus population”.
Scrooge did not believe in giving to charities, and he said he would give ‘nothing’ as there are prisons and workhouses to which the poor could go to, to pay off their debt, which he already claimed to support. He also thinks that it is incongruous that people don’t work on Christmas. He says “I don’t make merry myself at Christmas and I can’t afford to make idle people merry”, which is one of the reasons he does not celebrate Christmas. This shows that Scrooge was not a big-hearted person and how parsimonious he was.
It tells us that he was an insensitive person because he didn’t think about other people and their welfare. It also illustrates how hard it was for the poor in the 19th century and how harsh the upper-class Victorians’ attitudes were towards the poor. ‘A Christmas Carol’ does not only explore the poverty which was present in England at the time the novella was written, but it also reflects Charles Dickens’ views on politics and his interest in social reform. Dickens contributed to the newspaper ‘True Sun’ which expressed views on political, economic and social reforms.
He disliked business people who were infatuated with money, which is who Scrooge represents in this novella. My first impression about Scrooge was that he is a stingy, appalling, unpleasant old man who only cares about money. Dickens has influenced me about the way I think about Scrooge: he made me realise that partly he was the way he was because of his childhood; he grew up without a mother, and his father hated him, which led him to view love as unimportant in life.
I enjoyed the story as it was very entertaining and interesting to read; in my opinion Dickens portrayed the character of Scrooge very well through his use of effective language devices which make Scrooge’s character vivid and larger than life. The book has a universal theme which society should live by every day, not just on Christmas. The message in ‘The Christmas Carol’ is that you should think about people who are less fortunate, not only about yourself and you own well-being. Still now, there are lots of people who are like Scrooge: all they care about is money and they never give themselves a break and enjoy themselves.
Another message is that people should value the important things in life, not money. Even though Scrooge was a wealthy man with lots of money, he was poor in terms of happiness, morals and generosity. It shows that money does not bring happiness, as he chose money over his fianci?? e Bella, who got happily married while he was leading a miserable sad life. Through these themes it conveys the true meaning of Christmas: that it is about being happy, generous and caring to others, not a commercial holiday.

Fernando Wood

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