A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol Essay

      A Christmas Carol is a novel written by Charles Dickens about the life of a cynical man named Ebenezer Scrooge. Scrooge learns the true meaning of Christmas through the teachings of three ghosts, The Ghost of Christmas Past, The Ghost of Christmas Present, and The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. Scrooge once was a money-grubbing man who could care less about Christmas. His attitude changes once he learns his fate is destined to be doomed, unless he is willing to change. Andy Warhol said, “They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself”. Scrooge’s sudden change in life changes his fatal fate and he has another chance at living his life to the fullest in happiness and kindness. Dickens said on December 1843,”I have endeavored in this Ghostly little book to rise the Ghost of an Idea which shall not put my readers out of humor with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their hose pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it.” Dickens wants society to learn the lesson Scrooge was forced to learn. By learning this lesson, people can grasp the fact that going through life as a “scrooge” will get them nowhere in life.
      Ebenezer Scrooge was once a selfish, uncaring old man whose only concern was the possession of money. He carried his own “low temperature” year-round that could never be thawed, and did not drop a degree during Christmas. He had no sympathy for his fellow man and for a long time he lived alone with no one to love, because his only love became money.   Scrooge despised everything about Christmas because he could never truly understand how people could be merry despite their destitute circumstances.   His “bah-humbug” attitude toward Christmas resulted in the visit of the Ghost of Jacob Marley (Scrooge’s former business partner). Marley’s Ghost arranged Scrooge to be visited by three spirits, The Ghost of Christmas Past, The Ghost of Christmas Present and The...