A Christmas Carol makes a serious plea for generosity. For Dickens, Christmas is essentially a secular holiday—but one that, behind all the laughter and festivities, should bring out the best of human nature. Through the character of Scrooge he offers concrete comic proof of how distorted a selfish person can become. Dickens generally wrote books several hundred pages in length, but this brief Christmas fable reveals both his typical themes and his characteristic early style. He meant to entertain and he succeeds, but his humanitarianism makes itself felt as well. While he...
Source: Beacham's Guide to Literature for Young Adults, ©1999 Gale Cengage. All Rights Reserved. Full copyright.
(The entire page is 124 words.)
Want to read the whole thing?
Subscribe now to read the rest of this article. Plus, get access to:
- 30,000+ literature study guides
- Critical essays on more than 30,000 works of literature from Salem on Literature (exclusive to eNotes)
- An unparalleled literary criticism section. 40,000 full-length or excerpted essays.
- Content from leading academic publishers, all easily citable with our "Cite this page" button.
- 100% satisfaction guarantee READ MORE
