A Christmas Carol

Ignorance and Want are perhaps the most blatantly allegorical figures in A Christmas Carol. Collectively, they represent the conditions of the poor: wretched, hungry, and unable to pull themselves...

In stave 2, "The First of Three Spirits," of Charles Dickens's classic novella A Christmas Carol, the Ghost of Christmas Past guides Ebenezer Scrooge through memories of the important people in his...

In the novel A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, the character called Scrooge goes through a catharsis - he manages,just in time as far as his age is concerned, to reinvent himself. He goes...

Marley's chain is symbolic of his guilt as well. He says that he forged it during his life, of his own free will. He is guilty, indeed, of heavy sins against his fellows, sins that he chose to...

Ebenezer Scrooge was a banker. The reason Ebenezer Scrooge was so rich was that he made his living lending other people money and charging interest. He worked in a counting house, and he owned the...

First, the Ghost of Christmas Present takes Scrooge into the city of London. They see the dark houses with the sooty windows, and despite the meager living conditions of the residents, there is "an...

Although Jacob Marley, Ebenezer Scrooge's now-deceased former partner in the firm of Scrooge & Marley, gives Scrooge one specific warning in stave 1 of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol—“I am...

In stave one, Ebenezer Scrooge is depicted as an extremely cold, callous businessman who is insensitive, cold-hearted, and miserly. Dickens vividly describes Ebenezer Scrooge by writing, Scrooge!...

It could be suggested that there are multiple themes to Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Dickens’s story, of course, is about a miserly old businessman living a solitary life whose every...

In stave 3, Scrooge is visited by the Ghost of Christmas Present. When he sees the very large spirit, the narrator says that Scrooge looked at it “reverently,” which is quite a contrast from the...

In Stave 3, "The Second of Three Spirits," of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, Ebenezer Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Present have just left a children's Twelfth Night party—which...

The story was published in 1843, and takes place in the early 1800’s (1800-1850). Dickens is careful not to give a specific year that the story is set during the story. This adds to its...

Scrooge complains that it is not "convenient" or "fair" for him to be expected to give his employee a day off for the holiday of Christmas. Scrooge claims that the clerk, Bob Cratchit, would...

Marley's Ghost first appears on the surface of Scrooge's knocker when Scrooge arrives home on Christmas Eve. Scrooge is puzzled at first by the appearance of Marley's face on his knocker but...

This statement reveals a couple of things about Scrooge. First, it reveals his cold-heart; he would rather see the poor people die instead of helping them, and by dying, they would be doing a...

Ignorance, the boy, can be interpreted as symbolizing the ignorance that keeps the poor, in Victorian England, poor. Without education, what chance can they have of bettering their situation? If...

The Ghost of Christmas past takes Scrooge to a poignant memory in his childhood, reminding him of the Christmas when he was "neglected by his friends" and it seems (at least at first) by his...

Initially, Scrooge feels a strong desire to see the ghost put on its extinguisher cap. He "begged him to be covered." Something about the light is painful or, at least, uncomfortable for Scrooge...

Ebenezer Scrooge is well-known as the "squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner" of Charles Dickens's classic novella A Christmas Carol. "Hard and sharp as flint" he...

Nowadays, most corpses are embalmed before burial. Back in Victorian times when Dickens was writing, this was not so -- as muscles would relax and then firm under rigor mortis, corpses would be...

Poverty is a critical theme embedded across A Christmas Carol, as is society's blindness towards the suffering of the poor. This blindness is an attitude that is practically incarnated in the...

Scrooge seems to feel that Christmas is a time when people behave more irresponsibly with money than they do during the rest of the year. In the first stave, he says to his nephew, Fred, "What’s...

At this point in the novella, Scrooge is a completely changed man, but Cratchit doesn't know it, so Scrooge plans on playing a joke on Cratchit. When Cratchit sneaks into the office a whole...

As Scrooge watches, Fred and his wife host a group of friends for a Christmas party. He sees them laughing in a warm, cozy room as they talk about Scrooge's opinion of Christmas. It's clear that...

The moral of The Christmas Carol is that society can be transformed for the better through generosity, empathy, and compassion. Scrooge has forgotten how to feel for his fellow humans. He is so...

In Stave Four, Scrooge is visited by the last of the three ghosts, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. This ghost is instrumental in helping Scrooge to reform his character because he shows him...

"Old Fezziwig" is Mr. Fezziwig, the kindly, jovial warehouse owner to whom Ebenezer Scrooge was apprenticed as a young man and who appears in stave 2, "The First of Three Spirits," in Charles...

When the Ghost of Christmas Past shows Scrooge a meeting he had as a young man with his fiancee, Belle, she is in the process of breaking off their engagement. She says that "another idol has...

Is not the title itself a metaphor? Carols at Christmas tell stories about the Baby Jesus, Mary, and Joseph; or, they tell of someone's seeing the star in the heavens, or they relate some other...

In stave 2, "The First of the Three Spirits," of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, the Ghost of Christmas Past takes Ebenezer Scrooge on a journey into the past—Scrooge's past—which begins with...

The Ghost of Christmas Present takes Scrooge to the home of Bob Crachit where he witnesses the family's Christmas celebration. After the dinner has been eaten, the hearth of the Crachits is...

In Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, Stave 2: "The First of the Three Spirits", Ebenezer Scrooge is taken to the past. Scrooge knows who he will probably get to see again: his dead sister,...

Before the spirits visit Scrooge, he is busily working when men stop by to collect charity for the poor. Scrooge dismisses their efforts and refuses to contribute to the cause, telling the men that...

Scrooge's eyes are well and truly opened by the sight of the Cratchits' home life. Although they don't have two brass ha'pennies to rub together—largely thanks to Scrooge's incorrigible...

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is described as a phantom, and instead of speaking, he points throughout his time with Scrooge. Scrooge asks the ghost countless questions, but perhaps the most...

The Ghost of Christmas Past takes Scrooge out of the city and to a country road, to the place where Scrooge was born and raised. They walk together along the road, towards a "little market-town,"...

Your question refers to the family of Ebeneezer Scrooge's employee, Bob Cratchit. While Scrooge is known for his extreme thriftiness, dark temper, and lack of charity during the "present" setting...

Charles Dickens uses symbolism to amplify the message of kindness in A Christmas Carol. Set during the Christmas season, which is itself a symbol-laden holiday, the story reminds us at the outset...

In Stave 4, Scrooge learns the truth about the value of his life as it applies to other people. What he comes to see through the lessons of the final spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come, is...

Instead of the door knocker, Scrooge sees Marley's face. Marley's face is not shadowed, like the rest of the objects in the yard, but is strangely illuminated. The expression on this disembodied...

In the opening stave of Dickens's A Christmas Carol, Scrooge is incredulous when he encounters the Ghost of Marley in his bedroom on Christmas Eve and blames the spirit's appearance on indigestion....

When the Spirit of Christmas Past appears before him, Scrooge desires "to see the Spirit in his cap"; that is, to cover the light of knowledge from memories that it spreads through the room....

The narrator tells us that, in the past, when Cratchit has asked Mr. Scrooge for additional coal to warm the office, "the master predicted that it would be necessary for them to part." In other...

Of course, Scrooge undergoes a complete transformation over the course of the story, but at its beginning, his most notable character trait is his miserliness. He refuses to give Christmas gifts,...

Fezziwig is the employer whose long-ago Christmas celebration the Ghost of Christmas Past shows Scrooge. As the ghost and Scrooge watch, Mr. Fezziwig throws a generous and lively Christmas feast...

What kind of man would keep his son at school for Christmas while all the other boys are allowed home for the holidays? The answer is Ebenezer Scrooge's father. For reasons we cannot begin to...

Scrooge has already told Marley that he doesn't really believe his senses because "'A slight disorder of the stomach makes them cheats.'" In other words, Scrooge thinks that Marley is just a trick...

Ebenezer Scrooge, the central character in the novella, faces internal conflict that drives the plot. Although he used to enjoy friends and family and was even engaged to be married, Scrooge has...

After the Ghost of Christmas Future visits Scrooge, the old miser hears businessmen speaking of someone's death and the reference is made to "Old Scratch" being finally dead (Old Scratch is a name...

You have asked quite a big question here, and the best way to answer it is to compare and contrast the way that the text introduces and describes the three ghosts. You are right in being aware of...