Discussion Topic
The depiction of Scrooge's childhood in the early staves of "A Christmas Carol."
Summary:
The depiction of Scrooge's childhood in the early staves of "A Christmas Carol" reveals a lonely and neglected boy, isolated at boarding school during holidays. These memories highlight the emotional neglect he experienced, which helps explain his later bitterness and miserly behavior. The scenes serve to evoke sympathy and provide context for his transformation.
How does Charles Dickens depict childhood in staves 1 and 2 of "A Christmas Carol"?
It's clear from early on in the story that it's not much fun being a child in Dickens's England, especially if you happen to be poor. The ragged, half-starved waifs roaming around the streets at the beginning of the story are a sad reminder of this. Mind you, Scrooge wasn't poor as a boy—but he still had a throughly miserable childhood. Each year, while all the other boys were enjoying Christmas with their families, he was stuck at boarding school, all alone. Thankfully, his beloved sister, Fen, arrived one year to take him home for the holidays. His old man had had a change of heart and wanted young Ebenezer to come and spend Christmas at home after all.
This particular episode illustrates the inordinate degree of control that adults had over children at that time. Today, the behavior of Scrooge's father—before he had his change of heart, that is—would...
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be construed as tantamount to child abuse. But in those days, a man was considered lord and master in his own house, and if he wanted to leave his son at boarding school over the Christmas holidays, then by God, he would, and no one would dare tell him he couldn't.
To some extent, children's happiness is presented by Dickens as almost completely dependent on the adults in their lives. Tiny Tim, though severely disabled, is a happy child on account of the warm, loving home environment created by Mr. and Mrs. Cratchit. In contrast, Scrooge, though hailing from a wealthy, privileged background, was throughly miserable as a boy on account of his stern, unbending father.
Less directly, Dickens presents childhood as a time that can significantly impact the rest of a person's life. We see that Scrooge's childhood was not a happy one. He seems to have been sent away from his family to a boarding school at a young age. Then, one year, his sister comes to retrieve him for the holidays saying,
"Father is so much kinder than he used to be [...]! He spoke so gently to me one dear night when I was going to bed, that I was not afraid to ask him once more if you might come home [...]." (my emphasis)
This statement makes it sound as though Scrooge's father didn't used to be very kind, and is seems that Fan has asked their father many times if Scrooge could come home and received disheartening responses. To make matters worse, for many holidays before this, Scrooge was abandoned by his friends when they went home to their own families. We might conclude that these experiences of abandonment and even neglect by those who were supposed to love him, like his father, led Scrooge to fear abandonment as an adult. Therefore, he might have grown to prize money over loving feelings, even as it concerns Belle, because he has learned that people who love you might leave you, but money never does. In this way, then, Dickens presents childhood as a time that can shape a person for the rest of their life.
In stave 2 of A Christmas Carol, how is Scrooge's childhood presented by Dickens?
In stave 2 of A Christmas Carol, the Ghost of Christmas Past takes Scrooge back to his childhood and specifically back to the school where Scrooge was a student. Before we meet the younger Scrooge, we first pass by other boys who are described as being "in great spirits," talking excitedly to one another so that the "fields were so full of merry music." The merriment and vitality of these boys serves to emphasize, by contrast, the sadness and loneliness of their peer, the young Scrooge.
When we meet the young Scrooge, he is described as a "solitary child, neglected by his friends." He is inside in the old school building, while all the other boys are outside, playing and enjoying the fresh air. It is clear that the young Scrooge was not an ordinary, happy child, but rather a sad and lonely one. This presentation of Scrooge as a sad and lonely child helps the reader to better understand and perhaps sympathize with the older Scrooge we met at the beginning of the story.
When the Ghost of Christmas past points the older Scrooge to the lonely image of his younger self, we see a boy on his own inside a classroom, sat at a desk and "intent upon his reading." Seeing his younger self, the older Scrooge feels pity for the "solitary child...all alone." He calls him a "poor boy" and cries at the sight of him. Seeing his former self, Scrooge wishes that he had been kinder to children in his own time.
Based on Stave 2 in A Christmas Carol, how would you describe Scrooge's childhood?
The Ghost of Christmas Past takes Scrooge back to his childhood. They enter a small village and a school there. A young Ebenezer Scrooge is alone at school at Christmastime, surrounded by books. He lives at the school, possibly due to a difficult home life. Then the spirit takes Scrooge to a different time in the same place. Again, young Ebenezer is alone at school. All of his schoolmates are home for the Christmastime holidays. His younger sister, Fran, enters the schoolroom. She hugs him excitedly. She explains that things have changed in their home. Their father has become a more kind person and wants his son to come home to live permanently. Their home has become a happy place and Fran is there to take him there. Scrooge leaves under the watchful eye of his stern schoolmaster.