A Christmas Carol short summary & analysis

A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

A Christmas Carol Analysis

Charles Dickens's novel A Christmas Carol provides a joyful reading experience for both children and adults. He wrote this book specifically with a Christmas idea in mind saying that "The paths that people choose take them to predetermined ends, but, if not these paths but some other paths are followed the end of the path changes, too." In addition to being written as very clear, fluent and in a way as if it is being spoken, it is also remarkable in terms of pushing the reader to analyze his inner world. A Christmas Carol is also open to different readings such as the economic and sociological conditions of the Victorian England, the effects of the New Poor Act which came into force in 1834, the clues from Dickens's life story, and references to Shakespeare's works.

The book, which has been interpreted many times both as a film and as an animation, was lastly screened by Robert Zemeckis in 2009 as scenarist and director.

A Christmas Carol Short Summary

On the 24th of December 1936, Jacob Marley, who was the business partner of miserly and grumpy Ebenezer Scrooge, died. They both had the same temperament.

After seven Christmases, while Scrooge is plugging away in his office with his usual insatiability and cupidity his nephew comes in and invites his uncle to his home for the Christmas dinner on the next night. Scolding and sending him back, Scrooge is visited this time by two people who are collecting donations to provide food, drinks and fuel to the poor. Scrooge refuses to make a donation, saying that prisons, poorhouses and the Poor Law are sufficient in such cases. Time goes by and now it is time to close the office. Scrooge, after unwillingly allowing his clerk, Bob Cratchit, to take the next day off, heads home. Marley's face appears in the doorknob as he enters his house, which is inherited from his deceased partner. Although this image makes Scrooge's blood curdle at first, he immediately regains his self-control and opens the door, but he still cannot stop himself from checking whether everything is in place or not and locking the door twice. As soon as he sits down with the comfort of taking precautions, the call bells on the door suddenly start to ring on their own, and suddenly they stop. Subsequently, dragging the heavy chain wrapped around his waist, Marley's ghost stands in front of Scrooge. This chain consists of crates, keys, padlocks, account books, bills and heavy money boxes made of steel. In order to obtain them, with the regret of the things he ignored and postponed, Marley comes to warn Scrooge so that he does not share the same fate with himself. As long as Scrooge lives, he has a chance to do something good to get rid of these chains. For this, he will be visited by three spirits. The first one will come the next day at 1 o'clock, the second one at the same hour the next day, and the third one the next night when the clocks hit the midnight for the last time. Upon saying this, Marley flies out of the window and joins other desperate, regrettable ghosts. As soon as Scrooge closes the window, he falls asleep with a sudden feeling of fatigue.

When he wakes up, it's twelve o'clock. Being surprised at how he had slept so long, Scrooge pondered whether what he experienced the other day was a dream or not. When the church's bell hits one o'clock, the Ghost of the Past Christmases appears next to his bed. The ghost took Scrooge to the city where his childhood was spent and shows him the old Christmases, when he was living alone with his books and dreaming of the fairy tale heroes; when his sister Fan took him from the boarding school; when his fiancée Belle realized that her love for money was more than her love for him and broke up with Scrooge afterwards; when he celebrated them with his colleague Dick Wilkins from a warehouse, his boss, Fezziwig and other friends; the ones when Belle, her husband and their children spent together. Unable to withstand the pressure of all these memories on him, Scrooge, with passion, puts the ghost's hat on the light beam he emits at his head, and the ghost gets smaller and smaller, and disappears at last. When Scrooge regains consciousness, he finds himself in his room. He cannot resist to his will of sleep and hurls himself to the bed.

Scrooge awakens because of his own snoring. Just as he guesses, it's one a.m. There is nobody coming or going, but a red beam of light falls to his bed. Fifteen minutes later, he realizes that the light comes from the adjacent room. The Ghost of This Christmas has been waiting there for him. Scrooge tells the ghost that he is ready to learn everything after yesterday's experience. After the ghost shows him the excitement all over the city, it takes him to the house where Cratchit lives with his wife and five children. The only shadow falling into the family's happiness is that the little Tim is getting worse every day due to his weakening muscles day by day. Tim's condition affects Scrooge deeply. The next stop is nephew Fred's house. The comments made about himself at the party in the house are not at all pleasant. After showing the other people in the city who are happily celebrating Christmas as well, it is time for the ghost to go.

When the clocks hit the midnight, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come appears next to Scrooge. Scrooge asks the ghost to guide him. The ghost, without uttering a word, makes him listen to all the words just after its death from the mouth of the people he had worked with, the maid, the laundryman, the retailer, a couple he had lent money to, the Cratchit family who lost Tim and then it shows its grave. While Scrooge is praying for his fate to be changed with an agony causing from what he sees, the ghost disappears.

Scrooge is in his bed when he regains consciousness. When he realizes that he has time to correct all the wrongs in his life, he bursts with joy. When he learns from a boy who passes by that the day is 25 December 1843, he becomes extremely pleased. He immediately buys the biggest turkey from the butcher at the corner for the Cratchit family and sends it to them. Then wearing his best clothes, he hurls himself onto the street and celebrates everyone's Christmas. He donates a large amount of money to those two men who had come to his office and asked for help. He has a very enjoyable night at his nephew's house. The next day he raises the salary of his clerk and promises to help the Cratchit family. He fulfills his promise as well. Little Tim's second father becomes the best boss, the best friend and the best person that everyone will ever see.

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