‘a Christmas Carol Demonstrates That the Meaning of Life Is Not Found in Material Possessions but in Human Relationships.’ Discuss.
Ebenezer Scrooge, the miser amongst Christmas. Dickens creation of whom encapsulates everything that detests Christian Christmas values of ‘charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence’ At the beginning of Charles Dickens a Christmas Carol – Scrooge, acts as the chief protagonist within the novella in which he is initially depicted as a ‘squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner’, as ‘self-contained, and as solitary as an oyster’. At this stage, it appears as if this man is incapable of relationships – however, through the threat of an afterlife of suffering, a spiritual journey guided by The Ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present and of Christmas future, combined with a realisation of the importance of the relationships he had so long disregarded Scrooge is able to lose his capitalist lifestyle in exchange for a life lived in light of his tri-temporal, gothic, experience that helped him realise there is more to life then ‘weighing everything by gain’
A reasonably content Scrooge is shown at the beginning of the First Stave, portrayed to have had the only man he shared any relationship with as dead. This man of course is Scrooges deceased business partner Jacob Marley. It is highlighted by Dickens that Scrooge answered to Marley’s name- this gives the impression that they were very similar in character. The deceased Marley is the first supernatural force which Scrooge encounters – in this section of the novella Marley’s spirit explains that three ghosts will visit Scrooge in order to help him escape a condemned afterlife entangled by his ‘Chain forged in life’.
Intertwined with this spiritual encounter, there is a clear deeper meaning and as typical in all of Dickens writing- throughout the text there are many moral allegorical messages aimed to enlightening his audience to the social injustices and downfalls of society. This encounter can be seen as the beginning of one of Dickens most powerful messages within A Christmas
A reasonably content Scrooge is shown at the beginning of the First Stave, portrayed to have had the only man he shared any relationship with as dead. This man of course is Scrooges deceased business partner Jacob Marley. It is highlighted by Dickens that Scrooge answered to Marley’s name- this gives the impression that they were very similar in character. The deceased Marley is the first supernatural force which Scrooge encounters – in this section of the novella Marley’s spirit explains that three ghosts will visit Scrooge in order to help him escape a condemned afterlife entangled by his ‘Chain forged in life’.
Intertwined with this spiritual encounter, there is a clear deeper meaning and as typical in all of Dickens writing- throughout the text there are many moral allegorical messages aimed to enlightening his audience to the social injustices and downfalls of society. This encounter can be seen as the beginning of one of Dickens most powerful messages within A Christmas