Modern Classics Summarized: A Christmas Carol

Charles Dickens was born in 1812 into a working-class family, worked in a warehouse for a few miserable months at the age of 12 while his father was in prison for debt, and spent the rest of his life campaigning for labor laws. children and writing scathing social commentary on the plight of the poor and working class. He seems reasonable. Dickens first achieved literary success around 1836 and continued writing almost non-stop for the rest of his life until his death in 1870. Among his notable works are Oliver Twist, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations and Christmas story. Three guesses as to which one we're talking about today, and the first two don't count.

A Christmas Carol is an 1843 novel that almost single-handedly solidified the

modern

concept of Christmas, and I can't get over how overwhelmingly Christmassy it is. It captures everything I love about the season while also being wonderfully creepy. Do you know what The Nightmare Before Christmas is like in that awkward situation where you don't know whether to watch it on Halloween or Christmas? A Christmas Carol has enough ghosts to border on the same dilemma. There have also been a ridiculous number of film adaptations. And while I would have liked to use my favorite film adaptation, I also like my YouTube channel and am not looking forward to dueling the multi-pronged eldritch abomination that is the House of Mouse in a copyright battle for just ten minutes. of a Muppet Christmas.

Carol. So everyone say hello to 1951's A Christmas Carol and imagine it's full of muppets and Michael Caine. A Christmas Carol begins by introducing our main character: Ebenezer Scrooge, an old, stingy, cold-blooded moneylender who focuses on two things: getting money and keeping it. Scrooge runs a money lending business that used to be a partnership with a man named Jacob Marley. But Marley died seven years ago and Scrooge has run the company alone since then. But unfortunately for Scrooge, it's vacation now. So everyone else is wrapped up in joy and “news of comfort and joy” and doing things like asking for paid time off to be with their families.

Ridiculous. Anyway, Scrooge's cousin comes to wish him a Merry Christmas and invite him to a nice dinner with his family and friends, which Scrooge thinks is stupid because what could they be celebrating that's more important than the rich? The cousin leaves, but Scrooge's plan to "meditate in silence for the rest of the afternoon" is still thwarted when two men appear asking for donations for the poor. Scrooge suggests that the poor can always try to go to jail, or one of the many nearby asylums, or else they can die and stop bothering him, so suffice it to say that no donations are made that day.

What a charmer. Scrooge's only employee, a poor but kind-hearted fellow named Bob Cratchit, finishes the workday and goes home to do stupid Christmas things like being poor and having friends, while Scrooge eats his usual dinner of disgusting, tasteless porridge and goes to home, but stops. right in front of the door because his otherwise innocent knocker has spontaneously transformed into the spitting image of his dead partner Marley. So that's... sinister, and creepy enough to compel Scrooge to make sure every room in his gigantic, empty building is safe and free of the dead. Scrooge locks himself in his room and prepares to go to bed, but the disaster is not over yet, since all the bells in the house begin to ring at the same time, and when it subsides, something begins to resonate in the rooms. stairs.

Scrooge's day goes from bad to worse until he reaches Silent Hill, when the ghost of Jacob Marley pops his head in the door and starts yelling at Scrooge for being an idiot. Scrooge insists that this is just a nightmare caused by indigestion, which offends Marley so much that he tears off his tiara and his jaw falls off. If he could do that, he would never lose an argument again. The Ghost Marley says that he is here to warn Scrooge that his un-Christmas behavior is strictly unacceptable, and that if he doesn't change soon, he will end up like Marley, wandering the world as a ghost, burdened by a chain of things very symbolic representations of his cruelty and greed.

Only the living can help and support each other; The dead who did not care enough about each other during their lives are condemned to witness the suffering of humanity and at the same time lose the power to help. Marley complains that he spent so much time on money that he never did anything good and now he will never be able to do anything good. But Marley tells Scrooge that he has a chance to redeem himself and avoid this extremely depressing fate. He is visited by three extremely creepy spirits who will try to make him a better person, and he better listen if he wants to avoid being overwhelmed by the supernatural glow for the rest of his afterlife.

Marley flies out the window and joins a giant tornado of equally miserable ghosts, because this wasn't creepy enough, and Scrooge somehow goes to bed, but wakes up soon enough with the arrival of Spooky Ghost # 1. So, Spooky Ghost #1 is the Christmas Ghost from beyond, and he appears to be a strange ageless child, with no distinctive silhouette and a varying number of limbs. His head is also on fire. Does this sound like a biblical angel to anyone else? Just me? Well. Because this nightmare is difficult to visualize, most movies turn it into an angelic lady or a ghostly, glowing child.

Then, the Ghost of a Christmas Beyond takes Scrooge's hand and throws him out the window into the past, where they experience some lovely memories of Scrooge's childhood and the Christmases he celebrated back then. Christmas #1 is actually a bit of a downer: all the other kids go home for Christmas, but Mini Scrooge is left alone at boarding school, reading a book and feeling sorry for himself. The following Christmas it is revealed that this was not voluntary and it seems that his father sent him to boarding school as a bad move and did not let him come home.

But this Christmas, his younger sister, Fan, shows up and tells him that he's coming home for the holidays and that her dad is a lot less of a jerk than he used to be, so this is going to be great. The ghost gently notes that Fan had a son but she died in childbirth, and Scrooge laments that he had been a fool to his nephew, the only remnant of his beloved little sister, too good for this world of sin. Christmas #3 passes to young adult Scrooge, who is apprenticed to the super jolly and generally awesome guy Fezziwig, who throws a Christmas party for all of his employees and his entire extended family.

The ghost suggests that Fezziwig doesn't deserve praise as a boss because he paid Scrooge so little, but Scrooge tells him that Fezziwig, as his boss, had the power to make his life as miserable as he wanted, but instead he was super nice. and kind, and it made him happy and that was what mattered. Scrooge begins to regret his treatment of Bob Cratchit. However, Christmas number 4 is a bit of a downer, as Scrooge's girlfriend Belle breaks up with him because he loves money much more than she does and has given up his noble aspirations in favor of accumulating the most money. possible to protect yourself from the dangers of the world.

Which is a beautiful exploration of the fear that motivates his desire for wealth. He is afraid of the world and uses money to protect himself from it. Christmas #5 takes them back seven years ago, but keeps the focus on Scrooge's ex-girlfriend, now happily married and mother of several children. Belle's husband comes home and says that he saw Scrooge sitting alone in his accounting room while his partner Marley was dying, and they think about how sad and alone Scrooge must be. He is not surprised that Scrooge is very upset at the thought that he could have been this man, happily married to the love of his life and with a million children, and demands that the ghostly spirit take him home.

The ghost says, "Hey, man. Leave the messenger alone," and Scrooge takes matters into his own hands by grabbing the Spooky Ghost's Spooky Ghost Hat™ and slamming it over his glowing head. Apparently this is Spooky Ghosts' emergency stop and Scrooge is back in his own bed and quickly goes to sleep. But soon he wakes up and you know what that means. It's time for Spooky Ghost #2! Scrooge sits on the bed waiting for Spooky Ghost #2, but soon realizes that he needs to be a little more proactive. There's a lot of light and noise coming from under his bedroom door, so he goes outside to discover that Spooky Ghost #2 has thrown a big, lavish Christmas party in his dining room.

The spooky ghost in question is the Ghost of Christmas Present, a giant with a torch and dressed in holly and greenery. Scrooge knows how it works and tells the ghost to show him what he wants and Jolly Green tells him to take his cloak and hold on. As soon as he does, the room changes and suddenly they are on the street on Christmas morning. Everyone is preparing for the big day. And although the dirty street isn't exactly festive, everyone is excited for Christmas and the atmosphere is overwhelmingly joyful. The ghost takes them to Bob Cratchit's house, which is small and ramshackle, but full of joy, and Cratchit's family is busy preparing dinner.

Bob comes home with his youngest son, little Tim, but, to Scrooge's horror, he sees that Tim is weak, frail and in poor health, using a brace and a small crutch to get around. But little Tim, too good for this sinful world, tells his mother that they passed by the church and hopes that the parishioners saw him and remember the miracle "Jesus heals the lame man", and are grateful that they do not do it too, being small and boring. Scrooge reads the room and asks the ghost if little Tim will live, and the ghost says, "No." The ghost then begins to approach to show Scrooge how Christmas is celebrated, even if it's in all sorts of desolate places, like an isolated lighthouse in a small mining town, and then they approach Scrooge's cousin's dinner party, which It's super fun, Christmassy and there's dancing and all that.

They play a guessing game where the punchline is Uncle Scrooge, and then they toast Scrooge because it's a really funny joke, which is... a little painful. Scrooge notices that the ghost visibly ages as the night progresses, and the ghost tells him that he will be dead of old age when the night is over, which is not surprising for an anthropomorphic personification of a day. Anyway, the ghost drops the joy to warn Scrooge. There are two emaciated, hungry children clinging to his cloak. The ghost says that they are the greatest enemies of humanity: the boy is ignorance and the girl is misery, implying that the girl represents the deprivation of the basic means of survival, while the boy represents people's willful ignorance. who pretend not to notice. the suffering of others.

The ghost tells Scrooge that he must be careful with both of them, especially the boy, who will be his personal undoing if he does not behave quickly. Scrooge asks if there is anyone who can help the children, and the ghost says, "Well, they can always try to go to jail, or one of the many asylums, or maybe they can die and stop bothering you." And with that callback, midnight arrives and the ghost disappears, but this time there's no time for naps, because Spooky Ghost #3 arrives on the scene. Spooky Ghost #3 is the creepiest ghost yet: a silent, hooded figure with no features other than an outstretched hand showing the way to Scrooge.

They enter the fog and appear in the city, which is bustling with activity. It seems like someone died recently and that's all everyone talks about. The ghost points Scrooge toward a crowd of merchants, all of whom are very excited that this mysterious person has finally died, and are debating whether or not to go to his funeral, perhaps, if there's free food. Scrooge tries to find out who the dead man is, because he can't think of anyone who is important to him. But he thinks that if he meets in the future, he will clear up the confusion.

I mean... technically, yes. The ghost takes them to a pawn shop in the bad part of town, where three people are enthusiastically trying to sell items they stole from the dead man's house, mainly small things like pens and cutlery. But a woman even stole the bedding and curtains from the bed where the body was. The others don't know whether to be disgusted or impressed. Scrooge is horrified and tells the ghost that he understands: this poor single man could be him. Can you go now? But the ghost, probably frustrated that Scrooge still doesn't understand it, takes them to a dark bedroom with a body covered with a sheet on the bed and orders Scrooge to find out, which Scrooge steadfastly refuses to do because "Gatver" and also "No." Scrooge begs the ghost to show everyone in town that they feel something about this man's death, and the ghost thinks for a moment before leading them to a house, where a mother and her children wait nervously.

The father comes in and tells them that the man who is their debt is dead and that they will be able to pay it off when the debt is transferred to someone else. The family celebrates and Scrooge is deeply disturbed because the only emotion heWhat this death evoked was joy. He asks the ghost to show him someone who is mourning a death tonight, and the ghost takes them to a familiar place: the Cratchit family, who are now very subdued and sad, and where little Tim is missing. Bob breaks down describing how beautiful the cemetery is. But the family manages to come together somehow, in honor of little Tim's memory that he is "too good for this bad world." Unable to handle this, Scrooge demands that the ghost tell him who the dead man is, and the ghost walks them straight to an overgrown grave with Ebenezer Scrooge written on it.

That? It's a big surprise. Incredible. Scrooge gets scared and asks if this is what will happen or what could happen, and if there is a way to change the future. The ghost doesn't respond, but he shakes a little and Scrooge grabs the ghost's hand, only to wake up in his own room. Scrooge is delighted to be awake, alive, and free of ghosts, and after running like an adrenaline-fueled madman for a few minutes, he concentrates and realizes that he doesn't know what day it is. He yells out the window at a kid on the street who tells him it's Christmas, of course, and Scrooge is super excited to have the chance to make this Christmas great after all.

He pays the boy to go to the store and buy the biggest turkey they have and send it to Cratchit's house, and then Scrooge goes to find those guys looking for donations and tells them that they have to pay him a strangely high amount . amount. He then goes to his cousin's house and asks if the Christmas dinner invitation is still available and he spends the night partying with his cousin's wife and his friends, and has a great time. The next day, Bob arrives and apologizes for his lateness, and Scrooge ominously tells him that they have to make sure this doesn't happen again: by raising his salary and doing everything he can to support his family!

Scrooge becomes generous and kind, and practically a second father to Bob's children, and little Tim doesn't die and everything becomes happy and wonderful. Yes, Christmas.