A Christmas Carol

Categories: 1843 books | Christmas fiction | Christmas films | Charles Dickens novels

Image:Ignorance&Want3.jpg
Ebenezer Scrooge encounters "Ignorance" and "Want" in A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol is a novella written by Charles Dickens. First published on December 17, 1843, the book was an instant success. Thousands of copies were sold within weeks. Originally written as a potboiler to enable Dickens to pay off a debt, this story has become one of the most popular and enduring Christmas stories of all time.

In fact, some historians have suggested that the very popularity of this story played a critical role in redefining the modern importance of Christmas and the major sentiments associated with the holiday.

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Plot synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The story is a Victorian morality tale of an old and bitter miser, Ebenezer Scrooge, who undergoes a profound experience of redemption. On Christmas Eve, Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his deceased business partner, Jacob Marley. Marley, who in life was as miserly as Scrooge, is condemned to an eternity of carrying a heavy chain which he forged in life, and being unable to interfere for the good of mankind, which he would never have thought to do in life. The reason for Marley's visit is to give Scrooge an chance to avoid Marley's fate. Scrooge is sceptical of what he has seen and heard, but during the course of the night, he is visited by spirits of "Christmas Past", "Christmas Present" and "Christmas Yet to Come". The ghosts show Scrooge scenes from his life (past, present and future) that open his eyes and make him realise that he desperately needs love and forgiveness from his fellow men. In the end, Scrooge changes his life and reverts to the generous, kind-hearted soul he was in his youth, before the death of his sister, the only person in his youth who seemed to care for him.

Tiny Tim is the lame youngest child of Bob Cratchit, Scrooge's poor and ill-treated clerk. Scrooge's spirit-provided visions show him the meagre Christmas celebrations of the Cratchit family, the sweet nature of Tiny Tim, and a possible early death for the child; this prospect is the immediate catalyst for his change of heart.

The story deals extensively with two of Dickens' recurrent themes, social injustice and poverty, the relationship between the two, and their causes and effects. It was written to be abrupt and forceful with its message, with a working title of "The Sledgehammer." The first edition of A Christmas Carol was illustrated by John Leech a politically radical artist who in the cartoon Substance and Shadow printed earlier in 1843, had explicitly criticised artists who failed to address social issues.

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Characters

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Adaptations

A Christmas Carol has been adapted to theatre, film, radio, and television countless times. According to the Internet Movie Database, various movie adaptations of the story were filmed as early as 1910.

On December 23, 1938, CBS broadcast a radio adaptation by Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre company, in the series The Campbell Playhouse. CBS broadcast a similar adaptation in 1939, as well as a reading before a live studio audience.

The story has also been used by successive generations of movie-makers and television directors to make their own points. In particular, many sitcoms have had episodes adapting or parodying the story for their Christmas episodes or specials.

Perhaps the most popular and critically-acclaimed film adaptation of the story was made in Great Britain in 1951. Originally titled Scrooge (and renamed A Christmas Carol for its American release), it starred Alastair Sim as Scrooge, and was directed by Brian Desmond-Hurst with a screenplay by Noel Langley.

Other noteworthy adaptations of the story include:

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External links

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