A Change of Heart In the book, A Christmas Carol, the author, Charles Dickens, explains an old man who is hateful, rude, cold-hearted, and very covetous named Ebenezer Scrooge. In the story, Scrooge gets offered the opportunity of a life-time; to change his attitude and behavior and become a better person. He gets a second chance at life and he takes that chance. The cruelest man became the kindest and it was all because of four ghosts. Although the four spirits that haunted Scrooge had some kind of impact in his transformation, The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come was the one that was most influential to his alteration. The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come was definitely the scariest spirit and that is one of the reasons it was a bigger impact on Scrooge. His appearance frightened Scrooge. It says in Stave Four, “The Phantom slowly, gravely, silently, approached. When it came near him, Scrooge bent down upon his knee; for in the very air through which this Spirit moved it seemed to scatter gloom and misery” (Dickens, 50). This …show more content…
The spirit’s appearance frightens him, the thought of dying alone scares him, and just the fear of death is what triggers his full transformation. All of the other ghosts help him in some way, but The Ghost of Christmas Future definitely is the one that is most powerful. It even says in Stave Four, “Ghost of the Future!” he exclaimed. “I fear you the more than any other Spectre I have seen. But, as I know your promise is to do me good, and as I hope to live to be another man from what I was, I am prepared to bear you company, and do it with a thankful heart” (Dickens, 51). If it was not for the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come, Scrooge would not have turned out to be the kindest man and Tiny Tim would have probably not lived. Now Scrooge is transformed into a new man and will never be a hateful, rude, cold-hearted, and covetous person ever
Through the visitations of the three spirits, Dickens reveals feelings in Scrooge that have been repressed, which facilitates Scrooge’s change. The ghost of Marley warns Scrooge “You will be haunted by Three Spirits” The spirits are used by Dickens to take Scrooge through a journey of self-discovery and ultimately transformation.
The vivid images of the plight of the poor that are presented to Scrooge ultimately act as a catalyst for him to change his miserly ways in order to help the destitute and the needy in society. St the beginning of the novella Scrooge states “if they would rather die…they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population”. In contrast, at the end of the novella Scrooge is depicted as a benevolent man who is “so fluttered and glowing with his good intentions”, who wished to help the lest fortunate. The personified children “Ignorance” and “Want” act as a catalyst for Scrooge to change his derisory and self-interested nature as he shows interest in the plight of the poor as he is shocked by these two “ragged, scowling” demons by saying ‘ “are there no refugee or resource?” The Ghost states that “there is no degradation, no perversion of humanity” for these “wretched, abject, frightful,” children, which makes Scrooge realise that he needs to change in order to assist them as he “hung his head, overwhelmed with penitence and grief”. This, it is illustrated in the novella that Scrooge transforms his previous, pessimistic self, into an individual who is no just self-interested, but who becomes responsible and generous to the poor by the end of the novel.
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come frightens Scrooge into submission and humbles him. Scrooge cannot change until he accepts the fact that he was wrong. By scaring and intimidating Scrooge, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is able to accomplish that. Scrooge says to the spirit, “‘Ghost of the Future! I fear you more than any spectre I have seen’”(Stave IV, 2). In reaction to the spirits frightening demeanor, Scrooge becomes humble saying “‘I shall not leave its lesson, trust me.’” (Stave IV, 11). The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come’s lessons have the most impact on Scrooge because the spirit scares him into wanting to change. The ghost scares him because he represents the worst consequences. Finally, Scrooge learns he was wrong and begs the ghost, “‘Good Spirit,’” “‘Your nature intercedes for me, and pities me. Assure me that I yet may change these shadows you have shown me, by an altered life’”(Stave IV,
of this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is doom, unless
Ebenezer Scrooge is a miserable and greedy old man, who focuses mainly on his business and continues with his greedy ways on Christmas Eve. He is always grumpy and yells at his employees, and most of all at Bob Cratchit. Scrooge’s desire is to be by himself on Christmas Eve, and rejects his nephew Fred’s, invitation for dinner. One night, the ghost of Jacob Marley, a former colleague of Scrooge, who has passed away seven years ago, visits the old man. Marley reminds Scrooge of his cruel lifestyle and encourages him to change it before it is too late. He tells Scrooge that three spirits will visit him. When Scrooge falls asleep, The Ghost of Christmas Past visits him first. The Ghost shows him scenes from the past the reveal Scrooges’ live; from a lonesome young boy to a man who has allowed greed to overcome his life, a man who does not know love and compassion. Scrooge is touched by what he has seen and even allows emotions to overcome his stone-cold heart. Secondly, the Ghost of Christmas Present visits Scrooge. The Ghost takes Scrooge to several Christmas celebrations, including the party at Fred’s house. Also the Ghost takes Scrooge to the Crachit’s house, and warns him that unless the future is changed the crippled young son of Bob, Tiny Tim will die. The ghost warns Scrooge to be carful of his ignorance. Lastly the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come visits Scrooge. The old man becomes aware that several people discuses the death of someone. At last, he learns that this is
The Ghost of Christmas Present showed Scrooge many happenings from the people Scrooge knows, but the Ghost also showed him people he doesn’t know and probably never will, people who are suffering themselves. After the Ghost showed Scrooge the Cratchit’s household and his nephew’s house, he showed him people far from home, people in jails, people in hospitals, and people who were simply struggling. The Ghost blessed each of those people, the people that he had no relation to, the people whom he knew nothing about. Their struggles were relieved, the struggling more patient, the sick healed, and so on. In doing this, the Ghost showed Scrooge that although Scrooge was not magical, one person’s blessing can impact many people. He showed Scrooge that kindness and generosity can make the biggest difference, and caring about others, caring about all others, can create a big change and be beneficial to everyone.
Overly grumpy and has extortionate avarice, this is Scrooge. Scrooge may also be malcontent, and he is this little miserly ol’ curmudgeon. Happiness, kindness, and Christmas, Scrooge hates, until a clique of three apparitions comes and shows him otherwise. May I also add the fact that Scrooge is not very liberal, instead he is odious, and misanthropic. This man was a miserable, depressed, heavy-hearted man. According to the text, no one ever stopped Scrooge in the street to say, with a gladsome look, “My dear Scrooge, how are you? When will you come to see me?” Scrooge has an unfortunate reputation of being antisocial, depressed, negative, untrustworthy. Extremely uncaring, and thoughtless to the poor people, Scrooge is, as he thinks there is a jail for poor people. In general, Scrooge is just very negative. The triplet of ghosts comes to show Scrooge the reasons of why it is bad to be negative, antisocial, and untrustworthy. Also, Scrooge is very much a gargantuan jerk. The three ghosts give Scrooge a last chance to change his unfortunate, bad reputation into a fortunate, positive reputation.
A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens, is a story of Christmas spirit and repentance. Ebenezer Scrooge is a hard-hearted businessman who thinks that the less attention he pays to mankind’s problems the better. He is cruel to his clerk, feared by almost all, and repulses the friendly advances of his nephew. However, on Christmas Eve, Scrooge gets a start that begins to jolt him into seeing the errors of his ways. He sees the ghost of his old partner Jacob Marley, who is doomed to walk the earth in a chain that he made in his unkind dealings with mankind, and who tells Scrooge that, in order to have hope of avoiding this, he will be visited by three spirits. The Ghost of Christmas Past shows him memories of the man he used
By this part in the novel, dickens introduced the next Ghost, the Ghost of Christmas Present. The ghost of Christmas present takes Scrooge to his clerk`s house. Here he witness the unfortunate conditions of their Christmas, however, it doesn’t appear to be so unfortunate at all; although Scrooge notices how Tiny Tim is crippled and at deaths door. He is moved by this sight, and that of his clerk’s family. He had never imagined their lives to be like this before; however it’s astonishing to him, that although extremely poor, they are full of joy and happiness. He notices the simple pleasures of family life as well. Furthermore something strange begins to happen, he sympathises with Tiny Time, who Scrooge understands will die without financial help. Dickens has showed us how scrooge is changing and learning to sympathise, a “skill” he previously didn’t have. "Spirit," said Scrooge, with an interest he had never felt before, "tell me if Tiny Tim will live." ' Dickens once more showing us scrooges new found affections. Additionally when the Spirit predicts “an empty chair if things do not change”, Scrooge is quite
Ebenezer Scrooge learned a great deal about himself during the visitations of the three ghosts in A Christmas Carol. He learned things that not only changed his life, but also the lives of others such as Tiny Tim and his family. At first these changes came gradually, probably because they where not really "fuelled" by fear of what might be, but instead by remorse for things he had already done. Not until the second and third spirits visit Scrooge can a true change due to fear, not only in fear for what might be during his life but also in the end.
In 'A Christmas Carol', Dickens represents Scrooge as a 'squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner' who is against Christmas and happiness and values money, yet given a chance to redeem his fate. Marley's Ghost has come to warn Scrooge to change
Using the first spirit, Scrooge was forced to face the fact that people viewed him as greedy and selfish, and began to open him up to the fact that he needs to change. The second spirit, The Ghost of Christmas Present, arrived and took Scrooge to the home of a worker of his, Bob Cratchit. It showed the family content, despite barely getting by. When Scrooge saw Bob’s sick son, he began to show worry that he would not survive. When the spirit told him that the son would not make it to next Christmas, this made Scrooge want to help him. This kind of emotion was unlike him, showing that he was changing (CC40). The spirit then took him to several other Christmas gatherings, where he enjoyed himself and played many games, even though he was merely in a dream. This spirit was used to open up Scrooge and showed his inner want to be around people. These thoughts for Scrooge were different than his from the beginning of the novel, showing that the spirits were being used to teach valuable lessons to Scrooge. The final spirit arrived, but would not answer when asked if he was the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. Scrooge plead with the ghost to share his lesson with him, fearful of becoming like Marley (CC51). The silent spirit took Scrooge to a series of strange places, showing people discussing the death of a dead rich man. He then began to understand the
Charles Dickens, renowned social critic and celebrated author of the Victorian Era. In his most cherished yuletide novella, Dickens’ explores the idea of transformation and man’s ability to redeem himself. By observing Scrooge’s conversion from misanthrope to humanitarian, the reader can understand that Scrooge is only able to transform because of the ghost’s intervention. Each spirit’s visit secures a part of Scrooge’s developing social conscience. As the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come exits the narrative, the initial antagonist of the novella, Ebenezer Scrooge, does transform into “as good
When Scrooge realized this he began to feel sad and unliked. Next, they visit Scrooge’s nephew’s house. He listened to their conversation and they were all talking bad about him. This caused Scrooge to feel sad and unloved. From seeing these visions Scrooge sees how he had been treating people
Suddenly, the Ghost of Christmas Future appears and tries to teach him not to continue being a miser. Although Future doesn’t say a word, he changes Scrooge the most. The first thing Future shows him is three men talking about a certain man that died. “I thought he’d never die,” (712) stated one of the men. Next, Future shows Scrooge a group of poor thieves trading some of the valuable items they stole. Apparently, one of the thieves stole clothes right off of a dead man’s body. “They’d have wasted it, if it hadn’t been for me,” (715) said the thief. Then, Future took Scrooge to the Cratchit’s house where they learned Tiny Tim had died as well as some man everyone was talking about. Scrooge didn’t know who the dead man was. He’d simply assumed it was Marley; however, it turned out to be him. Future pointed right