Dickens has Scrooge say these words, which make the readers, feel sympathetic to Cratchit and his family because Scrooge is a miser and doesn’t want to give his employee a day off where as some employers would hold a Christmas party as well. Scrooge treats Cratchit with no respect as a person; Cratchit is just Scrooge’s employee. The ghost of Marley warns Scrooge that if he has to change his ways and he still has a chance of escaping his fate. The Ghost of Marley wore heavy chains and
“…It was made…of cash-boxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, deeds, and heavy purses wrought in steel.” The Ghost of Marley regrets not being more philanthropic in life when he was alive and he said “…Why did I walk through crowds of fellow human beings with my eyes turned down, never raise them…to a poor abode!” Outside the window, the Ghost of Marley showed Scrooge phantoms which all had chains like the Ghost of Marley. They were “Wandering hither and thither in restless haste, and moaning as they went.”
“…Some few were linked together; none were free” “…One old ghost…cried piteously at being unable to assist a wretched woman with an infant….upon a doorstep.” In stave 2, Dickens has the Ghost of Christmas Past show Scrooge himself as a young boy, when his father maltreated him. Dickens uses the Ghost of Christmas Past to show us, where Scrooge went wrong in his life. Dickens uses his past Christmases to soften Scrooge’s heart. The sight of of the past Christmases moved Scrooge especially his childhood Christmases, when he “…wept to see his poor forgotten self.” Scrooge says there was a boy last night singing at his door and he would have liked to give him something, this is as he starts feeling sorry for people. This promotes benevolence, charity and philanthropy because he is starting to change so others can too.
The Ghost of Christmas Past took Scrooge to “a certain warehouse door” and they went in. Scrooge’s immediate reaction was “Why, its old Fezziwig! Bless his heart; it’s Fezziwig alive again.” Fezziwig is important to Scrooge as he is Scrooge’s first employer and he was very philanthropic. He throws a Christmas party and Dickens describes it in a very lively manner. The Ghost of Christmas Past is working on Scrooge when he first walks into the warehouse. Fezziwig is very warm hearted, as an employer should be and Dickens contrasts between the warm hearted Fezziwig to the misery old Scrooge as employers. After Fezziwigs ball Dickens has the old Scrooge enjoy himself. Scrooge argues with the Ghost of Christmas Past about the old him and Dick giving Fezziwig praise and Scrooge says
“It isn’t that…it isn’t that, Spirit. He has the power to render us happy or unhappy; to make our service light or burdensome; a pleasure or toil. Say that his power lies in words and looks; in things so slight and significant that it is impossible to add and count ’em up; what then? The happiness he gives, is quite as great as if it cost a fortune.” Fezziwig treated Dick and Scrooge with respect and treats them almost as if they are family. Whereas Scrooge treats Cratchit with little respect and makes him work in poor conditions.
Dickens includes the section concerning the old Scrooge and his fianc�e, Belle because it shows that Scrooge did love someone but he lost it through love of money. Belle gives Scrooge the chance to break off the engagement because she is poor and she says that Scrooge loves money more than love, he has become mercenary. Dickens shows us where Scrooge chooses money over love. A mistake. Dickens just uses a very short scene that could be a whole novel but instead he of doing that he gives Belle a cameo roll. She could have been the woman of his life, Scrooge wouldn’t have ended up a bitter, lonely man. The loneliness of Scrooge is emphasised by Dickens. Scrooge extinguishes the Ghost of Christmas Past.
In stave 3, Dickens introduces to us the second of the three ghosts The Ghost of Christmas Present. The start of this stave an attractive scene is painted, Dickens paints such an attractive scene, we cannot help but be moved and excited by Christmas. Dickens describes how Christmas is a good, exciting time. The reader is reminded of this as well as Scrooge. Dickens has The Ghost of Christmas Present to take Scrooge on a tour of the city because Scrooge has never seen the city in the way the Ghost of Christmas Present shows it to him.
Dickens has Scrooge react in the way he does to the people in the street, because Dickens is showing that is asking questions about them. Dickens has Scrooge react to the Cratchits especially Tiny Tim after he said “God bless us every one!” because he had an interest that he had never felt before in whether Tiny Tim will die or survive and the spirit just says “if these shadows remain unaltered by the future, the child will die” “No, no…Oh, no, kind spirit! Say he will be spared”
“If he be like to die, he had better do it and decrease the surplus population.” When Dickens had made the spirit repeat Scrooge’s own words, Scrooge was overcome with penitence and grief and his head was hung. Dickens has Scrooge says about Cratchit only earning “but fifteen ‘Bob’ a week himself” and then the spirit blessed the four-roomed house. This promotes benevolence and charity because people like Tiny Tim and feel sorry for the Cratchit family who have to survive on a small earning. When Cratchit gives Mr. Scrooge a toast for being “founder of the feast” he wife gets cross and says she will toast for the days sake and for Bobs but not for a “odious, stingy, hard, unfeeling man as Mr. Scrooge.”
Dickens has Scrooge to react in the way that he does to his nephew, Fred because it promotes charity and benevolence. At Fred’s house there is a game of yes or no being played about Scrooge “An animal, a live animal, an animal that growled and grunted sometimes and talked sometimes and lived in London.” Fred also gave Scrooge a toast, at which “Scrooge had imperceptibly became so gay and light of heart, that he would have pledged the unconscious company in return, and thanked them in an inaudible speech, if the ghost had given him time.” This promotes benevolence and charity by people being nice to Scrooge even when he isn’t pleasant to them.
