A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

First published: 1843

Type of work: Short fiction

Type of plot: Moral

Time of plot: Nineteenth century

Locale: London

Principal Characters

• Ebenezer Scrooge, a miser
• Jacob Marley’s Ghost,
• Bob Cratchit, Scrooge’s clerk
• Tiny Tim, Cratchit’s son
• Scrooge’s Nephew,

The Story

Ebenezer Scrooge is a miser. Owner of a successful countinghouse, he will have in his bleak office only the smallest fire in the most bitter weather. For his clerk, Bob Cratchit, he allows an even smaller fire. The weather seldom matters to Scrooge, who is always cold within, never warm—even on Christmas Eve. As the time approaches for closing the office on Christmas Eve, Scrooge’s nephew stops in to wish him a merry Christmas. Scrooge only sneers, for he abhors sentiment and thinks only of one thing—money. To him, Christmas is a time when people spend more money than they should and find themselves a year older and no richer.

Grudgingly, Scrooge allows Cratchit to have Christmas Day off; that is the one concession to the holiday that he makes, but he warns Cratchit to be at work earlier the day after Christmas. Scrooge leaves his office and goes home to his rooms in a building in which he is the only tenant. They were the rooms of Scrooge’s partner, Jacob Marley, dead for seven years. As he approaches his door, he sees Marley’s face in the knocker. It is a horrible sight. Marley is looking at Scrooge with his eyes motionless, his ghostly spectacles on his ghostly forehead. As Scrooge watches, the knocker resumes its usual form. Shaken by this vision, Scrooge enters the hall and lights a candle; then he looks behind the door, half expecting to see Marley’s pigtail sticking out into the hall. Satisfied, he double-locks the door. He prepares for bed and sits for a time before the dying fire. Suddenly an unused bell hanging in the room begins to ring, as does every bell in the house.

Then from below comes the sound of heavy chains clanking. The cellar door flies open, and someone mounts the stairs. Marley’s ghost walks through Scrooge’s door—Marley, dressed as always, but with a heavy chain of cash boxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, deeds, and heavy purses around his middle.

Marley’s ghost sits down to talk to the frightened and bewildered Scrooge. Forcing Scrooge to admit that he believes what he sees is real, Marley explains that in life he never did any good for humankind and so in death he is condemned to constant traveling with no rest and no relief from the torture of remorse. The ghost says that Scrooge still has a chance to save himself from Marley’s fate. Scrooge will be visited by three spirits who will show him the way to change. The first spirit will appear the next day at the stroke of one. The next will arrive on the second night and the last on the third. Dragging his chain, the ghost disappears.

After Marley’s ghost vanishes, Scrooge goes to bed, and in spite of his nervousness, he falls asleep instantly. When he awakens, it is still dark. The clock strikes twelve. He waits for the stroke of one. As the sound of the bell dies away, his bed curtains are pulled apart, and there stands a figure with a childlike face, but with long, white hair and a strong, well-formed body. The ghost introduces itself as the Ghost of Christmas Past, Scrooge’s past. When the ghost invites Scrooge to go on a journey with him, Scrooge is unable to refuse.

They travel like the wind and stop first at Scrooge’s birthplace. There Scrooge sees himself as a boy, neglected by his friends and left alone to find adventure in books. Next, he sees himself at school, where his sister comes to take him home for Christmas. Scrooge recalls his love for his sister, who died young. The ghost reminds him that she bore a son whom Scrooge neglects. Their next stop is the scene of Scrooge’s apprenticeship, where everyone makes merry on Christmas Eve. Traveling on, they see a young girl weeping as she tells young Scrooge that she realizes he loves money more than he loves her. The ghost shows him the same girl, grown older but happy with her husband and children. Then the ghost returns Scrooge to his room, where he promptly falls asleep again.

When the Ghost of Christmas Present appears, he leads Scrooge through the city streets on Christmas morning. Their first stop is at the Cratchit home, where Bob appears with frail, crippled Tiny Tim on his shoulder. In the Cratchit home, a skimpy meal is a banquet. After dinner, Bob proposes a toast to Mr. Scrooge, even though it puts a temporary damper on the holiday gaiety. Then the ghost and Scrooge cross swiftly through the city where everyone pauses to wish one another a merry Christmas. As they look in on the home of Scrooge’s nephew, gaiety prevails, and Scrooge is tempted to join in the games. There, too, a toast is proposed to Scrooge’s health. As the clock begins to strike midnight, the ghost of Christmas Present fades away.

With the last stroke of twelve, Scrooge sees a black-shrouded phantom approaching him, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. The phantom extends his hand and forces Scrooge to follow him until they come to a group of scavengers selling the belongings of the dead. One woman enters a dead man’s room; she takes his bed curtains, bedding, and even the shirt in which he is to be buried. Scrooge sees a dead man with his face covered, but he refuses to lift the covering. Revisiting the Cratchits, he learns that Tiny Tim died.

After seeing his old countinghouse and his own neglected grave, Scrooge realizes that it was he who lay on the bed in the cold, stripped room with no one to mourn his death. Scrooge begs the spirit that it should not be so, vowing that he will change, that he will forever honor Christmas in his heart. He makes a desperate grasp for the phantom’s hand and realizes that the ghost has shriveled away and dwindled into a bedpost. Scrooge bounds out of bed and thanks Jacob Marley’s ghost for his chance to make amends. Dashing into the street, he realizes that it is Christmas Day. His first act is to order the largest turkey available to be sent anonymously to the Cratchits. The day before, Scrooge ordered a man from his countinghouse for asking for a contribution; now Scrooge gives him a large sum of money for the poor. Then he astounds his nephew by arriving at his house for Christmas dinner and by making himself the life of the party.

Scrooge never reverts to his old ways. He raises Bob’s salary, improves conditions in his office, contributes generously to all charities, and becomes a second father to Tiny Tim. It is said of him thereafter that he truly knows how to keep Christmas well.

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