what is A Christmas carol about?
A Christmas carol is a 17th Century Novella written by Charles Dickens. It was written in the time when poverty was a normalized and it was more distinct. There are many themes to a Christmas carol, some of these are Greed, social status and the threat of time. Dickens tries to show readers that as a society, we need to work together to prevent poverty before it became an even bigger issue.
A Christmas Carol is split into 5 staves. The first Stave introduces us to Ebeneezer Scrooge, a greedy old man who feels no sympathy for anyone and who hates Christmas. It then introduces us to people who are the complete opposite of him. Like Fred, his nephew whos always joyful and loves Christmas and Bob Cratchit, one of the men he works with, Bob is apart of the lower Class social status and has a big family to feed yet is not payed enough to actually feed them properly however, he keeps a big smile on his face. Later on in stave 1, we are introduced to the ghost of Marley, Scrooge’s old partner before he passed. Marley comes to Scrooge to tell him that he needs to change his ways and his attitude towards others or hell end up like Marley and how he will be visited by 3 ghosts.
In the second stave the ghost of Christmas past visits scrooge. He shows Scrooge himself as a young boy when he was left alone as he was rejected by friends and his family. IT then shows Scrooge as a young man and how happy he was while working for Fezziwig and how he had the perfect woman, Belle, who he lost due to becoming corrupt by the money and choosing to be greedy instead of in love, Which forces Belle to leave Scrooge again, just how he was left as a child. This ghost teaches Scrooge that love and friendships have value and that they should come first.
In the third stave, the ghost of Christmas present shows him that the people he treats horribly due to their social status are the same ones who enjoy Christmas and have people to spend it with. This shows Scrooge that he’s missing out on the better parts of life with friends.
The fourth stave is the ghost of Christmas yet to come. He shows scrooge that after his death, people are happier and have no care for his death. He shows Scrooge the death of tiny Tim and how his fate is only bad unless he changed his ways for the better.
The final stave shows us Scrooge coming to the realization of all the wrong he’s done to everyone, he starts his journey on becoming a better person. He starts by greeting people instead of dismissing them on the streets, he then gives Bob Cratchit a raise and agrees to let him have the holiday off. He also helps the Cratchits by getting them a real turkey for their Christmas dinner. He learns to be generous to others as well as being patient and defeating the selfish and greedy life he always lived.
The Cook
The cook is a side character who only has lines in 2 scenes, she’s a ghostly looking woman who is quite flushed in the cheeks due to being in the kitchen cooking scrooge’s food. She works alongside the charwoman (Alex) and sparsit (Steven). She later on within the play is shown to be stealing from scrooge after his death in stave IV with sparsit and the charwoman.