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Introduction On an October night in 1843, a man in his early thirties – no doubt flamboyantly dressed – walks alone for 20 miles along London’s dark streets. Most of the city’s residents are in bed. He walks quickly, without stopping. He appears tearful, but, every now and then, without apparent cause, he bursts into laughter. He may walk past the Marylebone Workhouse for the poor, just a few minutes from his home at Devonshire Terrace; his route may also take him to the grand mansions just oﬀ Piccadilly or, perhaps, to one of the infamous slums, with their two-room houses, pawnbrokers and open sewers. The man walking is, of course, Charles Dickens. And, on walks such as these, in just six weeks of frenzied work, he would compose his most popular work: A Christmas Carol. Almost immediately, this small novel struck a chord with its readers. With the miserly Scrooge, poor Tiny Tim and the famous ‘Bah! Humbug!’, it has become a rare example of a story instantly recognised by millions of people, including many who have never actually read the book. It has even had a hand in shaping attitudes towards Christmas itself: chiefly its associations with family and charity. Yet the book Dickens composed on those long London night walks is more serious than a simple Christmas story.

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INTRODUCTION

Contexts Why Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol Earlier in 1843, a friend of Dickens had sent him the ‘Second Report of the Children’s Employment Commission’, set up by Parliament. It shockingly revealed that in Britain, children under seven years worked 10 or 12 hours a day in terrible conditions, unprotected by any law. Dickens was, as he wrote in a letter to the friend, ‘perfectly stricken down’ with rage by what he read, and saw the ‘necessity of a mighty change’ in British society. 1 In recognisably Dickensian prose, he levelled his anger in particular at what he called elsewhere the ‘sleek, slobbering, bow-paunched, overfed, apoplectic, snorting cattle’ of the ruling class.2 In response to the report, Dickens initially intended to write a pamphlet entitled ‘An Appeal to the People of England, on behalf of the Poor Man’s Child’, but he soon changed his mind. Instead, he had the idea for A Christmas Carol, a novel he hoped would aﬀect its readers like a ‘Sledge hammer’ coming down with ‘twenty thousand times the force’ of a pamphlet.3 The day after he started writing A Christmas Carol, on 5 October 1843, Dickens made a speech at the Manchester Athenaeum, an organisation that sought to advance ‘Knowledge and Learning’ for working people. With reference to the appalling sights he had seen in his visits to prisons and workhouses, Dickens’s speech was a furious attack on a society that insisted on keeping the poor in a state of ignorance. Learning and knowledge, he said, bring ‘an inward dignity of character’ that, once maintained, not even the ‘direst poverty’ can overcome.4

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INTRODUCTION

We can argue this idea is at the very core of A Christmas Carol, and is perhaps most clearly symbolised by the two children, the ‘pinched’ and ‘twisted’ personifications of Ignorance and Want that Scrooge meets at the end of Chapter 3. Man-made poverty and a lack of education have ‘pulled’ these children to ‘shreds’, and, where ‘angels might have sat enthroned, devils lurked, and glared out menacing’ (p.72). Many in 1840s Britain, including Dickens, noted with fear the upheavals of revolution in continental Europe, and thought back to the French Revolution and its bloody aftermath. Could this be what the word ‘Doom’ on the brow of the child-figure of Ignorance threatens? By telling the story of Scrooge’s redemption, Dickens wanted his novel to change the way his readers perceived poverty and the actions of the wealthy. The Preface eﬀectively says as much: the book’s idea should ‘haunt’ its readers like a ghost, and Dickens asks them to not ‘lay’ the novel away when they have finished reading it.5

Poverty and the Industrial Revolution Dickens was writing at a time of great social change. In just a couple of generations, the Industrial Revolution transformed Britain from a largely rural society to an industrial one, with thousands migrating from the countryside to big cities in search of work. Many lived in terrible, over-crowded conditions. The 1840s were a particularly diﬃcult time for the poor: a slump in trade in 1839 led to a steep increase in unemployment; the price of bread was kept artificially high by the Corn Laws, which imposed tax on imported corn; there was a series of bad harvests. The 1840s therefore became vi

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CHAPTER 1 Marley’s Ghost Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it: and Scrooge’s name was good upon ’Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a doornail. Mind! I don’t mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a doornail. I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coﬃn-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the Country’s done for. You will therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as dead as a doornail. Scrooge knew he was dead? Of course he did. How could it be otherwise? Scrooge and he were partners for I don’t know how many years. Scrooge was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole assign, his sole residuary legatee, his sole friend and sole mourner. And even Scrooge was not so dreadfully cut up by the sad event, but that he was an excellent man of business on the very day of the funeral, and solemnised it with an undoubted bargain. The mention of Marley’s funeral brings me back to 1

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CHARLES DICKENS

the point I started from. There is no doubt that Marley was dead. This must be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to relate. If we were not perfectly convinced that Hamlet’s Father died before the play began, there would be nothing more remarkable in his taking a stroll at night, in an easterly wind, upon his own ramparts, than there would be in any other middle-aged gentleman rashly turning out after dark in a breezy spot – say Saint Paul’s Churchyard for instance – literally to astonish his son’s weak mind. Scrooge never painted out Old Marley’s name. There it stood, years afterwards, above the warehouse door: Scrooge and Marley. The firm was known as Scrooge and Marley. Sometimes people new to the business called Scrooge Scrooge, and sometimes Marley, but he answered to both names: it was all the same to him. Oh! but he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiﬀened his gait, made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A frosty rime was on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low temperature always about with him; he iced his oﬃce in the dog-days; and didn’t thaw it one degree at Christmas. External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth could warm, nor wintry weather chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no 2

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A CHRISTMAS CAROL

pelting rain less open to entreaty. Foul weather didn’t know where to have him. The heaviest rain, and snow, and hail, and sleet, could boast of the advantage over him in only one respect. They often ‘came down’ handsomely, and Scrooge never did. Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks, ‘My dear Scrooge, how are you? when will you come to see me?’ No beggars implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it was o’clock, no man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to such and such a place, of Scrooge. Even the blindmen’s dogs appeared to know him; and when they saw him coming on, would tug their owners into doorways and up courts; and then would wag their tails as though they said, ‘No eye at all is better than an evil eye, dark master!’ But what did Scrooge care? It was the very thing he liked. To edge his way along the crowded paths of life, warning all human sympathy to keep its distance, was what the knowing ones call ‘nuts’ to Scrooge. Once upon a time – of all the good days in the year, on Christmas Eve – old Scrooge sat busy in his counting-house. It was cold, bleak, biting weather: foggy withal: and he could hear the people in the court outside, go wheezing up and down, beating their hands upon their breasts, and stamping their feet upon the pavement-stones to warm them. The city clocks had only just gone three, but it was quite dark already: it had not been light all day: and candles were flaring in the windows of the neighbouring oﬃces, like ruddy smears upon the palpable brown air. The fog came pouring in at every chink and keyhole, and was so dense without, that although the court was of the narrowest, the houses opposite were mere phantoms. To see the dingy 3

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Glossary Chapter 1 1

’Change: the Royal Exchange in the City of London, which was a centre for trade and commerce. Scrooge is probably a moneylender operating in this financial district.

sole executor: a legal term, meaning the person who settles and administers a dead person’s estate

sole assign: a legal term, meaning a person who is appointed to act for another

sole residuary legatee: the person who inherits whatever is left of an estate after somebody dies

Hamlet’s Father: In William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, the ghost of Hamlet’s father appears to his son just after midnight on the ramparts (or outside walls) of the family castle.

Saint Paul’s Churchyard: St Paul’s Cathedral in the City of London

dog-days: referring to the hottest period of the year (3 July to 11 August), when a star called ‘Sirius’, or the Dog star, rises with the Sun in the east

‘came down’: a slang word, meaning to give money with great generosity

‘nuts’: a slang word, meaning something which is very pleasant

counting-house: the oﬃce in which a business’s or household’s money is kept

court: a courtyard

comforter: a woollen scarf

‘Humbug!’: nonsense or rubbish

your situation: employment or job

see him in that extremity first: a slightly more polite way of saying ‘see him damned to hell’

Bedlam: abbreviation or common name for the Hospital of St Mary of Bethlehem, where ‘lunatics’ were taken care of 102

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GLOSSARY

Union workhouses and Poor Law: As a result of the passing of the Poor Law Amendment Act in 1834, the ‘poor law unions’ were formed to build workhouses for the poor and destitute. Able-bodied unemployed people would be helped by the state only if they agreed to enter these workhouses, which were designed to be incredibly unpleasant places to live and work. Prior to this amendment, the poor could receive assistance in the form of money, food or clothing without the requirement that they enter a workhouse.

The Treadmill: a hard-labour device used in Victorian prisons, which allowed the prisoners to be of public use by grinding corn; the prisoners would hold on to a bar while climbing a stepped wheel

decrease the surplus population: a direct reference to the economist Thomas Malthus’s (1766–1834) ideas about population. In his Essay on the Principle of Population, he argued that if a man has no food, and society does not want his labour, then he has no right to the food produced by that society; he therefore should be allowed to die and decrease the population and hence the demand for food.

flaring links: torches used for lighting the way on dark streets

brazier: a portable metal container for burning charcoal or coal, used for cooking and heating

Poulterers’: people or shops selling chickens, geese, turkeys, and so on.

Lord Mayor and Mansion House: the mayor of the City of London, whose oﬃcial residence is Mansion House

Saint Dunstan and the Evil Spirit’s nose: Saint Dunstan (AD 924–88) was a skilled metalworker who, legend has it, pinched the devil (the ‘Evil Spirit’) by the nose with a pair of red-hot tongs.

‘God bless you merry gentleman! / May nothing you dismay!’: Dickens, interestingly, is here altering the words of a traditional carol (‘God rest ye merry gentlemen / Let nothing you dismay’).

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GLOSSARY

half-a-crown: two shillings and sixpence. This is onesixth of Bob’s weekly salary, since he works six days a week. Cratchit has one day’s holiday a year, and earns 15 shillings (75p) per six-day week (the equivalent of about £65 in today’s money). On this salary, he supports a large family.

Genius of the Weather: ‘Genius’ was the name given to a spirit in Classical mythology that was thought to protect a person, place or object.

the corporation, aldermen, and livery: The Corporation governs the City of London; the senior members of the Corporation are called aldermen, and the liverymen belonged to an organisation of craftsmen called a guild.

driving a coach-and-six … Act of Parliament: Dickens here alludes to Daniel O’Connell, an Irish MP, who once mocked an Act of Parliament that he said was so badly written he could ride a coach drawn by six horses through it (meaning he could easily find a loop-hole).

dip: candle made from animal fat; usually cheaper than a wax candle

lumber-room: room used for storing old pieces of furniture

gruel: a thin porridge, usually consisting of oats and water

the Scriptures: the books of the Bible

Cains and Abels: Cain and Abel were the first two sons of Adam and Eve in the Bible.

Pharaoh’s daughters: Pharaoh’s daughter is a figure from the Bible who married King Solomon.

Queens of Sheba: a wealthy figure from the Bible who visited King Solomon

Abrahams: an important prophet in Judaism, Islam and Christianity

Belshazzars: Belshazzar was the son of the last king of Babylon; he died c.539 BC.

Apostles: early followers of Jesus

butter-boats: small vessels used for holding melted butter at a table. Dickens might be suggesting the size of the boats depicted in the fantastic landscapes on the fireplace.

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GLOSSARY

the ancient Prophet’s rod: from the Old Testament of the Bible; Aaron – a Prophet – had a rod that transformed into a serpent

Marley had no bowels: the bowels used to also have associations with mercy and emotions

for a shade … to a shade: ‘for a shade’ means for a ghost (a shade is another word for a ghost); ‘to a shade’ means to a degree

play … the very deuce with him: annoy or frustrate

the bandage round its head: The dead were usually bound around the chin with a bandage to prevent the mouth from opening.

ministers: those who attend to the needs of others, especially in religious matters

Ward: a night watchman who patrolled the streets of London

that blessed Star which led the Wise Men to a poor abode: from the Christian nativity, in which wise men were inspired to follow the Star of Bethlehem to Jesus’s home, where they gave him gifts

Chapter 2 25

a mere United States’ security: During the early 1830s, some states in the USA borrowed money which, following a financial crisis, they were unable to repay. Scrooge is concerned that, without any days to measure when he is due to be repaid, his loans to others would become worthless.

cupola: roof or ceiling in the form of a dome

Ali Baba: hero from the folk tale ‘Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves’, which is one of the most familiar tales from a collection called Arabian Nights

Valentine … and his wild brother, Orson: reference to an old folk tale about two brothers born in a forest; one was snatched by a bear and became a wild man, and the other became a knight in a king’s court

Gate of Damascus … Sultan’s Groom: in another Arabian Nights story, ‘Nur-ed-Din and his Son and Shemsed-Din and his Daughter’, the daughter is forced to marry 105

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