A Christmas Carol is one of Charles Dickens’ most famous and influential novels. Its retelling during the holiday season each year marks a tradition for many families who observe the Christian faith. On the surface, Dickens’ novel is a moral tale showing that character change and benevolence is possible, even in the stubbornest of non-believers, especially during the holiday season. However, a closer reading suggests that A Christmas Carol functions as Dickens’ critique on capitalist society and a campaign for rights of the underprivileged. In A Christmas Carol, Dickens primarily uses the four hauntings—Jacob Marley and the ghosts of the past, present, and future—as well as Ebenezer Scrooge’s journey through time as a critique on the treatment of the poor in Victorian society and an advocacy for change.
After the visit from Ebenezer Scrooge’s ghostly business associate Jacob Marley, the first ghost to haunt Ebenezer Scrooge during his long, redemptive night is the Ghost of Christmas Past. Dickens describes this ghost in conflicting terms, both an “old man” and “a child,” with hair “white, as if with age,” and yet a face without “a wrinkle in it” (Dickens 30). This uncertain description underscores the ghostly nature of the visitor and emphasizes Scrooge’s confusion after being woken from sleep. As the Ghost of Christmas Past takes Scrooge on his initial journey of the night, readers see the influence of class structure and wealth in the text. The ghost takes Scrooge to his past, and readers view Scrooge’s childhood upbringing and the impoverished conditions of his youth: “the room became a little darker and more dirty. The panels shrunk, the windows cracked; fragments of plaster fell out of the ceiling, and the naked laths were shown instead” (Dickens 36).
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This impoverished description shows readers how Scrooge’s roots in the lower class later influenced his journey to capitalistic gain. Nevertheless, Scrooge’s initiation into capitalist economy and his subsequent gains in wealth come at the price of his own humanity, as Jacob Marley had pointed out in the initial haunting. When Scrooge had suggested he was a man of “business,” Marley replied, “Business! … Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!” (Dickens 22). This quote connects with the Ghost of Christmas Past and his picture of Scrooge’s meager surroundings while away at school. Marley’s words underscore Scrooge’s mistake in trading his humanity for capitalistic gains. By following the path of “business,” Scrooge becomes a hardened man, one incapable of kindness, charity, and benevolence, all tenets of Christian faith.
Moreover, Scrooge’s haunting by the Ghost of Christmas Present also emphasizes the plight of the poor in Victorian capitalist society and the tension between humanity and acquiring wealth. As the ghost brings Scrooge to a scene from Christmas present, readers see an impoverished setting— “a bleak and desert moor, where monstrous masses of rude stone were cast about” (Dickens 73)—where a family of miners celebrates Christmas. Despite their abject poverty, the family still sings carols and makes the best of their situation. Soon after, the ghost shows Scrooge a vision of the spiritual “children” residing beneath his robe. The ghost labels these horrible creatures “Ignorance,” “Want,” and “Doom” and, in an ironic twist, mocks Scrooge’s own earlier words prior to the hauntings of the Christmas Eve night. When asked to contribute funds toward the cause of the poor, Scrooge had asked, “Are there no prisons … and workhouses?” (Dickens 8).
Flashing forward to the visions of Christmas Present, the spirit mocks Scrooge’s earlier words. When Scrooge asks, “Have they no refuge or resource?” regarding the “children” Ignorance, Want, and Doom, the ghost replies, “Are there no prisons … are there no workhouses?” (Dickens 85). Here, the ghost helps Scrooge make the connection between his earlier stinginess regarding the poor and his more current empathy toward them. Once the Ghost of Christmas Present shows him the firsthand plight of the poor, Scrooge feels shame at his treatment of the underprivileged and his miserliness toward his own employees, such as Bob Cratchit. As Scrooge experiences an epiphany, punctuated by the Ghost of Christmas Future and the implication of Scrooge’s own death as symbolized by the writing on his tombstone, the reader also sees the plight of the poor in Victorian society and the error in choosing capitalistic gain over Christian humanity and kindness.
Charles Dickens’ classic work of fiction A Christmas Carol holds a timeless aspect that appeals to audiences of all ages and time periods. Dickens’ moral tale is retold every year during the holiday season, and it has gained a prominent place in modern popular culture. Dickens’ novel, and the many film adaptations, remain so popular today because the moral message is as relevant today as ever. With a growing increase between the rich and poor in contemporary society, and with the class divide as prominent as ever, Dickens’ message of caution regarding the negatives of pursuing capitalistic gain over Christian humanity is a message to which all of society can relate. Though on the surface the novel reads as a redemptive tale of character change, a closer reading reveals that the frequent images of poverty and the plight of the underprivileged in the narrative prove a point regarding the harms of exclusively choosing capitalism and materialistic greed over common human interest and helping those less privileged.
