Study notes: A Christmas Carol
Ebenezer Scrooge likes money and dislikes Christmas, charity, and his clerk Bob Cratchit. On Christmas Eve he is visited by the ghost of his partner and by three spirits who show him his past, other people’s present, and a future he is walking toward. Dickens wrote the book quickly, for money and for a point: a rich man in a poor city is making a choice every day. The ghosts are the machine. The Cratchit family is the reason the machine exists.
Themes
Generosity is a habit. Workplaces can be cruel in small ways. It is not too late to change, but the book does not pretend change is free.
People to follow
Scrooge, Bob Cratchit, Tiny Tim, and the three spirits.
Talk about
- What does Scrooge think he is protecting by being mean?
- Which visit changes him most?
- What would a modern Scrooge refuse to pay for?
Public-domain text.