Discussion Literature / AChristmasCarol

I'm going to remove All Just a Dream and Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane from the page, and I'd like to give my argument here, because it's too long to fit into the Edit Reason box.

First of all, the narrator never gives any hint that Scrooge's experience is a dream. Quite the opposite, in fact. He begins the story emphasizing that what is about to happen in the story is "wonderful" —that is, capable of inspiring wonder.

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.

A little later, he essentially dares the reader to come up with a non-supernatural explanation for the door-knocker incident.

Now, it is a fact, that there was nothing at all particular about the knocker on the door, except that it was very large. It is also a fact, that Scrooge had seen it, night and morning, during his whole residence in that place; also that Scrooge had as little of what is called fancy about him as any man in the city of London, even including—which is a bold word—the corporation, aldermen, and livery. Let it also be borne in mind that Scrooge had not bestowed one thought on Marley, since his last mention of his seven years’ dead partner that afternoon. And then let any man explain to me, if he can, how it happened that Scrooge, having his key in the lock of the door, saw in the knocker, without its undergoing any intermediate process of change—not a knocker, but Marley’s face.

Of course, the mere fact of the door-knocker incident is an argument against the All Just a Dream interpretation in and of itself. We have literally just followed Scrooge home from the office, and there is no indication that he is tired enough to fall asleep on his feet.

Then, when Marley shows up, Marley himself argues that Scrooge has no reason to believe that what's happening isn't real, aside from the fact that he doesn't want to believe it's real.

“You don’t believe in me,” observed the Ghost.

“I don’t,” said Scrooge.

“What evidence would you have of my reality beyond that of your senses?”

“I don’t know,” said Scrooge.

“Why do you doubt your senses?”

Scrooge follows this with his tirade about "disorder[s] of the stomach" and his quip about how "There's more of gravy than of grave about you"—which is, the narrator emphasizes, merely his way of distracting himself from how absolutely terrified he is.

After Marley departs, the narrator explicitly notes that Scrooge goes to sleep, and then wakes up again before the Ghost of Christmas Past is scheduled to arrive, and then cannot get back to sleep.

Scrooge lay in this state until the chime had gone three quarters more, when he remembered, on a sudden, that the Ghost had warned him of a visitation when the bell tolled one. He resolved to lie awake until the hour was passed; and, considering that he could no more go to sleep than go to Heaven, this was perhaps the wisest resolution in his power.

A similar thing happens when the Ghost of Christmas Past departs: the narration explicitly notes that Scrooge goes to sleep...

He was conscious of being exhausted, and overcome by an irresistible drowsiness; and, further, of being in his own bedroom. He gave the cap a parting squeeze, in which his hand relaxed; and had barely time to reel to bed, before he sank into a heavy sleep.

...and then wakes up again.

Awaking in the middle of a prodigiously tough snore, and sitting up in bed to get his thoughts together...

The visit of the Ghost of Christmas Present begins shortly afterwards. He shows Scrooge, among other things, a vision of his nephew Fred's upcoming Christmas party. Put a pin in that, we'll come back to it.

Present's visit flows straight into Yet To Come's, before depositing Scrooge back in his bedchamber. The narrator does not mention Scrooge waking up.

Holding up his hands in a last prayer to have his fate reversed, he saw an alteration in the Phantom’s hood and dress. It shrunk, collapsed, and dwindled down into a bedpost.

Later that day, Scrooge actually attends his nephew Fred's Christmas party, where he recognizes all the other guests, because it's his second time at the party. There is no non-supernatural way to explain this. Fred mentioned earlier in the book that Scrooge had never visited his house before, and Scrooge has not had any kind of social life for decades. So there is basically zero chance that he has met any of these people before, let alone all of them. And yet:

His niece looked just the same. So did Topper when he came. So did the plump sister when she came. So did every one when they came.

In short: the only reasonable conclusion, within the logic of the story, is that something supernatural really did happen to Scrooge. Some of the adaptations might change this, but in the original work, it's unmistakable.

Should we put the adaptations with pages at the top of the page for easier reading since it's Adaptation Overdosed? The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde does that.

Deleted Easily Forgiven. The only characters that meet Scrooge after his Heel–Face Turn are Bob, Fred, and the charity guy. Fred has nothing to forgive him for, having said himself that Scrooge's sourness hurts nobody but Scrooge. And Bob Cratchit has just been given a raise and the prospect of career advancement so him forgiving Scrooge makes sense enough. The charity guy of course is happy because Scrooge gave him a large donation.

About the mentions of Corrupt Corporate Executive, I can't really see it with Ebenezer. Yes, he's obsessed with profit, and is the definition of a miser, but I can't really see the "Corrupt." After all, he treats himself no better than he treats others.

Of course, Scrooge and Marley was a partnership, which became a sole proprietorship once Marley passed on, so "Corporate" would not likely be accurate, either.

I've moved these comments from under Alternative Character Interpretation here, to prevent the main page going into thread mode.

• You are absoloutely evil.
• Hey, wait just a minute. Since when do businessmen want to pay workers what they're worth?

Businessmen like Scrooge in the 1840s certainly did not pay their employees what they were worth - that is, the price that their labour would fetch on a free market. Instead, there were "gentlemen's agreements" that acted like reverse unions - employers would get together and decide what they were going to pay their staff, in order to keep wages low.

How come this lacks a charecter page?