周志聰

Charles Dickens is generally considered the greatest English novelist of the Victorian period, as well as a vigorous social campaigner. His works are characterized by attacks on social evils, injustice and hypocrisy, and among which there is one that Dickens called his "little Christmas Book", that is A Christmas Carol.

A Christmas Carol, probably the most popular piece of fiction that Charles Dickens ever wrote, was published in1843, and was instantly successful, selling over six thousand copies in one week. It is one of the most enduring Christmas stories of all time which tells us a classic tale of a bitter old miser named Ebeneezer Scrooge.

Scrooge is a penny-pinching person who has only devoted his life to the accumulation and worship of wealth. He holds anything other than money in contempt, including friendship, love and Christmas season. He particularly detests Christmas, for he views it as a time for finding himself a year older, and not an hour richer. However, after his former partner Jacob Marley who died seven Christmas Eves ago comes to visit him, the ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Yet-to-come also come to show him the true spirit of Christmas. They take him to visit his happy past, to see his difficulties of the present and to view his bleak future. In the end, they manage to spark a dramatic change in the bitter old man. Scrooge starts to amend his mean ways of life and tries his best to be a warm hearted person who is always ready to help others and keeps the spirit of Christmas alive in his heart as well as anyone.

After reading this book, I was very gratified to see Scrooges transformation. At the beginning of the story, he was a greedy, selfish person.

“…every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart.”

He said these words above to the man who “knew how to keep Christmas well”. However, after a ghostly night, Scrooge saw life in a whole new way, which just like Charles Dickens opinion that the most miserable and hard-hearted man is able to show how he can be reformed if he sees his responsibilities.

“He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world.”

Initially I was unable to understand how Scrooge could be such a person who showed a decided lack of concern for the rest of mankind, until I finished reading his series of ghostly visits.

Fortunately, when he was shown the Christmas gathering of his employee, Bobs family and the miserable future of his old age, being sick in the bed without anyone elses care, by three Christmas ghosts, his heart softened: he regretted having such a harsh attitude towards Bob and Fred; he missed the days when he was poor but happy; he started to think about the meaning of life again and he realized that giving was happier than receiving.