A Christmas Carol: The Use of Ghostly Elements as a Social Critique

A Christmas Carol is a novella by Charles Dickens published on Christmas Eve and contains several themes, including the Christmas spirit, redemption, social injustice, generosity, and transformation. It tells the story of Ebenezer Scrooge who is the main character of the novella, and he transforms from a miser into a good-hearted and charitable person thanks to ghost characters warning him and taking him on various journeys where they show the past, present, and future of his life. That is, his transformation takes place with the contribution of the ghost elements in the story. Even in the preface to the book, Dickens says, “I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it…” (Dickens 7), emphasizing that ghosts are trying to convey an idea; thus, they have an important place in the course of the book.

A Christmas Carol Movie (photo: https://bilder.wunschliste.de)

During the story, Scrooge encounters the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley, the Ghost of Christmas Past who takes him to his past, the Ghost of Christmas Present who demonstrates his current life, and the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come who shows his future and makes him realize what a cruel person he is. According to Annas, “The Christmas ghosts can change the structure of the novel A Christmas Carol because they carry messages that the novel wants to convey. The messages are about human kindness, mutual help, and death” (Annas 100), demonstrating that these ghostly elements are included in the story to convey a message and to emphasise the importance and necessity of being a good-hearted and charitable person, and they change the theme of the novella by reflecting a moraland social message and criticism about society. Especially the ghost of Jacob Marley, the Ghost of Christmas Present, and the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come who change the main character and the course of the story in A Christmas Carol are used by Charles Dickens for social criticism and transform the novella from a celebration and story of Christmas into a critique which criticizes people’s attitudes in the Victorian era, where poor people were neglected and poor children were abandoned, forced to work, abused, and mistreated, and the ghostly elements constitute a social critique and change the overall atmosphere and theme of the novella.

The Ghost of Jacob Marley

One of the ghost elements used in A Christmas Carol to criticize people’s behaviour at that time and to contribute to the transformation of the novel from a celebration to a social critique is the ghost of Jacob Marley who is Ebenezer Scrooge’s former business partner. In the novella, Jacob Marley’s ghost is described with chains and fetters, referring to his punishment, sins, crimes, and regrets not to help people during his life. In the first chapter of the novella called Marley’s Ghost, when the ghost of Jacob Marley comes on Christmas Eve, Scrooge asks, “You are fettered…tell me why?”, and Marley answers, “I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it. Is its pattern strange to you?” (Dickens 29-30), and their words refer that Marley is punished since he values ​​money, work, and business more than people’s well-being and happiness, just like Scrooge does now. Therefore, his words create a criticism towards people during the Victorian era where there was a huge difference between rich and poor people, and the ghost changes the atmosphere of the story by leaving the Christmas theme behind.

After Marley dies, he is punished for his deeds while he is alive; therefore, he appears as a ghost to warn Scrooge against suffering the same fate. Marley tries to make Scrooge realize that he is a cruel person who does not help people even though he is rich, and by acting this way, he weaves fetters and chains that he will carry after death. In the same chapter, as indicated by Marley, “I am here to-night to warn you, that you have yet a chance and hope of escaping my fate. A chance and hope of my procuring, Ebenezer” (Dickens 32),and Marley’s words reveal that by warning Scrooge to turn back from his mistakes, Marley adds a social message to the novella as well as criticism of people like him in society.

The Ghost of Christmas Present

Another ghostly element turning the Christmas theme into social criticism is the Ghost of Christmas Present who is the second ghost trying to show the importance of sharing and celebrating together. The Ghost of Christmas Present introduces Ignorance, who is a boy, and Want, who is a girl, to Scrooge, and his purpose in doing this is to emphasize how miserable children were in the Victorian era. In the chapter called The Second of the Three Spirits, Dickens indicates as a narrator, “They were a boy and a girl. Yellow, meagre, ragged, scowling, wolfish…”, and in the words of the Ghost of Christmas Past, “This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both…” (Dickens 87), and these sentences point out that children are depicted as miserable instead of being prosperous, and Dickens emphasizes the social inequalities suffered by children in the Victorian period and adds a dominant social critique to this Christmas-themed story.

The Ghost of Christmas Present wants to show Scrooge that people who ignore children and alienate them from society must take responsibility. Especially in Victorian England, children were disregarded by society, and people tried to keep their conscience clear by avoiding taking responsibility. In Ferris’ view, “The effects of Scrooge’s selfishness are shown to have consequences for society: Ignorance and Want are the children born to the world out of individual lack of concern…” (Ferris 55), and his words imply that Ignorance and Want’s misery results from society’s lack of interest, children are the common problem of all humanity, and people should take responsibility.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (photo: archive)

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come

​The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come who represents death is included in the story to show the lack of sympathy of wealthy people like Scrooge towards the poor and doing good, and that this lack will be punished after death, creating a social message towards all humanity.The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come silently implies to Scrooge that he has to pay for his actions and sins while he is alive, just like Jacob Marley, and shows him the possible future if he does not change. In the chapter called The Last of the Spirit, the narrator states, “Scrooge crept towards it, trembling as he went; and, following the finger, read upon the stone of the neglected grave his own name, EBENEZER SCROOGE” (Dickens 107), and it suggests that since Scrooge ignores people who need help and doing good during his lifetime, his grave is depicted as ignored, and the ghost conveys a message to people by intimidating them not to end up like Scrooge.

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come who wants to show Scrooge the real message of this story emphasises that there is no hope in Scrooge’s future, and in fact, Scrooge understands the message the ghost wants to give and regrets it even before the ghost points to his grave. According to Saint-Amour, “Scrooge, who is privileged to witness one possible aftermath of his own life while still living, receives at the hands of the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come an object lesson in the strangeness of the dead” (Saint-Amour 97), referring that even though the ghost never speaks, Scrooge learns the lesson he needs to learn, and this makes the story a social critique by giving the message that even such a bad person can change.

​In conclusion, A Christmas Carol is a Christmas story that contains various themes,and the main character experiences a major positive change when he goes on a journey through ghosts. However, although the novella is based on the theme of Christmas, the main point is to convey a social message, which transforms the story from a Christmas-themed story into a social critique, and this message is provided through the ghost elements created by Dickens. As stated by Dickens in the introduction of the book, he actually uses these ghosts not as life-threatening elements, but as characters that give a social and moral message, lesson, and criticism and Dickens puts the story in a category of social critique beyond the Christmas theme and reflects the wrong attitudes of corrupt people towards inequality in society in the Victorian period, where poor people and children were excluded and ignored by society, and with ghostly elements, he changes the whole atmosphere and theme of A Christmas Carol.

---

Works-Cited

Annas, Hafidhun. “The Enlightening Message of Evangelical Movement: A Genetic Structuralism Study on A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.” PARADIGM: Journal of Language and Literary Studies, vol. 4, no. 2, 2022, p. 100.

Mendeley, https://doi.org/10.18860/prdg.v4i2.15267. Accessed 26 Dec. 2023.

Dickens, Charles. A Christmas Carol. Literart, 2020.

Ferris, Emily Katherine. Ignorance and Want in the Works of Charles Dickens. 2004. University of Mississippi, Honors Theses. eGrove.

Saint-Amour, Paul K. “‘Christmas Yet To Come’: Hospitality, Futurity, the Carol, and ‘The Dead’.” Representations, vol. 98, no. 1, 2007, p. 97. University of California Press, https://doi.org/10.1525/rep.2007.98.1.93. Accessed 4 Jan. 2024.