Charles Dickens and the Christmas Story

Charles Dickens’ novel ‘A Christmas Carol’ established a festive cuisine that has remained virtually unchanged since the book was first published in 1843. Prior to the 1840s the Christmas meal was traditionally on Christmas Eve not Christmas Day. ’A Christmas Carol’ not only changed the day, it introduced turkey instead of goose, and the Christmas pudding instead of plum pudding as the festive favourite.

But that is not all.

Of the 15 novels written by Charles Dickens, ’A Christmas Carol’ is the best-loved and best-known. It has endured the test of time remarkably well. A full 16 versions have found their way onto the cinema screens and it has become a Christmas staple adorning bookshelves, the stage, the ‘silver screen’, radio, and television every December. But the most important influence of this Christmas classic is the way it changed attitudes and reminded people of some basic values that had been misplaced, if not altogether forgotten, in the aftermath of the industrial revolution. 

The novel recounts the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, a miserly, grumpy, elderly man who is visited on Christmas Eve by the ghost of his deceased business partner Jacob Marley. He is then visited by the spirits of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Yet to Come. The spooky visitations frighten Scrooge, but they also serve their purpose in transforming him into a kinder and far more generous man.

Unfailing guide …

‘A Christmas Carol’ was written as a social commentary with a spiritual heart. Dickens was a dedicated Christian who was convinced of the need for biblical principles and values to be re-established and practiced in British culture. His own family’s experiences with ‘debtor’s prison’ underpinned his belief that the poor and needy should be looked after in a ‘Christian’ society. This painful episode from his past had forced him to drop out of school and to work at a factory at just 12 years old. 

Dickens believed that people should apply Biblical principles in relation to social justice. He was very familiar with the Bible and described it as his “unfailing guide to life”. The message of ‘A Christmas Carol’ is partly theological, but focuses mostly on living out Christian morals to improve society. He emulated Jesus’ use of parables to teach his readers the importance of Christian virtues. ‘A Christmas Carol’ can be viewed as one long parable.

The Nouveau Riche

The Industrial Revolution had created a whole host of nouveau riche. In just half a century, Great Britain had moved from a mostly agricultural economy to a largely industrial one. A considerable proportion of the population had consequently moved from the countryside into large towns and cities. The nationwide Christian revival of the eighteenth century had successfully established churches in smaller communities all over Britain, but the growth of industry based in towns and cities had produced a more materialistic society with less of an emphasis on spirituality and Christian values. Families in the cities often lived in squalor. One in five children died before they were five years old. Life had become harder, and certainly less moral. Crime in the cities was rife and the gap between the rich industrialists and their often poorly paid employees was widening. 

Ebenezer Scrooge and the true spirit of Christmas

Into this early Victorian scenario stepped Dickens’ unforgettable character Ebenezer Scrooge. Dickens portrays him as a man who was once principled and thoughtful, capable of loving and caring, but the hardness of competitive business, together with a failed romance, had transformed him into a bitter and greedy man who was now only really interested in his personal wealth. Even then, Scrooge was such a miser that, although he could afford it, he didn’t even look after himself properly. 

Of the many stories told about Christmas, Charles Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’ is an allegory of the Bible accounts of the birth of Jesus Christ bringing peace and joy into a broken world. Dickens’ gem points out in no uncertain terms that a change of heart and an acceptance of ‘the spirit of Christmas’ (the love of Christ) is essential for all. The analogy with being ‘born again’ and accepting the ‘Spirit of God’ is immutable.

Christian themes and references

All of Dickens’ novels have Christian themes and references, reflecting his own faith and values. But ‘A Christmas Carol’ is the most pertinent with a simple and ageless storyline which is able to reach young and old alike with powerful biblical themes. The novel is not just Charles Dickens’ best known work, it is one of the most familiar stories in modern literature across the western world.   

Although some literary critics have tried to categorise the book as simply a moralistic look at society, the Christian faith of the author leaps from every page. Writer and literary critic Eleanor Farjeon wrote that “To separate the feast of Dickens from the festival of Christ would do ‘Boz’ (Dickens’ pen name) poor justice. 

Dickens’ earlier tale ‘The Christmas Tree’ brings the main events in the life of Christ into a Christmas story. His second Christmas themed work, ‘What Christmas Is As We Get Older’, includes Jesus’ miracle of raising Jairus’ daughter from the dead. But when it comes to the masterpiece ‘A Christmas Carol’, the whole story from start to finish explores the Christian themes of redemption and forgiveness. 

More than allegory

The three nights of Scrooge’s supernatural ordeal lead to his ‘conversion’. It is only by experiencing the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come that Scrooge is able to wake up on Christmas morning with a ‘new heart’. He is a changed man. He is, essentially, ‘born again’. 

But ‘A Christmas Carol’ is not limited to allegory. The Biblical themes are explicit. Tiny Tim, the sick child of Scrooge’s clerk Bob Cratchit, tells his father on their way home from church that he hoped people had seen him with his crutch so as “to remember on Christmas Day [Jesus] who made lame beggars walk and blind men see.

Scrooge’s nephew Fred sings the praises of the first Christmas to his grumpy uncle. When Scrooge is visited by the two charitable gentlemen raising funds in order “to make some slight provision for the poor and destitute”, his careless dismissal and suggestion that the poor have work-houses to go to prompts one of the gentleman to reply that work-houses do not “furnish Christian cheer of mind or body to the multitude.

Then the ghost of Scrooge’s late partner Jacob Marley says, “…any Christian spirit will find its mortal life too short for its vast means of usefulness.” The ghost goes on to bemoan the fact that he paid little attention “to that blessed star which led the Wise Men to a poor abode.

Charles Dickens himself instructs the reader that it is good to be child-like at Christmas “when its mighty founder was a child himself.”

More than a story

In 1839, just four years before ‘A Christmas Carol’ was published, Novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton famously wrote that “the pen is mightier than the sword.” Some critics have dismissed ‘A Christmas Carol’ as a simple secular moralising tale, but this is selling Dickens’ sensational novel rather short. Dickens was cited as “the greatest force in literature since Shakespeare”. He was a devout Christian who felt compelled to share the message of hope, love, peace and joy that goes hand in hand with the story of the birth of Jesus Christ. ‘A Christmas Carol’ certainly succeeds in reminding us all of the true meaning of Christmas.  

 

Story by Ralph Burden

Photo: Portrait of Charles Dickens from 1842, painted by Francis Alexander. Public Domain

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