A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost-Christmas Story , commonly known as A Christmas Carol , is a novel by Charles Dickens, first published in London by Chapman & amp; Hall in 1843; the first edition is illustrated by John Leech. A Christmas Carol tells the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, an elderly gamer who was visited by the ghost of his former business partner, Jacob Marley and the Christmas Ghost, Attending, and Coming. After their visit, Scrooge turned into a better and softer man.
Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol at a time when England was checking and exploring past Christmas traditions, such as Christmas carols, as well as new habits such as Christmas trees. She is influenced by experiences from her own past, and from Christmas stories from other writers, including Washington Irving and Douglas Jerrold. Dickens has written three Christmas stories before the novel, and was inspired to write stories after a visit to Field Lane Ragged school, one of the few places for half-hungry and illiterate London street children. The treatment of the poor and the ability of a selfish man to redeem himself by turning into a more sympathetic character is the central theme of the story. There is discussion among academics about whether this is a completely secular story, or whether it is a Christian allegory.
Published on December 19th, the first edition was sold out on Christmas Eve; by the end of 1844 thirteen editions had been released. Most critics review the novel positively. The story was illegally copied in January 1844; Dickens took action against publishers, who went bankrupt, further reducing Dickens' small profits from publication. He went on to write four more Christmas stories in the following years. In 1849 he began a public reading of a story that proved to be very successful he performed 127 further shows until 1870, the year of his death. A Christmas Carol has never been printed and has been translated into several languages; stories have been adapted many times to film, stage, opera and other media.
With A Christmas Carol , Dickens catches the zeitgeist awakening of Christmas awakening in mid-Victoria. He has been recognized as an influence on modern western obedience on Christmas and inspired some aspects of Christmas, such as family gatherings, seasonal food and drinks, dancing, games and generosity.
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Plot
Dickens divided the book into five chapters, which he labeled as "stick".
Stave one
The story begins on a chilly and gloomy Christmas Eve in London, seven years after the death of Ebenezer Scrooge's business partner, Jacob Marley. Scrooge, an old miser, hates Christmas and declines an invitation to a Christmas dinner from his nephew Fred. He turned two people who sought donations from him to provide food and heat for the poor, and only reluctantly allowed overworked, underpaid employees, Bob Cratchit, Christmas Day off for a fee to adjust to social customs.
At home that night, Scroog visited by the ghost of Marley, who wanders on Earth, entwined by heavy chains and money boxes, forged during a lifetime of greed and selfishness. Marley tells Scrooge that he has one chance to avoid the same fate: he will be visited by three spirits and he must listen to them or be cursed to carry his own chain, longer than the Marley chain.
Stave two
The first spirit, Ghost of Christmas Past, took Scrooge scene for Christmas from youth and teenager Scrooge, reminding him of the time when he was more innocent. The childhood scene depicts Scrooge's lonely childhood, her relationship with her beloved sister Fan, and a Christmas party hosted by her first employer, Mr. Fezziwig, who treats Scrooge like a son. They also described the abandoned Scrooge fiance, who ended their relationship after he realized that Scrooge would never love him as much as he loved money. Finally, they visit Belle who is married to her big and happy family on Christmas Eve recently.
Stave three
The second spirit, the Christmas Gift Ghost, brought Scrooge to a market filled with the joy of the people who bought Christmas dinner talents and Christmas celebrations at the miners' lodge and on the lighthouse. Scrooge and ghosts also visit Fred's Christmas party. The main part of the stave is Bob Cratchit's family party and introduces his youngest son, Tiny Tim, a happy child with a chronic illness. The spirit informs Scrooge that Tiny Tim will die soon unless the course of events changes. Before disappearing, spirits showed Scrooge two scruffy and skinny kids named Ignorance and Want. He tells Scrooge to be wary of the former above all and mocks Scrooge's concern for their well-being.
Stave four
The third spirit, Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, shows Scrooge as Christmas Day in the future. The ghost shows him scenes involving the death of an unpopular man. The man's funeral will only be attended by local businessmen if lunch is provided. The owner of his household, his laundress, and the local caretaker stole some of his property and sold it to the fence. When Scrooge asks a ghost to show anyone who feels any emotion over the man's death, the ghost can only show the poor couple's joy in debt to the man, rejoicing that his death gives them more time to manage their finances. After Scrooge asks to see the softness connected with death, the ghost shows him Bob Cratchit and his family mourning over Tiny Tim's death. The ghost then shows the Scrooge grave that ignored the man, whose headstone bears the name Scrooge. While crying, Scrooge promised the ghost that he would change his ways to avoid this result.
Stave five
Scrooge woke up on Christmas morning, a changed man. He spends the day with Fred's family and anonymously sends a large turkey to Cratchit's house for Christmas dinner. The next day he gave Cratchit a raise and became like another father to Tiny Tim. Since then, Scrooge has begun to treat everyone with kindness, generosity and compassion, which embodies the spirit of Christmas.
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The writer Charles Dickens was born to a distinguished family who had financial difficulties as a result of John's wasting nature, Dickens's father. In 1824, John committed to Marshalsea, a borrower's prison in Southwark, London. Dickens, 12 years old, was forced to pawn his collection of books, leave school and go to work in a black-and-white shoe factory, dirty and rat-infested place. The change in the Dickens situation gave him what his biographer, Michael Slater, described as "profound personal and social anger," which heavily influenced his works.
In late December 1842, Dickens began publishing his Martin Chuzzlewit novel as a monthly series; although the novel is his favorite work, his sales are disappointing and he is facing financial difficulties. At this time he is an established writer, having written six major works, as well as several short stories, novels and other works.
Celebrate the Christmas season has been increasingly popular through the Victorian era. Although the Christmas tree was introduced in England during the 18th century, its use was popularized by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, and their practice was copied in many homes across the country. By the early 19th century there had been an awakening interest in Christmas carols, following a decline in popularity over the previous hundred years. Publications by Davies Gilbert in 1823 Some Ancient Christmas Songs, with Songs They Sung in the West of England and William Sandys's 1833 collection Christmas Carols, Ancient and Modern in the form of popularity in the UK.
Dickens had an interest in Christmas, and his first story on the subject was "Christmas Celebration," published in Bell's Weekly Messenger in 1835; the story was later published as "A Christmas Dinner" in Sketch by Boz (1836). "The Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton", another Christmas story, appeared in the 1836 novel The Pickwick Papers, followed by a section on Christmas at the editorial of Dickens Jam Humphrey's Hour.
Literary influence
Dickens is not the first writer to celebrate the Christmas season in literature. Among the previous writers who influenced Dickens was Washington Irving, whose 1819-2020 work. Sketch Book Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. Includes four essays about the old English Christmas tradition she experienced while living in Aston Hall near Birmingham. The tale and essay attract Dickens, and the two authors share the belief that British Christmas performances of nostalgia can help restore the social harmony that has been lost in the modern world.
Some works may have an influence on writing A Christmas Carol , including two Douglas Jerrold essays: one from 1841 edition Punch , "How Chokepear Saves Merry Christmas" and one from 1843 , "The Beauties of the Police". More broadly, Dickens is influenced by fairy tales and children's stories, which he associates with Christmas, as he sees them as a story of conversion and transformation.
Social effects
Dickens was touched by many poor children in the mid-19th century decade. In early 1843, he visited the Cornish tin mine, where he was angry after seeing the children working in dismal conditions. The suffering he witnessed there was reinforced by a visit to Field Lane Ragged school, one of several London schools set up for the education of half-hungry and illiterate street children.
In February 1843, the Second Report of the Children's Working Commission was published. It is a parliamentary report that exposes the impact of the Industrial Revolution on working-class children. Horrified by what he read, Dickens plans to publish a cheap, temporary political pamphlet entitled, Appeals for the British People, on behalf of the Poor Boy, , but changed his mind, delaying the pamphlet's production until the end of the year. In March he wrote to Dr. Southwood Smith, one of the four commissioners responsible for the Second Report, about the change in plan: "You will surely feel that Sledge's hammer has come down with twentyfold strength - twenty thousand times the strength - I can do by following my first idea ".
In a fundraising speech on 5 October 1843 at Manchester Athenaeum, Dickens urged workers and employers to join together to combat ignorance with educational reform, and realized in the days that followed that the most effective way to reach a broad segment of the population with social concerns about poverty and injustice are writing deeper Christmas narratives than polemic pamphlets and essays.
Write history
In mid-1843 Dickens began to suffer financial problems. Martin Chuzzlewit's sales slowed, and his wife, Catherine, became pregnant with the couple's fifth child. The problem gets worse when Chapman & amp; Hall, Martin Chuzzlewit ' s publisher, starts talking about reducing his monthly income by Ã, Â £ 50 if sales fall further. He began writing A Christmas Carol in October 1843. Michael Slater, Dickens's biographer, described the book as "written in white heat"; it finished in six weeks, with the final page written in early December. He built a lot of work on his head while walking at night along the 15 to 20 miles (24 to 32 km) around London. Slater says that A Christmas Carol is
is intended to open the hearts of its readers to those who are struggling to survive on the ladder under the economic ladder and to encourage practical virtue, but also to warn of the dreadful dangers of society created by tolerance of widespread ignorance and the real desire among the poor.
George Cruikshank, an illustrator who previously worked with Dickens on Sketch by Boz and 1826 and introduced him to John Leech, a caricaturist. On October 24, Dickens invited Leech to work on A Christmas Carol, and four colored hand paintings and four black-and-white woodcarvings by artists accompanied by text.
Character
The main character of A Christmas Carol is Ebenezer Scrooge, a London-based weaver shark, depicted in the story as "a sinner who squeezes, grieves, grips, paws, clings, and greedy!" Kelly writes that Scrooge may have been influenced by Dickens' feelings that were contrary to his father, whom he loved and the devil. This psychological conflict may be responsible for two very different Scrooges in this story - cold, stingy and greedy ants, others are friendly and sociable. Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, professor of English literature, thinks that in this section of the book includes the lonely and unhappy youth of Scrooge, and his aspirations for money to escape poverty "is something of a self-parody of Dickens's fear of himself"; the post-transformation part of this book is how Dickens optimistically sees himself.
Scrooge can also be based on two friends: John Elwes, MP, or eccentric Jemmy Wood, owner of Old Bank Gloucester also known as "The Gloucester Miser". According to sociologist Frank W. Elwell, Scrooge's view of the poor is a reflection of demographics and political economist Thomas Malthus, while the questions of the miserly "Are there no prisons?... And Union unions... Treadmill and Poor Law in full force, then? "is a reflection of the sarcastic question raised by the Chartis philosopher Thomas Carlyle," Is there no treadmill, gibbet, even hospital, low fare, New Poor-Law? "
There is a literary precursor to Scrooge in Dickens's own works. Peter Ackroyd, Dickens biographer, sees the similarity between Scrooge and the older character, Martin Chuzzlewit, though the miser is a "more fantastic picture" than the Chuzzlewit patriarch; Ackroyd observes that the transformation of Chuzzlewit into a charity figure is parallel to that in a miser. Douglas-Fairhurst noticed that the minor character Gabriel Grub of The Pickwick Papers was also an influence when creating Scrooge. The name Scrooge comes from a tombstone that Dickens saw during a visit to Edinburgh. His grave was for Ebenezer Lennox Scroggie, whose work was given as a brewer - a maize merchant; Dickens misread it as "the bad guy."
When Dickens was young he lived near a merchant's place with a sign "Goodge and Marney", which may have given the name to former Scrooge business partner. For the chained Marley, Dickens recalls his visit to the Western Correctional Institution in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in March 1842, where he saw - and was influenced by prisoners imprisoned. For Tiny Tim's character, Dickens uses his nephew Henry, a five-year-old disabled boy at A Christmas Carol written. Two figures of Desire and Ignorance, taking refuge in the ghost of the Christmas Gift Ghost was inspired by the children Dickens told of his visit to the ragged School in the East End of London.
Themes
Transformation Scrooge is the center of the story. Kelly writes that the transformation is reflected in Scrooge's description, which begins as a two-dimensional character, but which later grows into someone who "has [the] emotional depth [and] regret for lost opportunities". Some authors, including Grace Moore, the Dickens scholar, consider that there is a Christian theme running through A Christmas Carol, and that novels should be seen as allegories of the Christian concept of redemption. Dickens biographer Claire Tomalin saw the conversion of Scrooge as bringing the Christian message that "even the worst of sinners can repent and become good people." Dickens's attitude toward organized religion is complicated, although he based his beliefs and principles in the New Testament. Dickens' statement that Marley "has no bowels" is a reference to the "belly of mercy" mentioned in I John, the reason for eternal punishment.
Other authors, including Kelly, assume that Dickens posed "the secular vision of this sacred feast". Dickens scholar John O. Jordan argues that A Christmas Carol shows Dickens in a letter to Foster as "Carol's philosophy", a cheerful, sharp anatomy of humbug, jolly, good temperament... and glowing hue, warm, generous, cheerful, radiant in everything to Home and Fireside. " From a secular point of view, the cultural historian Penne Restad states that Scrooge's redemption underscores the "conservative, individualistic and patriarchal aspects" of Dickens's "Carol (Faith)" philosophy of charity and altruism.
Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol because of how British social policy treats children at the time, and hopes to use this novel as a means to raise his argument against it. The story shows Scrooge as a paradigm for personal gain, and the possible impact of ignoring the poor, especially children in poverty - is personified by allegorical figures of Desire and Ignorance. Both figures were created to arouse sympathy with the readers - as well as Tiny Tim. Douglas-Fairhurst observes that the use of these numbers allows Dickens to convey his message about the need for charity, without alienating most of his middle-class readers.
Publications
As a result of a dispute with Chapman and Hall over the commercial failure of Martin Chuzzlewit, Dickens arranges to pay for his own issuance, in exchange for a percentage of the profits. Production A Christmas Carol is not without problems. The first print contains ominous olive-filled paper that Dickens feels is unacceptable, and Chapman and Hall publishers quickly replace it with yellow paper, but, after it is replaced, they clash with the title page, which is then repeated. The final product was tied with red cloth with a wide-eyed page, completed only two days before the publication date of December 19, 1843. After publication, Dickens arranged for his manuscript to be tied with Moroccan red skin and presented as a gift to his lawyer. , Thomas Mitton.
Priced at five shillings (equivalent to £ 23 at £ 2018), the first sale of 6,000 copies sold out on Christmas Eve. Chapman and Hall published the second and third editions before the new year, and the book continued to be sold until 1844. By the end of 1844 eleven more editions had been released. Since the initial publication of this book has been published in many hardback and novel editions, it is translated into several languages ​​and never printed. It was Dickens' most popular book in the United States, and sold over two million copies in a hundred years after its first publication there.
The high production cost at which Dickens insisted led to a reduced profit, and the first edition took him only £ 230 (equivalent to £ 21,000 at £ 2018) rather than £ 1,000 (equal to Ã, £ 90,000 in 2018 pounds) he expected. A year later, profits were just Ã, Â £ 744, and Dickens was very disappointed.
Reception
Douglas-Fairhurst writes that the review of A Christmas Carol "is almost uniformly good". The reviewer of The Illustrated London News illustrates how the story of "eloquence impresses... an unfair light of heart - a humorous and shiny humor... a gentle spirit of humanity" all puts the reader "in good humor with us , each other, by season and by author ". The critic of the Athenaeum, a literary magazine, thinks of it as a "story to make the reader laugh and cry - to open his hand, and open his heart to charity even to the unexpected... a wonder of the dish to be arranged before the King. "William Makepeace Thackeray, writing in Fraser's Magazine, described the book as" a national benefit and for every man or woman who reads it, personal good. "The last two people I heard talk about it is a woman, do not know another, or a writer, and both said, in a way of criticism, 'God bless him!' "
The poet Thomas Hood, in his own journal, writes that, "If Christmas, with its ancient and gracious customs, social celebrations and charities, ever in danger of destruction, this is the book that will give them new leases." The reviewer for Tait's Tait Magazine - Theodore Martin, who is usually critical of Dickens's work - talks well about A Christmas Carol, noting it is a "glorious book, subtle feel and counted for work a lot of social good ". After Dickens's death, Margaret Oliphant deplored the turkey and plum pudding aspects of the book but admitted that in the days of his first publication it was considered a "new gospel" and noted that the book was unique because it really made people behave better. The religious press largely ignores the story but, in January 1884, the Christian Remembrane thought that the old and obsolete subject of his story was treated in an original way and praised the author's sense of humor and patho.
There is a book critic. New Monthly magazine reviews ', while lauding the story, thinks the physical excess of the book - gold edges and expensive binding - keeps the price high, which makes it unavailable to the poor. The reviewers recommend that the story be printed on cheap paper and priced accordingly. The unnamed reviewer of The Westminster Review scoffed Dickens's understanding of the economy, asking "Who goes without turkey and punches for Bob Cratchit to get them - because, unless there are turkeys and surplus blows, one has to go without ".
After criticism of the US on American Notes and Martin Chuzzlewit, American readers were less enthusiastic at first, but by the end of the American Civil War, copies of books were in wide circulation. In 1863 The New York Times published an enthusiastic review, noting that the author brings "the old Christmas... from the past century and a remote noble home, to the living room of the poor today."
Aftermath
In January 1844, Parley's Illuminated Library published an unauthorized version of the story in the solid form they sold for twopence. Dickens wrote a letter to his lawyer
I have no doubt whatsoever that if these Vagabonds can be stopped they must... Let's be a sledge-hammer in this case, or I'll be hit by the same hundreds of crew when I come out with a long story.
Two days after Parley's release, Dickens sued copyright infringement cases and won. The publisher claims to be bankrupt and Dickens is allowed to pay a fee of  £ 700. The small profit that Dickens earns from A Christmas Carol is increasingly tense with his publisher, and he sever links with them for Bradbury and Evans, who have printing his work to that point.
Dickens returned to the story several times during his life to change sentences and punctuation. He used the success of the book by publishing another Christmas story The Chimes (1844), The Cricket on the Hearth (1845), Battle of Life (1846) and The Haunted Man and Ghost's Bargain (1848); these are secular-conversion stories that reflect the change of society in the previous year, and which social issues still need to be addressed. While the public eagerly buys the latter books, reviewers are very critical of the stories.
Performance and adaptation
In 1849 Dickens was involved with David Copperfield and did not have the time or inclination to produce another Christmas book. He decides the best way to reach his audience with "Carol's philosophy" is to read the public. During Christmas 1852 Dickens gave a reading at Birmingham City Hall to the Institute of Industry and Literature; the show was very successful. After that, he read the story in a brief version of 127 times, until 1870 (the year of his death), when it provided material for his farewell appearance.
In the years following the publication of this book, responses to the story were published by WM Swepstone (Christmas Shadows, 1850), Horatio Alger ( Job Warner Christmas , 1863), Louisa May Alcott (A Christmas Dream, and How It Came True), 1882), and others who follow the life of Scrooge as a reformed man - or some who consider Dickens wrong and need to be corrected.
This novel was adapted for the stage immediately. Three productions opened on 5 February 1844, with one by Edward Stirling approved by Dickens and running for over 40 nights. At the close of February 1844, eight competitors of the theater production of Christmas were playing in London. The story has been adapted for movies and television more than other Dickens works. In 1901 it was produced as Scrooge, or, Marley's Ghost , a silent white and black English film; it is one of the first known adaptations of Dickens's work on film, though it is now largely lost. The story was adapted in 1923 for BBC radio. This story has been adapted to other media, including opera, ballet, Broadway musical, animation, and BBC mime production starring Marcel Marceau.
Legacy
Although the phrase "Merry Christmas" has been around for years - the earliest known written usage was in a letter in 1534 - the use of the term Dickens in A Christmas Carol popularized the term in the Victorian public. Exclamation "Bah! Humbug!" enters popular usage in English as an answer to something sentimental or overly festive; the name "Scrooge" is used as a designation for miserly, and is added to the Oxford English Dictionary as in 1982.
The modern adherence to Christmas is largely the result of a revival in mid-Victorian times. The Oxford movement of the 1830s and 1840s has resulted in the rise of traditional rituals and religious worship associated with Christmastide and with A Christmas Carol Dickens captured the zeitgeist of the times as he reflected and strengthened his vision of Christmas. He advocated the humanitarian focus of the holiday, affecting some aspects of Christmas that are still celebrated in Western culture, such as family gatherings, seasonal food and drinks, dancing, games and generosity. Historian Ronald Hutton writes that Dickens "links worship and feast, in the context of social reconciliation".
Ruth Glancy, a professor of English literature, states that the greatest impact of A Christmas Carol is the influence felt by individual readers. In the spring of 1844 The Gentleman's Magazine attributed the emergence of a charity in England with Dickens novels; in 1874, Robert Louis Stevenson, after reading Dickens Christmas books, vowed to give generously to those in need; and Thomas Carlyle expressed generous hospitality by hosting two Christmas dinners after reading the book. In 1867 an American businessman was so touched after attending readings that he closed his factory on Christmas Day and sent every employee a turkey while in the early years of the 20th century the queen of Norway sent a gift to the handicapped children of London signed " With Love Team Tiny ". In novella, author GK Chesterton writes "The beauty and the blessing of the story... lies in a huge stove of real happiness that shines through Scrooge and everything around it.... Is the vision of Christmas going or not going to convert Scrooge, they change us."
See also
- Dickens Christmas fair
- DuckTales
Note
References
Source
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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