The Staying Power of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol

We often associate A Christmas Carol as having just three ghosts, but that is not true. In fact, there are many ghosts in this story.

The first ghost that appears is that of Jacob Marley, Scrooge’s close friend and business partner who has been dead for seven years. Scrooge first encounters the ghost of Marley in the famous scene in which the door knocker takes the shape of Marley’s face:

“ . . . 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.”

Scrooge later hears a noise and thinks to himself that he remembered ghosts in haunted houses as being described as dragging chains, and that’s exactly what we see later in the scene, the ghost of Marley appears to Scrooge dragging the chains of what held him down in life.

“Marley in his pigtail, usual waistcoat, tights and boots; the tassels on the latter bristling, like his pigtail, and his coat-skirts, and the hair upon his head. The chain he drew was clasped about his middle. It was long, and wound about him like a tail; and it was made (for Scrooge observed it closely) of cashboxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, deeds, and heavy purses wrought in steel. His body was transparent; so that Scrooge, observing him, and looking through his waistcoat, could see the two buttons on his coat behind.”

Of these devices wrapped around Marley he says—“I wear the chain I forged in life…”

Earlier in the novella we see Scrooge’s fixation with his business and money, and very little warmth or compassion toward others. Scrooge’s business is all that consumes him, and he disregards people, their feelings, living conditions, and personal struggles.

To Scrooge, at this point in the novella, all that matters is collecting his payments, and there is little to no need for human interaction beyond that which increases his wealth, and so to see his former business partner indicates that he is wearing the devices “cashboxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, deeds, and heavy purses wrought in steel” that forged his life, is an indication of the trajectory of the rest of the story. 

The narrator is omniscient, yes, but I believe they are a ghost given the following in which they address the reader directly, indicating that they are standing right at our side as we read this story.

“ . . . and Scrooge, starting up into a half-recumbent attitude, found himself face to face with the unearthly visitor who drew them: as close to it as I am now to you, and I am standing in the spirit at your elbow.”

“I am here to-night to warn you, that you have yet a chance and hope of escaping my fate. A change and hope of my procuring, Ebenezer.”

It is then Marley tells Scrooge he will be visited by three ghosts:

“You will be haunted,” resumed the Ghost, “by Three Spirits.”

After Marley departs through a window, it is then that Scrooge sees more ghosts.

“Scrooge followed to the window: desperate in his curiosity. He looked out.” 

“The air was filled with phantoms, wandering hither and thither in restless haste, and moaning as they went. Every one of them wore chains like Marley’s Ghost; some few (they might be guilty governments) were linked together, none were free.”

It’s also stated that these spirits are here in order to assist people.

“The misery with them all was, clearly, that they sought to interfere, for good, in human matters, and had lost the power forever.”

The first of the Three Spirits to visit Scrooge is the Ghost of Christmas Past.

“Who, and what are you?” Scrooge demanded.

“I am the Ghost of Christmas Past.”

“Long Past?” inquired Scrooge: observant of its dwarfish stature.

“No. Your past.”

Scrooge describes this spirit as:

“It was a strange figure - like a child: yet not so like a child as like an old man, viewed 

through some supernatural medium . . . “

The spirit touches Scrooge and transports him to a series of memories, the first being at his old boarding school. All of the children there returned home for Christmas, except for Scrooge who would remain there during the holiday.

Except, Scrooge’s sister Fanny later arrives and tells him that she’s there to take him home, after convincing their father, and that he would never have to return to this school again. 

It’s a happy memory, but while he’s happy and loves his sister so much, he is also saddened to be viewing this memory because she would later die. Other memories are presented to Scrooge, all which lead him to become who he is.

When Scrooge asks to be taken away, the Spirit tells him:

“I told you these were shadows of the things that have been,” said the Ghost. “That they are what they are, do not blame me!”

The second Spirit to visit Scrooge had transformed a part of Scrooge’s house.

“The walls and ceiling were so hung with living green, that it looked like a perfect grove; from every part of which, bright gleaming berries glistened . . . In state upon this couch, there sat a jolly Giant, glorious to see; who bore a glowing torch . . .”

Scrooge then sees the Spirit and it says:

“I am the Ghost of Christmas Present,” said the Spirit. “Look upon me!”

Like with the previous Spirit, Scrooge was ordered to hold onto it in order to take flight. 

“Touch my robe!”

“Scrooge did as he was told, and held it fast.”

In these series of visits, Scrooge is taken to present occurrences and conversations, visiting with the Cratchit family, seeing how they live with financial struggle and how ill Tiny Tim is, viewing his nephew and his wife, and overhearing conversations about him, and just how cold and cruel Scrooge could be. 

Like the last Spirit, this Spirit disappeared once those events were viewed, and it is in that disappearance then when one of the most memorable spirits in literature appears.

“and lifting up his eyes, beheld a solemn Phantom, draped and hooded, coming, like a mist along the ground towards him.”

“The Phantom slowly, gravely, silently approached . . . It was shrouded in a deep black garment, which concealed its head, its face, its form, and left nothing of it visible save one outstretched hand.”

This Spirit did not speak and so Scrooge asks it:

“I am in the presence of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come?” said Scrooge.

“The Spirit answered, not but pointed onward with its hand.”

The stature, silence, and dress of this Spirit terrified Scrooge.

“But Scrooge was all the worse for this. It thrilled him with a vague uncertain horror, to know that behind the dusky shroud, there were ghostly eyes intently fixed upon him . . .”

Throughout the text, this Spirit is referred to as a Phantom. It also remains silent, taking Scrooge to the bedside of a dead man whose face is obscured, and eventually to the future in which Scrooge is dead.

This scene ends with Scrooge proclaiming that:

“I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me.”

Featured photo: Still from Scrooge (1970) via 20th Century Fox