Summary: A Christmas Carol

On a chilly Christ­mas Eve, an ill-tem­pered and miser­ly old man named Ebenez­er Scrooge is toil­ing away in his finan­cial office. He refus­es to warm the work­space for his poor­ly paid work­er, Bob Cratchit, and dis­re­gards the fes­tive spir­it brought by his nephew Fred and two char­i­ty work­ers, respond­ing with a harsh “Bah! Hum­bug!” That evening, in his cold apart­ment, Scrooge is vis­it­ed by the spir­it of his late busi­ness part­ner, Jacob Mar­ley. Mar­ley, bur­dened with heavy chains as penance for his life of greed, warns Scrooge that he will encounter three specters over the com­ing nights, all aim­ing to pre­vent Scrooge from meet­ing the same fate. The ini­tial appari­tion, the Spir­it of Christ­mas Past, takes Scrooge on a jour­ney through his ear­ly Christ­mases. Scrooge relives his past, filled with missed chances for joy and love, lead­ing to deep remorse.

The Spir­it of Christ­mas Present guides Scrooge through present-day Lon­don, reveal­ing a mod­est Christ­mas cel­e­bra­tion at the Cratchit house­hold and the resilient spir­it of Bob’s dis­abled son, Tiny Tim. The spir­it also brings Scrooge to Fred’s fes­tive gath­er­ing, which Scrooge sur­pris­ing­ly enjoys. The final ghost, the Spir­it of Christ­mas Yet to Come, presents a series of mys­te­ri­ous scenes relat­ed to an uniden­ti­fied man’s recent demise. Scrooge is hor­ri­fied to real­ize that he is the deceased indi­vid­ual when he sees his own name on a tomb­stone. He implores the ghost to alter his fate, pledg­ing to embrace Christ­mas and for­sake his self-cen­tered ways.

Awak­en­ing in his own bed, Scrooge is elat­ed to dis­cov­er that he has been giv­en a sec­ond chance. Embrac­ing this oppor­tu­ni­ty for redemp­tion, Scrooge begins to spread Christ­mas cheer. He astounds the Cratchits with a gen­er­ous Christ­mas turkey and pleas­ant­ly sur­pris­es the atten­dees at Fred’s gath­er­ing with his unex­pect­ed pres­ence. With time, Scrooge ful­fills his promise, car­ing for Tiny Tim as a sur­ro­gate son, gen­er­ous­ly aid­ing the less for­tu­nate, and extend­ing kind­ness and warmth to his fel­low citizens.

Chapter 1

In the frigid, misty grasp of a Lon­don Christ­mas Eve, the miser­ly Ebenez­er Scrooge is hard at work in his count­ing-house. A sign out­side reads “Scrooge and Mar­ley,” a reminder of his depart­ed busi­ness part­ner, Jacob Mar­ley, who passed away sev­en years pri­or. With­in, Scrooge over­sees his clerk, the des­ti­tute Bob Cratchit, who strug­gles to keep warm in his small space with the mea­ger warmth from the bare­ly smol­der­ing hearth. Despite the freez­ing weath­er, Scrooge refus­es to spend on extra coal. Abrupt­ly, a cheer­ful young man, Scrooge’s nephew Fred, bursts in with a jovial “Mer­ry Christ­mas!” and an invi­ta­tion to Christ­mas din­ner. Scrooge dis­miss­es him with a con­cise “Bah! Hum­bug!” and declines to par­take in the fes­tive mer­ri­ment. After Fred’s depar­ture, two indi­vid­u­als arrive seek­ing con­tri­bu­tions for the needy, but Scrooge rude­ly declines, assert­ing that pris­ons and work­hous­es are the char­i­ta­ble insti­tu­tions he sup­ports. He then chas­tis­es Bob for request­ing Christ­mas Day off, relent­ing only after forc­ing Bob to arrive ear­ly the sub­se­quent day.

Adher­ing to his cus­tom­ary rou­tine, Scrooge dines at his usu­al tav­ern before head­ing home through the drea­ry, fog-laden streets. The door-knock­er on his front door star­tles him; it bears a strik­ing resem­blance to Jacob Mar­ley’s vis­age. Dis­miss­ing it as a trick of light, he grum­bles “Pooh-pooh,” and enters his somber abode, rev­el­ing in the dark­ness since “dark­ness is cheap, and Scrooge liked it.” To his aston­ish­ment, he observes a phan­tom hearse ascend­ing the stairs along­side him. Upon reach­ing his room, he locks the door and dons his night attire. As he con­sumes his por­ridge, the carv­ings on the man­tel­piece trans­fig­ure into like­ness­es of Mar­ley’s face. Label­ing the pecu­liar visions as “Hum­bug!” the room’s bells com­mence ring­ing, and he hears foot­steps. Through the closed door glides the trans­par­ent, chained ghost of Jacob Mar­ley. Despite his dis­be­lief, Scrooge attrib­ut­es the spec­tral vis­i­ta­tion to indi­ges­tion. Mar­ley’s ghost dis­clos­es that it has been wan­der­ing the earth in chains for sev­en years as a penance for its trans­gres­sions. Scrooge espies that the chains con­sist of cash­box­es, pad­locks, ledgers, and steel purs­es. Mar­ley fore­warns Scrooge of a sim­i­lar fate, pro­claim­ing that three appari­tions shall vis­it him in the forth­com­ing nights. Sub­se­quent­ly, Mar­ley dema­te­ri­al­izes through the win­dow, which opens on its own accord. Scrooge per­ceives a mul­ti­tude of fet­tered spir­its lament­ing their fail­ure to lead com­pas­sion­ate lives. Over­whelmed, Scrooge col­laps­es into bed and prompt­ly drifts into slumber.

Chapter 2

Scrooge awak­ens at the stroke of mid­night, bewil­dered as he rec­ol­lects retir­ing to bed well past two in the morn­ing. Con­tem­plat­ing whether he slept through the entire day or if it is mid­day albeit unusu­al­ly dark, he rec­ol­lects Mar­ley’s ghost’s prophe­cy regard­ing the immi­nent arrival of a specter at one. Anx­ious­ly, he elects to remain awake to encounter the appari­tion. The clock chimes one, and a pecu­liar, youth­ful spir­it exud­ing an aura of sagac­i­ty mate­ri­al­izes, part­ing the cur­tains of Scrooge’s bed. This spir­it, being the Spir­it of Christ­mas Past, calls upon Scrooge to accom­pa­ny him and touch­es his chest, enabling them to soar. Through the win­dow, they depart. The spir­it trans­ports Scrooge back to the rur­al envi­rons of his child­hood, evok­ing a flood of nos­tal­gia that moves Scrooge to tears. Wit­ness­ing his soli­tary Christ­mas at school and the appear­ance of his younger sis­ter Fan come to retrieve him pro­voke poignant emo­tions in Scrooge.

The ghost pro­ceeds to show­case addi­tion­al yule­tide mem­o­ries, includ­ing a fes­tive rev­el­ry host­ed by Fezzi­wig, Scrooge’s for­mer employ­er. Fur­ther­more, Scrooge beholds a rec­ol­lec­tion of his younger self con­vers­ing with Belle, his for­mer betrothed who sev­ered their engage­ment due to Scrooge’s esca­lat­ing avarice. Anoth­er sequence illus­trates a matured Belle dis­avow­ing Scrooge to her spouse, not­ing his soli­tary exis­tence. Over­whelmed by these ago­niz­ing rem­i­nis­cences, Scrooge beseech­es the spir­it to return him to his room. In his des­o­la­tion, he shrouds the glow­ing head of the ghost with its cap, dim­ming its radi­ance. Abrupt­ly, he finds him­self back in his cham­ber, suc­cumb­ing swift­ly to slumber.

Chapter 3

Awak­en­ing to the tolling church bell sig­nal­ing one, Scrooge antic­i­pates the advent of the sec­ond spir­it, only to be tak­en aback by its delayed man­i­fes­ta­tion. Fol­low­ing a peri­od of wait­ing, the cham­ber is bathed in a bril­liant light, reveal­ing the sec­ond spir­it in the adjoin­ing room. This grandiose fig­ure clad in ver­dant attire, seat­ed upon a throne of pro­vi­sions, presents itself as the Spir­it of Christ­mas Present. Espous­ing to pos­sess over 1800 sib­lings and a lifes­pan of a soli­tary day, the spir­it instructs Scrooge to touch its robe. Upon com­pli­ance, the room and the feast van­ish, trans­port­ing them to the live­ly city on Christ­mas morn­ing, where they wit­ness the jubi­la­tion and jovi­al­i­ty of the denizens.

Their jour­ney leads them to Bob Cratchit’s unas­sum­ing dwelling, where the fam­i­ly rev­els with their mod­est fare. Scrooge is deeply moved by the poignant sight of Tiny Tim, Bob’s infirm son, and anx­ious­ly inquires about the lad’s fate. The spir­it grave­ly inti­mates that Tiny Tim’s exis­tence may be imper­iled in the ensu­ing year. They wit­ness var­i­ous oth­er Christ­mas fes­tiv­i­ties, includ­ing a soirée at Scrooge’sAt his young rel­a­tive Fred’s res­i­dence, where Scrooge has a good time even though imper­cep­ti­ble to the oth­er atten­dees. Through­out the evening, the appari­tion vis­i­bly ages. Even­tu­al­ly, they reach a soli­tary loca­tion where Scrooge spots two under­nour­ished young­sters, Igno­rance and Want, con­cealed beneath the ghost’s gar­ment. When Scrooge express­es wor­ry, the phan­tom mocks him with his own words, “Are there no con­fine­ment facil­i­ties? Are there no toil estab­lish­ments?” As the clock chimes mid­night, the specter dis­ap­pears, leav­ing Scrooge observ­ing a shroud­ed fig­ure approach­ing him.

Chapter 4

An omi­nous fig­ure shroud­ed in a somber hood­ed cloak, rec­og­nized by Scrooge as the Ghost of Christ­mas Yet to Come, advances toward him. Fright­ened and already rat­tled from his pre­ced­ing encoun­ters, Scrooge kneels and pleads for the spir­it to impart its les­son, seek­ing to avoid the same des­tiny as his deceased part­ner. The appari­tion leads Scrooge on a pecu­liar jour­ney: first to the Lon­don Stock Exchange where mer­chants dis­cuss the demise of a pros­per­ous indi­vid­ual; then to a squalid pawn­shop in a Lon­don slum, where pil­fered pos­ses­sions from a depart­ed per­son are ped­dled by dubi­ous indi­vid­u­als; sub­se­quent­ly to a des­ti­tute fam­i­ly’s din­ing table, where they express relief at the pass­ing of their harsh lender; and final­ly to the Cratchit fam­i­ly’s abode, where they are mourn­ing the loss of Tiny Tim.

Frus­trat­ed by his lack of knowl­edge regard­ing the deceased indi­vid­ual, Scrooge beseech­es the ghost for enlight­en­ment. He is then direct­ed to a grave­yard where he reads his own name on a fresh tomb­stone: EBENEZER SCROOGE. Appalled, Scrooge implores the spir­it to reverse the hor­ri­fy­ing sight. He pledges to hon­or Christ­mas whole­heart­ed­ly and adhere to the lessons of Past, Present, and Future. As his pleas for clemen­cy grow more fer­vent, the spir­it’s cloak shrinks and col­laps­es. Scrooge finds him­self back in the famil­iar set­ting of his own bed.

Chapter 5

Elat­ed to have received a new begin­ning, Scrooge express­es grat­i­tude towards the appari­tions and Jacob Mar­ley. Real­iz­ing it is Christ­mas morn­ing, he joy­ous­ly exclaims “Mer­ry Christ­mas!” to all. Brim­ming with excite­ment, Scrooge hur­ries to dress, even danc­ing while he shaves. Urgent­ly task­ing a young lad he encoun­ters to deliv­er a hefty turkey to Bob Cratchit’s res­i­dence, gen­er­ous­ly com­pen­sat­ing the lad. Mak­ing amends for his pri­or dis­cour­tesy, he promis­es a sub­stan­tial con­tri­bu­tion to the char­i­ty-seek­ing gen­tle­men he had pre­vi­ous­ly over­looked. He joins Fred’s fes­tive gath­er­ing, aston­ish­ing the atten­dees with his new­found joy. The sub­se­quent day, Scrooge arrives at work before any­one else, wear­ing a stern expres­sion when Bob Cratchit arrives tardy. Feign­ing dis­plea­sure, Scrooge aston­ish­es Bob by grant­i­ng him a raise and pro­vid­ing aid to his strug­gling kin. Bob is sur­prised, but Scrooge reas­sures him of his sincerity.

In the ensu­ing peri­od, Scrooge upholds his vow: He aids the Cratchit fam­i­ly and acts as a sur­ro­gate father to the ail­ing Tiny Tim, who, con­trary to the spir­it’s fore­cast, sur­vives. Although the alter­ation in Scrooge puz­zles many Lon­don­ers, he brush­es off their skep­ti­cism with a laugh. He sus­tains the spir­it of Christ­mas every day, exem­pli­fy­ing its teach­ings more than any­one else. The tale cul­mi­nates with the nar­ra­tor empha­siz­ing how we should all echo Scrooge’s sen­ti­ments… “and thus, as Tiny Tim remarked, God bless us, Every one!”