By Mary Carter
Commentary
Depending on one’s age, there’s a wide variety of Scrooge icons ranging from Reginald Owen in 1938 (with at least nine actors performing in previously filmed versions) to Alistair Sim, Mr. Magoo, Albert Finney, Scrooge McDuck, George C. Scott, Bill Murray, Michael Caine, Colin Baker, Jim Carrey, Tim Curry and Ryan Reynolds, to name a few.
But is “A Christmas Carol” really the story of one miserly man’s high-speed road to redemption?
Author Charles Dickens was moved by poverty, particularly that which engulfed Britain’s youth. Dickens himself was only 12 when his own father was arrested and imprisoned for debt. Forced to quit school, Dickens toiled in a rat-infested factory, adhering labels to bottles of shoe polish, 10 hours per day, six days per week. Dickens never forgot that experience. In his novel “Nicholas Nickleby” Dickens mentioned hyacinths blooming in old blacking bottles.
In 1843, Charles journeyed to Manchester, England to deliver a speech in support of an educational fund for working men and women. Dickens stayed with his older sister Fanny, her husband Henry and their two boys. One boy, named Harry, was disabled. Dickens was all too aware what fate awaited impoverished males who could not work. Outside his sister’s door, the city was teeming with the poor. Dickens was moved to write something — “a sledgehammer blow” as he called it, that bludgeoned current ideas about labor and economy.
What would become the tale of benevolent ghosts and happier realizations began as “An Appeal to the People of England on Behalf of the Poor Man’s Child.” It wasn’t long until Dickens realized his plea would better resound in novel form.
Dickens borrowed from who and what he knew. Economist of the day Thomas Robert Malthus warned that feeding the poor only resulted in an increased population. Bob Cratchit’s daughter Martha works as a seamstress, likely 12-plus hours a day, six days a week. Such working conditions were outlined in a labor report Dickens had just read. However, for the reader’s sake, Martha makes it home to celebrate Christmas. Dickens’ own sister became Scrooge’s sibling Fan; Dickens’ nephew Harry, Tiny Tim. Sadly, Tiny Tim’s true-life inspiration did not survive, despite all that his grieving uncle did for him.
And for society, Charles Dickens introduced two very important characters. “Yellow, meager and ragged,” a pair of children, with their “graceful youth” shriveled, cower hollow-eyed at the feet of the Ghost of Christmas Present.
“This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased. Deny it!” cried the Spirit, stretching out its hand toward the city. “Slander those who tell it ye. Admit it for your factious purposes, and make it worse. And abide the end.”
A sledgehammer indeed.
For all the right reasons, we return to Charles Dickens’ tale of hope every holiday season. The heart of it rings true even today. May it fill us with kindness and the spirit of giving and bless us, everyone.
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