Page 57 - EM_late_dec_2018_Neat

How Dickens and Scrooge Saved Christmas 57

How Charles Dickens and

Scrooge saved Christmas

Continued from Page 56

Early in the story, as Dickens stretches out the
agony of Bob Cratchit who is anxious to escape
his seriously underheated place of employment
on Christmas Eve, he sets up a scene that
anticipates today’s rant of the haves against the
have-nots.
Scrooge receives two gentlemen in his
office. They appeal for donations to charity – “it
is more than usually desirable that we should
make some slight provision for the poor and
destitute,” one of them suggests.
Scrooge resorts to irony:
“Are there no prisons?”
“Plenty of prisons,” said the gentleman.
“And the Union workhouses?”
demanded Scrooge. “Are they still in
operation?”
“They are. Still,” returned the
gentleman, “I wish I could say they were not.”
“The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in
full vigour, then?” said Scrooge.
“Both very busy, sir.”
“Oh! I was afraid from what you said at
first that something had occurred to stop them in
their usual course,” said Scrooge. “I’m very glad
to hear it.”
The gentlemen attempt to break through Dickens was a master of heart- of miserliness and conversion?
this wall of pitiless mockery, but Scrooge will wrenching pathos because he felt every pain as My choice is that it should be required
have nothing of it: “I can’t afford to make idle he wrote. I remember being appalled that he reading by those who run the city of Fort
people merry.” killed off Little Nell in The Old Curiosity Shop. Lauderdale, Florida. They already know what
That’s a sentiment all too familiar today, It seemed gratuitous and counter-intuitive in a their sin is. It has been seen on videos that went
from the curled lips of a golfer waddling across story that had already inflicted more than viral. A 91-year-old World War II vet, Arnold
a course in Florida to the Wall Street funny- enough suffering. But he wanted no easy ending Abbott, founder of Love Thy Neighbor
money wizard in his chopper on the way to the and it was hard on him. He said, “I am breaking Foundation, was arrested several times this fall
Hamptons. my heart over this story, and cannot bear to for feeding homeless people on the city’s beach.
And so the philanthropists leave finish it.” (Nell was modeled on an old love, his Fort Lauderdale has worked hard to
Scrooge’s premises empty-handed. wife’s younger sister, Mary Hogarth, who died shake off its past as a favorite spot for spring
Consider the names of the characters, in her youth.) vacation bacchanalia. The city protests that a
too. Dickens’s felicity with onomatopoeic He was hard up when he wrote A beach is not a suitable place to feed the hungry.
names suggests by the sound of “scroo” as in Christmas Carol. Royalties on earlier work were The problem is, that is where they are. This
screwing the last drop of blood from the stone. slow coming in, his stories were being pirated month a judge intervened and granted a 30-day
Fezziwig, “old Fezziwig, clapping his hands to because the copyright laws were rarely temporary stay on police action against Abbott.
stop the dance,” suggests the opposite of enforceable, he had had a row with his publisher The whole thing is a public relations disaster for
Scrooge, an old man orchestrating joy–a wig and supervised the publication of this story the city’s leadership, and I suggest that they
displaced by the vigor of life. himself, spending so much that the margins were follow Tiny Tim’s advice, go to the beach, join
But ultimately this is a story of thin. hands and sing God Bless Us, Every One.
redemption. Scrooge will be transformed. First, But the final lines were to prove uplifting Finally, a score or so of films have been
though, he has to be shocked into recognizing for him and many millions of readers, as we bid made of the story, some called A Christmas
the barren waste of his spiritual life – by spirits. farewell to Ebenezer Scrooge: “….and it was Carol and others, simply, Scrooge. My favorite
First, the ghost of his departed partner, Jacob always said of him, that he knew how to keep is the 1951 version starring Alastair Sim as
Marley, comes calling, his face emerging from Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the Scrooge. It was perfect casting. Alastair Sim had
the doorknob. Marley conjures forth the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all jowls like melting candle wax, a snarl like a
mistakes of his own life and then summons, in of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God Bless cornered cat and eyes cold with contempt. And
turn, the three spirits that will complete Us, Every One!” yet, as the dead return to chastise and shame
Scrooge’s journey from miser to benefactor – During the Christmas of 1843 and well him, this visage undergoes a remarkable
the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future. after it, letters poured in from readers who said softening so that by the end he is a dancing,
One of the most harrowing moments the book had been read aloud to whole families entrancing life and soul of the party.
comes when Scrooge is forced to witness a and took a special place on their shelves. They Although a hit in Britain, the movie
future that is unmediated by his change of heart recognized that although Scrooge was an old flopped after opening at Radio City in New
and Tiny Tim dies. In 1867 Dickens did a man the message was equally instructive for the York. Gradually, though, over the years it has
reading of the story in Boston and the passing of young – a warning not to slip into self-imposed become judged by critics as the best evocation
Tiny Tim, it was reported, “brought out so many and self-centered isolation. of the story, on equal footing for a filmed
pocket handkerchiefs that it looked as if a snow And so, as we approach Christmas of Dickens story with David Lean’s version of
storm had somehow gotten into the hall without 2018, we should consider who might most Great Expectations. Both would make for great
tickets.” benefit from being reacquainted with such a tale Christmas viewing. God Bless Us, Every One. []