Back to: Dickens A Christmas Carol and the Bible
This lunatic, in letting Scrooge’s nephew out, had let two other people in. They were portly gentlemen, pleasant to behold, and now stood, with their hats off, in Scrooge’s office. They had books and papers in their hands, and bowed to him.
‘Scrooge and Marley’s, I believe,’ said one of the gentlemen, referring to his list. ‘Have I the pleasure of addressing Mr. Scrooge, or Mr. Marley?’
‘Mr. Marley has been dead these seven years,’ Scrooge replied. ‘He died seven years ago, this very night.’
1. Marley Never Knew Christ Also since Marley died on Christmas Eve, and Christ was born on Christmas Day symbolically, Marley never knew Christ. Marley himself will allude to his failure to follow Christ in his exchange with Scrooge momentarily ‘We have no doubt his liberality is well represented by his surviving partner,’ said the gentleman, presenting his credentials. It certainly was; for they had been two kindred spirits. At the ominous word ‘liberality,’ Scrooge frowned, and shook his head, and handed the credentials back. ‘At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge,’ said the gentleman, taking up a pen, ‘it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the Poor and Destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir.’ ‘Are there no prisons?’ asked Scrooge. ‘Plenty of prisons,’ said the gentleman, laying down the pen again. ‘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 useful course,’ said Scrooge. ‘I’m very glad to hear it.’ ‘Under the impression that they scarcely furnish Christian cheer of mind or body to the multitude,’ returned the gentleman, ‘a few of us are endeavouring to raise a fund to buy the Poor some meat and drink. and means of warmth. We choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices. What shall I put you down for?’ ‘Nothing!’ Scrooge replied. ‘You wish to be anonymous?’ ‘I wish to be left alone,’ said Scrooge. ‘Since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer. I don’t make merry myself at Christmas and I can’t afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the establishments I have mentioned — they cost enough; and those who are badly off must go there.’ ‘Many can’t go there; and many would rather die.’ ‘If they would rather die,’ said Scrooge, ‘they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population. Besides — excuse me — I don’t know that.’ ‘But you might know it,’ observed the gentleman. ‘It’s not my business,’ Scrooge returned. ‘It’s enough for a man to understand his own business, and not to interfere with other people’s. Mine occupies me constantly. Good afternoon, gentlemen!’ Seeing clearly that it would be useless to pursue their point, the gentlemen withdrew. Scrooge returned his labours with an improved opinion of himself, and in a more facetious temper than was usual with him. 2. The Exchange The Exchange – Fred’s departure ushers in two other visitors. The “portly” gentlemen are the philanthropists who make their annual appeal to those with wealth, asking for contributions to ease the plight of those in need. There is nothing especially offensive about them, but Dickens had short patience with righteous “do-gooders,” perhaps because their strategies actually perpetuated the impoverished state of the poor rather than providing measures of reform that would make for a more equitable distribution of wealth. “’Under the impression that they scarcely furnish Christian cheer of mind or body to the multitude,’ returned the gentleman, ‘a few of us are endeavouring to raise a fund to buy the Poor some meat and drink. and means of warmth. We choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices. What shall I put you down for” Dickens invokes “Christian cheer” in contrast to the prisons, Union work- houses, Treadmill, and Poor Law—all of which Dickens, one of the most vocal critics of the inhumane institutions of his dag considered very un-Christian. The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 took the care of the poor out of the hands of the parishes, which had been required to take food, clothing, and financial assistance to the poor where they were, and made it mandatory that anyone needing aid must live in the government-run workhouses We are introduced here to the specter of Want, which Dickens will embody in the wretched character of a girl by that name later on in the story When she appears, Want is accompanied by a boy named Ignorance. A few lines down from this mention of Want being “keenly felt,” we see Scrooge claiming to be ignorant of the desperate plight of the poor, saying “It’s not my business.” Scrooge – “Surplus population “’If they would rather die,’ said Scrooge, ‘they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population. Proverbs 22:2 This contrasts sharply with the biblical message: “Rich and poor have this in common: The Lord is the Maker of them all” (Proverbs 22:2). This reference to the “surplus population” was a swipe at the political economists Dickens despised, such as Thomas Maltus and Adam Smith, whom he felt conveyed the general opinion that the poor had no business being born. Thomas Malthus, an English economic theorist who argued in An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798) that exponentially expanding population numbers would outstrip a nation’s agricultural capacity. Food shortages would create a “surplus population”—the poor—who would starve and thus be eliminated in the Darwinian struggle for survival. These arguments may have motivated Scrooge to question his nephew about getting married and adding to the population before he was earning enough to feed all his offspring. Without apology, Scrooge believes himself, the hardworking businessman, to be superior to the poor, who are idle and therefore undeserving of charity, deserving only of their wretched fate. And with these Christmas Eve sentiments, Scrooge righteously dismisses the gentlemen and returns to work. Meanwhile the fog and darkness thickened so, that people ran about with flaring links, proffering their services to go before horses in carriages, and conduct them on their way. The ancient tower of a church, whose gruff old bell was always peeping slily down at Scrooge out of a Gothic window in the wall, became invisible, and struck the hours and quarters in the clouds, with tremulous vibrations afterwards as if its teeth were chattering in its frozen head up there. The cold became intense. In the main street at the corner of the court, some labourers were repairing the gas-pipes, and had lighted a great fire in a brazier, round which a party of ragged men and boys were gathered: warming their hands and winking their eyes before the blaze in rapture. The water-plug being left in solitude, its overflowing sullenly congealed, and turned to misanthropic ice. The brightness of the shops where holly sprigs and berries crackled in the lamp heat of the windows, made pale faces ruddy as they passed. Poulterers’ and grocers’ trades became a splendid joke; a glorious pageant, with which it was next to impossible to believe that such dull principles as bargain and sale had anything to do. The Lord Mayor, in the stronghold of the mighty Mansion House, gave orders to his fifty cooks and butlers to keep Christmas as a Lord Mayor’s household should; and even the little tailor, whom he had fined five shillings on the previous Monday for being drunk and bloodthirsty in the streets, stirred up to-morrow’s pudding in his garret, while his lean wife and the baby sallied out to buy the beef. Foggier yet, and colder! Piercing, searching, biting cold. If the good Saint Dunstan had but nipped the Evil Spirit’s nose with a touch of such weather as that, instead of using his familiar weapons, then indeed he would have roared to lusty purpose. The owner of one scant young nose, gnawed and mumbled by the hungry cold as bones are gnawed by dogs, stooped down at Scrooge’s keyhole to regale him with a Christmas carol: but at the first sound of ‘God bless you, merry gentleman! May nothing you dismay!’ 3. Caroler Caroler – ‘God bless you, merry gentleman! May nothing you dismay!’ Scrooge seized the ruler with such energy of action, that the singer fled in terror, leaving the keyhole to the fog and even more congenial frost. Significantly, Scrooge never lets the caroler get to the lines: “Remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas Day; To save us all from Satan’s power when we were gone astray Scrooge seized the ruler with such energy of action, that the singer fled in terror, leaving the keyhole to the fog and even more congenial frost. At length the hour of shutting up the counting- house arrived. With an ill-will Scrooge dismounted from his stool, and tacitly admitted the fact to the expectant clerk in the Tank, who instantly snuffed his candle out, and put on his hat. ‘You’ll want all day to-morrow, I suppose?’ said Scrooge. ‘If quite convenient, sir.’ ‘It’s not convenient,’ said Scrooge, ‘and it’s not fair. If I was to stop half-a-crown for it, you’d think yourself ill-used, I’ll be bound?’ The clerk smiled faintly. ‘And yet,’ said Scrooge, ‘you don’t think me ill-used, when I pay a day’s wages for no work.’ The clerk observed that it was only once a year. ‘A poor excuse for picking a man’s pocket every twenty-fifth of December!’ said Scrooge, buttoning his great-coat to the chin. ‘But I suppose you must have the whole day. Be here all the earlier next morning.’ 3. Cratchit Wants Off for Christmas Cratchit wants off for Christmas ‘A poor excuse for picking a man’s pocket every twenty-fifth of December!’ said Scrooge, b Here, Scrooge cannot even bring himself to say the name “Christmas,” choosing the more awkward “twenty-fifth of December,” and refusing to recognize, as his nephew recently said, “the veneration due to its sacred name and origin A brief begrudging exchange with his clerk concludes the day and Scrooge heads to his melancholy tavern to take his meal alone. By contrast, Dickens gives us a happy glimpse of the clerk as he leaves his work: Poor as he is and inadequately dressed for the cold, he is nonetheless taken up by the excitement of Christmas Eve and joins in on some communal street play before going home to his family. While Scrooge is avoiding company, his nephew, clerk, and visitors are seeking out the company of others. The clerk promised that he would; and Scrooge walked out with a growl. The office was closed in a twinkling, and the clerk, with the long ends of his white comforter dangling below his waist (for he boasted no great-coat), went down a slide on Cornhill, at the end of a lane of boys, twenty times, in honour of its being Christmas Eve, and then ran home to Camden Town as hard as he could pelt, to play at blindman’s-buff. Note – The movie has the scene with Cratchit wanting a day off for Christmas before the meeting of the two gentlemen asking for a provision for the poor. The confrontation with Mr. Poole and Hadley will come back to haunt Scrooge Note – The Scene with Scrooge and Cratchit who wants Christmas off