"A Christmas Carol" has a very distinct beginning, middle, and end. First, it takes place in Victorian London and focuses on the main character, Ebenezer Scrooge. The plot follows his journey from selfish miser to generous patron.
The story begins with a lengthy description of how terrible Ebenezer Scrooge is. He's a very cold man who cares for nothing other than his money. We see him interact with his employee, Bob Cratchit, and treat him...
"A Christmas Carol" has a very distinct beginning, middle, and end. First, it takes place in Victorian London and focuses on the main character, Ebenezer Scrooge. The plot follows his journey from selfish miser to generous patron.
The story begins with a lengthy description of how terrible Ebenezer Scrooge is. He's a very cold man who cares for nothing other than his money. We see him interact with his employee, Bob Cratchit, and treat him very harshly. We see him turn down a request for donation to charity, and we see him go home to his house on Christmas Eve. It is then he is haunted by his former business partner, who is dead and spending the after life in chains due to his own lack of generosity in life. He tells Scrooge he will be visited by three spirits this night and that he must change his ways.
Three spirits then arrive, one after another. The first, The Ghost of Christmas Past, takes Scrooge back to his childhood to remember when he was away at boarding school and quite lonely, takes him to his first employer who was kind to him, and takes him back to the memory of his fiance breaking off their engagement due to his greed.
The second spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Present, takes him through London and lets him see how everyone is celebrating the holiday, then to the Cratchit family home where Scrooge sees how meager their Christmas is and how much they struggle (as a result of his low wages), and finally to Fred's house where he sees how happy his nephew is.
The third and final spirit, the Ghost of Christmas future, shows Scrooge several unhappy scenes related to is own death. First, there are former business associates of Scrooge talking indifferently about his death (he does not yet know they are talking about him); then he is shown people buying items from his estate second hand and showing no care for his "valuable" items; he is shown people who owe him money that are actually grateful and releived that he has died; he is shown the Cratchit family without Tiny Tim, as he has died; and he is shown his own grave.
After all of these visits, he asks if his future will change if HE changes. And so he promises then to always have Christmas in his heart and to be a new man. He wakes up Christmas morning, buys the Cratchits a turkey for dinner, gives to charity, goes to Fred's and makes amends, and goes to the Cratchits to spend the holiday. He is a changed man. He ends up mending all fences, living a happy life, and becoming like an adopted family member of the Cratchit family.
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