Scrooge does not like Christmas because he has many negative memories associated with it.
When Scrooge is talking to Fred and the men collecting for charity, he tells them all kinds of reasons why he hates Christmas. It costs him money because his employees get a day off. “Idle” people expect to be taken care of. Christmas is expensive. Scrooge scolds Fred on celebrating Christmas.
Merry Christmas! Out upon merry Christmas! What's Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older, but not an hour richer; a time for balancing your books and having every item in ’em through a round dozen of months presented dead against you? (Stave One)
These all seem like good reasons to hate Christmas for a man like him. They are logical and support everything we know about Scrooge. However, when the ghosts visit, we start to see the real reason Scrooge hates Christmas. He has had to deal with many negative memories on and near the day.
First of all, we learn that Scrooge was left alone at school during Christmas as a child. After his mother died, it was only his father and sister. His father just left him at his boarding school instead of bringing him home for the holidays like all of the other kids. As a result, Scrooge alone spent the holidays miserably wishing he had company other than books. Something like that would definitely make a person hate Christmas.
It gets worse though. After a relatively happy period where his father brought him home and apprenticed him to the cheerful Mr. Fezziwig, Scrooge received another blow right at Christmastime. His fiancé Belle dumped him.
“You may—the memory of what is past half makes me hope you will— have pain in this. A very, very brief time, and you will dismiss the recollection of it, gladly, as an unprofitable dream, from which it happened well that you awoke. May you be happy in the life you have chosen!” (Stave One)
She dumped him at Christmastime, and ever since he has been alone. That is another reason to hate Christmas. Scrooge may have been more focused on money than her, but you can tell from his reaction to seeing Belle dumping him that she really hurt him.
It does not end there. The last terrible thing that happens to Scrooge on Christmas Eve is his partner and only friend Jacob Marley dying. Although we know from the vision of Belle that Scrooge did not even sit with his friend as he was dying, we can tell from his reaction to seeing and talking to Jacob’s ghost that he really cared about his partner. Jacob was pretty much all he had. Jacob dying on Christmas Eve was just another in a long line of terrible things that happened to Scrooge at Christmas time.
Yes, there are plenty of unemotional reasons why Scrooge hates Christmas. It costs money to celebrate it and no one is working. However, the truth behind Scrooge’s dislike of the holiday comes from all of the tragedy he suffered during the season. It takes the intervention of the ghosts to show him that he is actually not alone. Even though his beloved sister died, she lives in his nephew. He can become a part of Bob Cratchit’s family, as he was a part of Fezziwig’s. The holiday that was so terrible for him in the past can become a part of his future.
No comments:
Post a Comment