Friday 9 December 2016

What physical changes took place in the Ghost of Christmas Present from when he first appears in the story to when he leaves?

In A Christmas Carol, the Ghost of Christmas Present comes to visit Scrooge in the third chapter. Physically, he is described as the very essence of Christmas: he wears a green robe, trimmed with white fur and a holly wreath on his head which was set with "shining icicles." He appears young and carefree, too: his "dark, brown curls hung loose and free," he has a "genial face", a "sparkling eye" and his feet and...

In A Christmas Carol, the Ghost of Christmas Present comes to visit Scrooge in the third chapter. Physically, he is described as the very essence of Christmas: he wears a green robe, trimmed with white fur and a holly wreath on his head which was set with "shining icicles." He appears young and carefree, too: his "dark, brown curls hung loose and free," he has a "genial face", a "sparkling eye" and his feet and chest are bare. 


As he approaches the end of his visit, however, the Ghost of Christmas Present is much changed. Dickens says that he has "grown older, clearly older," and his hair has turned grey. Dickens does not, however, provide us with any additional details. 


These physical changes in the Ghost of Christmas Present not only signal the end of this chapter of the book but also the end of Scrooge's old life and the beginning of a new one. In this way, then, Dickens uses these physical changes to portray the theme of transformation. Through his experience with the ghosts, Scrooge begins to see the error of his miserly and misanthropic ways and is transformed as he begins to embrace a new way of thinking. Christmas is no longer an ordinary day but an opportunity for festivities and frivolities, as the physical presence of the Ghost of Christmas Past so strongly reminds him. 


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