The Board of Directors grudgingly gave me permission to write another entry about my pal Charles Dickens. Alas for most people Mr. D is trotted out only once a year at Christmas time. I concur his “A Christmas Carol” is a masterpiece but not for the manifest reason it is a thumping good story. After a few flops Charlie Boy needed a bang-slap success sale and fast – which he did but his genius is he did it through a story meant to bitch-slap the 1% who could afford to buy it.
Dickens was a lifelong advocate for The Poor. You will be shocked, shocked, shocked to know The Rich in his time believed poverty was the result of ones laziness and all your own fault; if you would only work harder you can pull yourself up by your bootstraps. Indeed, to assist the poor makes them worse off and upsets social and divine justice.*
Dickens felt otherwise: success on a personal level is meaningless without engaging with others in the world. He wanted to get this point through the obstinate heads of thems in charge in a way they would actually listen. He did this through his works. Let’s go have a look see.
“A Christmas Carol” starts almost comic: “Marley was dead as a door nail”. This is not chance. We need to know he is dead so the ghost is recognized as real and not coming from Scrooge’s own senses. Often in film Jacob Marley is the rushed introduction to get to the meaty middle. In the book Jacob Marley is a center character critical to story.
Scrooge in an amalgam of the 19th century elite. When the specter appears Scrooge can’t understand why Marley is chained: he was a good businessman who succeeded through persistent and self-made industry – good Protestant English virtues. Jacob explains plainly he is cursed because he did not do the actual task of Life: look outward and help others. Another small but crucial detail to Marley is showing Scrooge an escape from damnation will do him no good. This ain’t no “It’s a wonderful life” where Clarence earns his wings through a goodly deed. Marley does NOT get redemption for he is one of the damned. This is bone chilling! In the better renditions of “A Christmas Carol” the directors keep the novel’s next scene where Marley shows Scrooge the legions of the damned roaming the earth impotent to help themselves and others.
Sometimes modern readers criticize Dickens for creating a character who too quickly changes his approach. Scrooge’s transformation is too pat. It is hard to believe believe; we believe true transition takes time as anyone in counseling can attest. This is based on our failure to recognize Ebenezer is visited by a genuine ghost from hell ascertaining there is divine justice and the reality of eternal punishment.
Thanks to this book Dickens transformed Christmas into the holiday we all now know, which includes ‘giving to the poor’. May The Ghost of Jacob Marley continue to haunt and remind us charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence remain our true business.
*Aren’t you glad you live in the 21st century where such a thing never happens?
20 comments
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November 25, 2018 at 5:46 AM
David
I watched a TED talk the other night on the premise that poverty has little to do with money and a lot to do with dignity. The speaker’s point was people strive for an opportunity to be strong. John Delorean is misquoted as saying, poor is an attitude, broke is a financial condition.
November 25, 2018 at 10:03 AM
Urspo
I remember seeing a play in which a destitute family can’t win nor get out of the system. As the mother leaves the stage, she turns to tell the priest “You know what the hardest thing about it is? People think we do this on purpose.”
November 25, 2018 at 6:22 AM
Todd Gunther
Yes, I am grateful that we live in a time when the 1% don’t treat the less fortunate as lepers and each and everyone of us enjoys the fruits of full and unequivocal social justice. Oh, wait, you were being sarcastic? Never mind.
Still, an excellent analysis of the Dickens classic.
November 25, 2018 at 10:03 AM
Urspo
Alas the lessons need to still be taught until we get it.
November 25, 2018 at 6:30 AM
anne marie in philly
“poverty is the result of one’s laziness and all your own fault; if you would only work harder you can pull yourself up by your bootstraps.” – the GOPrick mantra
November 25, 2018 at 10:04 AM
Urspo
I sense this is all of America rather. Bernie S proposed ‘free college’ like they do sometimes in Europe. This plank was dropped as even the Democrats didn’t like it viz. ‘something for nothing’.
November 25, 2018 at 10:45 AM
Ravager619
I don’t believe in this “If you would only work harder” BS. The neighbors above me have at least four jobs between them. By now, they should be able to afford a house even in this hyperinflated market if that GOP line were true.
November 25, 2018 at 4:01 PM
Urspo
Glad to read your BS detector is a-ok
November 25, 2018 at 12:38 PM
Old Lurker
I knew I should have been born a Victorian. “If they would rather die, they had better do it, and reduce the surplus population” is one of my go-to sayings. My primary goal in life is to hoard as much wealth as I can for myself with no consideration for the needs of others. Then I wonder why I am unhappy and alone.
November 25, 2018 at 4:01 PM
Urspo
Can’t tell if funny or sad
November 25, 2018 at 10:54 PM
Old Lurker
Why not both?
November 26, 2018 at 4:51 AM
Moving with Mitchell
I have read everything I can find by Dickens at least twice… except Pickwick Papers…. once was enough for me. My favorite opening line of any book is “Marley was dead as a door nail.”
November 26, 2018 at 7:33 AM
Urspo
Dickens wrote a lot of great first lines; I agree with you Marley/dead as a door nail is one of his best.
I didn’t read but ‘heard’ the Pickwick Papers via audiobook. I thought is jolly good fun but I confess it sounded like an awful read. Even I had to admit Dickens can at times be a trifle – wordy.
November 27, 2018 at 9:51 AM
anne marie in philly
and boring as all hell!
November 26, 2018 at 12:17 PM
Paul Brownsey
But in Dickens it’s all about nice people being charitable, not publicly-funded provision … No nsocialism there, alas …
November 28, 2018 at 3:07 PM
Urspo
Are there no workhouses?
November 26, 2018 at 2:06 PM
Pat
Off topic. But here is a thought. If you are event free, Prime Timers of Phoenix is having there annual Holiday Party on the 15th. Rather than a smaller meeting, or gathering at a watering hole you could see the men of a certain age crowd out in force.
Check out the PrimeTimers’ site and see if you want to join in. It might be
a way to meet more locals and in worse case it will be a big enough crowd
that you can slink out without being noticed.
November 28, 2018 at 3:07 PM
Urspo
Alas that is Someone’s birthday and I plan to take him elsewhere.
November 27, 2018 at 5:53 PM
Steven
What they should have done was made Ebenezer their leader because what could possibly go wrong with that!
November 28, 2018 at 3:08 PM
Urspo
“It was a good idea at the time”