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In the novella A Christmas Carol, Dickens uses each of the ghosts to guide Scrooge to change his attitudes and behavior differently. Marley instills fear in Scrooge, the Ghost of Christmas Past makes him remorseful, the Ghost of Christmas Present shows Scrooge the wider consequences of greed and the Ghost of Christmas Future shows Scrooge the individual and personal consequences. Through this manner, all of the ghosts have individual roles that link Scrooge to redemption and religious ideas as he is redeemed by a Christian God.
In the extract, Dickens uses the ghost of Marley to make Scrooge afraid as a backdrop before the arrival of the 3 other ghosts which creates tension and leaves the reader expectant of what's to come. Marley says that Scrooge has “labored on it, since. It is a ponderous chain!”
Dickens uses the image of the ghost of Christmas Yet to Come to push Scrooge over the edge from being on his journey to reaching his destination of redemption, particularly redemption in Christianity after a journey towards God. He does this by showing Scrooge the personal consequence of what will happen if he does not change - Scrooge's unhappy death. The ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is described as “shrouded in a deep black garment” which connotes hell and gives perhaps even devilish undertones since the bible shows that hell is the opposite of heaven, there is no light, only pain, and suffering. By giving Scrooge a glimpse of hell he sees how terrible this fate would be and promises “to live in the past, the present and the future”. Dickens could be demonstrating hell in this way to show the reader that if this glimpse of hell can change Scrooge for good, it must be truly bad. The reader will then be frightened and want to change their selfish ways (particularly upper and middle-class readers) to change and avoid this fate themselves. Dickens knew that the reader would understand this message deeply since the Victorian society in which it was written was predominantly Christian. This is why the spirit is a hellish figure who shows Scrooge his dead body instead of a light figure filled with hope, this communicates that once he is in hell, there is no turning back. The eventual consequence of his sin is to go to hell unless he changes his ways and selfish attitudes. In the same way that the ghost symbolizes the certain future of death and pain for Scrooge if nothing changes, it could also demonstrate how in this era if nothing changes to help the lower class poor, the world will become overrun with evil and greed. Scrooge already saw evidence of the beginning of this greed when The Ghost Of Christmas Present revealed Ignorance and Want to him and the reader. This is another consequence that implies that Scrooge's behavior not only has an impact on him but has an impact on others too - this is an important message from Dickens to people who have been like-minded to Scrooge.
Now that Scrooge has been redeemed, Dickens uses religious imagery to ensure the reader knows that his redemption is linked to Christianity. “He went to church, and walked about the streets, and watched the people hurrying to and fro, and patted children on the head, and questioned beggars”. You might say Dickens could want people to be overjoyed and extremely happy like Scrooge on Christmas day because religiously this is the day that Jesus was born and people were given the chance to be forgiven for their sins. Scrooge is happy because now he has been forgiven for his wrongdoings by turning over a new leaf and starting with new intentions and charitable thoughts, the complete opposite of the unkind and unthoughtful man he was before this transformation. It was the ghosts who set him on this path.
In summary, Dickens has used the ghosts to help Scrooge change his attitudes and behavior in the novel by provoking feelings of grief, sadness, and joy to demonstrate to Scrooge what will happen to him and others if he does not change - Scrooge serves the readers because Dickens has allowed the reader to look through his eyes and see what he has seen so that they do not need ghosts to appear to them to reach redemption.
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