4 Compelling Life Lessons From A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
It made me realize that NOW is what constitutes life.
The 15 days of isolation when I tested Covid positive gave me enough time for myself, which led me to start out reading again. The first book that I chose to read from my collection of books was the classic “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens. Though an easy novel for youngsters to read, the story continues to be thought-provoking till today.
Set in the 1800s in London, the book unfolds the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, a lonely miser who gave importance to none but money. But everything changes one Christmas Eve when the ghost of Scrooge’s deceased friend Jacob Marley visits him. This is followed by his encounter with three spirits and his experiences with them shook his conscience and changed his world permanently.
This classic tale conveys a strong social message and I would love to share with you a couple of the points that stuck in my mind.
- Scrooge’s first encounter with Marley’s ghost
The crucial part that was perhaps disturbing to me was when Marley’s ghost visits Scrooge and he notices that the ghost was bound with heavy chains to his money boxes, keys, locks, ledgers, deeds, and heavy purses made of steel.
Ebenezer Scrooge: But why are you chained?
Jacob Marley: This is the chain that I made during my life. Doesn’t it look familiar to you? You will also have the same kind of chain when you die. Only yours will be longer and heavier because you have lived longer than I.
This conversation ran a chill down my spine. Isn’t it the terrifying truth that we’ve to collectively agree to?
So many of us don’t even realize that we are, link by link, creating our ponderous chains driven by our ignorance, selfish desires, and unhealthy ambitions. We are empowering this chain with the power to shackle us. What makes it worse is the fact that we are continually building the chain while being judgemental about the others around us, forgetting we bear a chain ourselves.
This reminds me of one statement that my dad always tells me
“ Don’t attempt to look around for an insect in someone’s plate while you’re having a dead rodent in your’s.”
2. The experience with the Spirit of the Christmas Past
The Spirit of the Christmas Past revisited his childhood and a few happy young adult moments where he experienced both pleasant and painful emotions that he had locked out of his life.
The Spirit of the past teaches you that
- Nothing can bring lasting happiness.
- You can’t selectively wish away what’s uncomfortable to you.
- The past can’t be changed.
3. The lesson from Spirit Of the Christmas present
The Christmas present takes Ebenezer to his clerk, Bob Cratchit’s family, celebrating Christmas. They were a family that had hardly any money to get by, let alone affording treatment to their ailing little son Tiny Tim. Yet they were happy, content, and grateful for what they had.
The Cratchit family teaches you that
You can prefer to show love and joy even amid tragedy.
The Spirit of the present makes you realize that
- Now is the sole time to feel joy and bounty.
- No matter how good or dreadful your present is, you can’t hold on to it forever because it is supposed to become your past eventually.
- What you select to do now will affect the times that are yet to come. So spend your present wisely.
4. Unfolding of the complete picture by the Spirit of the Christmas Future
The spirit shows Scrooge the shadows of his and Tiny Tim’s death. While the Cratchit family is mourning the loss of a beloved, the entirety of the town is talking about how pleased they were about Scrooge’s death. The images of thieves pleasantly selling away his belongings, acquaintances wondering whom his wealth would get transferred to, and not one soul that was mourning his dismissal brought immense grief to him.
Only then did Scrooge realize what he was wasting. He lamented not giving freely for the poor and unprivileged because that would save many like Tim.
The Spirit of Future puts forward great messages-
- One person’s action can affect a bunch of others for good or for bad.
- Ignorance and selfish wants lead you to Doom.
- Getting too consumed by money and self-loathing can blind you from the real essence of life.
- The future is the only time that we can change and thus looking forward to making it a pleasant one is in our hands.
My thoughts
Ebenezer Scrooge could be a good example of both- how one should never live and the way one must live. He teaches us in multitude through both his selfish life as well as his redeemed life.
With that being said, it makes me wonder:
What if on waking up, Ebenezer Scrooge decided to not be a changed man? How different would his life be then? How leaden would his chain of resentment be?
Nevertheless, don’t we all have a touch of Ebenezer Scrooge in us? Let’s not be the makers of heavy chains that bind us.
Let’s get rid of the shackles of Ignorance and Selfishness through love and contentment, link by link.
