A Christmas Carol; The 4 Ghosts

The first, Jacob Marley, appears as a ghost entangled in chains of greed. "The chain he drew was clasped about his middle. It was long, and wound about him like a tail; and it was made (for Scrooge observed it closely) of cash-boxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, deeds, and heavy purses wrought in steel."

The second, the ghost of Christmas past, appears sort of indistinguishable between a child and an elderly man, possibly representing the parallel between the first times of life and the last times of life. "It was a strange figure--like a child: yet not so like a child as like an old man, viewed through some supernatural medium, which gave him the appearance of having receded from the view, and being diminished to a child's proportions."

The third, ghost of Christmas present, appears to scrooge as a giant with as much food as he could possibly want, (maybe representing gluttony). “…heaped up on the floor, to form a kind of throne, were turkeys, geese, game, poultry, brawn…immense twelfth-cakes, and seething bowls of punch, that made the chamber dim with their delicious steam. In easy state upon this couch, there sat a jolly Giant, glorious to see…”

The final ghost, that of Christmas yet to come, appears in a hooded cloak, representing images of the grim reaper and death. "It was shrouded in a deep black garment, which concealed its head, its face, its form, and left nothing of it visible save one outstretched hand. But for this it would have been difficult to detach its figure from the night, and separate it from the darkness by which it was surrounded."

What do these representations mean?




[Victorian Literature]