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Feature Film Friday: Scrooge
In 1843, Charles Dickens introduced us to an infamous miser whose tale of repentance is one of the most memorable and beloved Christmas stories in English literature.
Sneak Preview
Rather than present a trailer for any one version of this charming holiday tale, you can see that there are versions of the story that are very close to the original book and some that are modern reinterpretations of the theme. The tale has been told with award-winning superstar actors as well as with muppets and one-liners.
| Year Upon Year | ||
1938 |
1951 |
1970 |
| Various Performers | ||
Muppets |
Charles Dickens |
Disney |
| Assorted Reinterpretations | ||
The Great Depression |
Victorian England |
Modern Times |
About the Story
The tale of a stingy, hard-hearted old miser who is offered a chance to escape his late business partner’s eternal torment finds his salvation in a reluctant walk down memory lane.
That’s a brief synopsis, but it doesn’t even scratch the surface of this enduring tale of the joy of Christmas.
Ebeneezer has had a hard life in a hard age. Life is short and brutish for most people. A few, like Ebeneezer, have found a way to squeeze some luxury amid the grime and squalor. Unfortunately, he has had to grip so tightly to his meager comforts that he has ceased to even appreciate anything that he has earned or achieved in life.
It’s difficult for many of us to revisit our mistakes. Old Scrooge is dragged, kicking and screaming into many of his reminiscences but slowly begins to warm to the reality of what his life has become and what it ought to be.
In the end, Ebeneezer appreciates the second chance he’s been given and vows “I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach!”.
Our annual enjoyment of the old miser’s reclamation is a reminder to us to evaluate our past, present and future to look for opportunities to improve ourselves and our contribution to the world at large.
About the Author
No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it to anyone else. ~Charles Dickens
The book A Christmas Carol was published by Chapman & Hall, but because of concerns over his continued marketability, he was obliged to front a large part of the production costs. It was an instant sensation and sold every single copy of the initial run of six thousand books in five days. Another run was printed that year and the book continued to sell year after year.
Charles Dickens was a steady voice for the poor and downtrodden of his age. Many of his stories centered around the dreadful living conditions of his fellow man. His characters often rose through adversity, oppression and disasters of all sorts to become the enlightened hero he strove to be.